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# The Formal System Model: Understanding and Preventing Information Systems Project Failures

## Details

**Authors** Peters G, Fortune J, White D

**Year** 2023

**Publisher** Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-21

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Systems Science

**Secondary disciplines** Information Science

**Reading level** technical

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.0000010) 
10.54120/jost.0000010

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Use of systems thinking to understand failures has been a well-established practice for many years and with this has come the development of systems techniques and methods specifically for that purpose. One of the best known of these is the Formal System Model (FSM). It is a model of a robust system that is capable of purposeful activity without failure against which a systems representation of an actual or potential failures situation can be compared. This chapter explains the elements and interrelationships within the FSM and techniques that have been associated with its application. It then reports on a major program of work to develop a project-specific version of the FSM and shows the very full extent to which Critical Success Factors can be mapped onto the FSM and surveys of project managers. A hitherto unpublished study then demonstrates application of the FSM in order to review an organization’s past, current and planned activities. Finally the chapter draws conclusions from the work reported.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A chapter on the Formal System Model — a model of a robust, purposeful system against which actual or potential failure situations can be compared — including a project-specific version for information systems.

### What they found (results)

Critical Success Factors map fully onto the FSM, and a previously unpublished study shows the model reviewing an organization's past, current, and planned activities.

## Commentary

### In short

Explains the Formal System Model, a systems tool for understanding and preventing failures in information systems projects.

### Response

Published in the Handbook of Systems Thinking (Cabrera, Cabrera & Midgley, eds., 2023), a volume built on the premise that systems thinking now has a universal theory—DSRP-484. Its contents were selected on that basis by its editorial team in concert with a team of advisors.

**Patterns it shows** S, R

## Refers to

- [Handbook of Systems Thinking](https://dsrpevidence.org/element/382)

**How to cite this** Peters G, Fortune J, White D (2023). The Formal System Model: Understanding and Preventing Information Systems Project Failures. Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-21.