Q 468. What is a CATWOE Checklist? According to you, what is it better suited for - identifying the problem or the solution?   

 

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History :

              The British systems thinker Peter Checkland developed the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) while working at Lancaster University in England, during late 1960’s. SSM is a tool widely used for analyzing unstructured data related to individual perceptions. This approach was developed for dealing with the problems faced in the business. It is an action-oriented process of inquiry into problematic situations in which users learn their way from finding out about the situation, to taking action to improve it.
              It was David Smyth, a member of Checkland’ s team  developed the CATWOE method to make SSM more successful, in 1975 to which, Peter Checkland added the W (worldview). 

 

Understanding:

CATWOE is an acronym that stands for 

C - Customers 
A - Actors
T - Transformation process
W - World view
O - Owners
E - Environmental constraints.

 

 

It’s a simple checklist that provides surprising solutions and stimulates multiple approaches, to the problems faced. The CATWOE Analysis makes it possible to identify problem areas, look at what a business wants to achieve, and which solutions can influence the stakeholders.

 C – Customers:

                     The most important pillar of any business are the Customers. It only makes sense to consider their needs as the top priority when solving a problem. If the problem has a direct impact on the customers then it needs to addressed immediately to avoid serious consequences. If this a ‘behind the scenes’ problem that won’t be impact the customer, at least immediately, we may have more time to solve the problem without an adverse effect on day to day operations.

 

 

A – Actors:
                  The ‘actors’ are those involved in any business problem and will likely be involved in its resolution.
Usually the actors,  include a number of employees, vendors, consultants, Government agencies etc. It is important to chart out the role and the contribution level of each actor in the problem scenario.

 

T – Transformation Process:
                  Businesses  are made up of a number of processes that are executed on a periodic basis, executed in parallel & sequential manner. A process is defined as an activity to transform the input into an output. In this segment, we discuss and ask questions pertaining to how the problem impact the different steps of the process and how other process are impacting / impacted. This is an important step where wholistic view is carried out, and enables to identify to prevent similar problems in other process through horizontal deployment / Best Practice sharing.

 

W – World view:
                 This is the stage where we step back from the conventional approach and start seeing the bigger picture of the problem. Here we assess whether the problem is going to have a long-lasting effect or is short lived. Also, we can assess the impact level of the problem – contained within a zone or it has a wider reach. Looking at the problem from a ‘world view’ will help to get a judgement on just how important it is in the scope of your business.

 

O – Owners: 
                 This is about the process owners / problem owners. The important questions to ask are 

• Who should be taking the ownership of the situation? 
• Are they part of the problem?
• Can they be part of the solution?

Assigning ownership of the situation is important because this creates a special focus on to this problem and it is always a better idea to have a Cross Functional Team working with the process owner to solve the problem. This will help to see the problems from different perspectives.

E – Environmental Constraints:
               This last step in the process is critical because it brings us back to the reality in terms of how we can solve the problem. Here we try to map the potential solutions against the realistic constraints with which we are working.
Some problems may have obvious solutions – but those solutions may be impossible to implement due to environmental constraints such as your budget or the time availability, resources etc.

 

 

Application:

                   CATWOE is basically a tool used for analyzing the business problem from different directions to identify the possible root causes, prioritize the problem,  derive the potential solutions and filter out the most feasible / practical solution within the limitations / constraints. From the Problem Solving perspective, CATWOE is the most suited for identifying the problems. 

                  CATWOE analysis may not be a right choice for small, routine problems, but it would be a great idea to use it for larger, significant business problems.  This six-step approach to problem solving will ensure that we are thinking about the problem from all perspectives, and we should be able to come to a smart and viable resolution. It is a time taking process but it is worth spending time on this method, as it throws interesting solutions.

CATWOE

The CATWOE checklist is a one of the most robust problem-solving method that analyzes the larger view of the business to help professionals make decisions and define strategies.

 

CATWOE stands for:

C - Customer: Who are they / How the issue affect them?
A - Actor: Who is involved in the situation? Who is involved in the implementing solutions? what will impact their success?
T - Transformation: What processes or system are affected by the issue?
W - Weltanschauung: What is the big picture? What are the big impacts of the issue?
O - Owner: Who owns the process / situations you are investigating and what role will they play in the solutions? 
E - Environment: What are the constraints and limitations that will impact the solution and its realization?

 

The CATWOE technique

If any changes initiative, it is essential to investigate the perspectives of the different stakeholders. It is often the case that stakeholders have different standpoint / viewpoints about what the problems and opportunities, how best to tackle them. The CATWOE technique allows you to investigate each stakeholder’s  viewpoints / perspective individually and capture this information. The information collated can then be used to help effectively manage the stakeholders, a key element of any changes.

 

Example of CATWOE
The CATWOE analyzes the process/ system and builds a holistic understanding that incorporates the different stakeholders viewpoints / perspective of the problem elements in order to integrate solutions that fit these elements. In this example, an bus transport service company explores the possibility of adding advertisement on their Bus. Based on the situation, a CATWOE checklist can be constructed as following:

 

C- Customers: People who travel, advertising companies, marketing agencies
A- Actors (A): Engineers, designers, employees, executive team, and shareholders
T - Transformation : the bus display advertisements during the travel
W - Weltanschhaung  (World View) : Increase the  bus transport service company profits to increase revenues
O - Owner : the person who controls the system and can make the decision to implement the solutions
E - Environmental Constraints : the regulations, laws, and culture

 

CATWOE checklist that allows problem solvers to build a holistic approach for the process/ system and its elements from different stakeholder’s viewpoints / perspective. The important fact that should be considered when using the CATWOE checklist is that it provides understanding of the holistic process / system. CATWOE elements covers the all incorporated elements that affect the process / system, such as the consumer, the internal team, the problem, how the problem is seen, the decision maker, and the external factor related to the issue / problem.

 

 

 

CATWOE Checklist

CATWOE is an acronym for Customers, Actors, Transformation, Weltanschauung or World View, Owners, and Environment given first by David Smyth in 1975, as combination of six elements- problem solving.

C – Customers:  Customers includes a set of users and stakeholders of a system. Customer benefit from changes within a process & at resolution of the problem impacting system. An early categorization of winners and losers in customer group, wins apostles and prevent future loss to the organization.

A – Actors: Actors refers to employees within an organisation. Actors are responsible to create output and implement changes in the system. An activity measuring actor attributes-- abilities, qualities and interests acts as a tool to determine actor’s influence and resistance to change management in the system.

T – Transformation Process: Transformation is the change process influencing the system or the change effected as result of process activity. As such transformation may be actively introduced through human design to improve business, by estimating and arranging for volumes of input required; estimating volumes of output generated and planning for the market access, & revaluating production steps.  

W – World view: World view refers to opinion of different stakeholders and interested parties acting in organization’s market environment. Stakeholders may be opinionated differently about system/process/organization and bring conflicted view to operational desk. CATWOE analysis attempts to shares explicit contract in opinion, while deciding upon best approach for organization to follow. Consideration about the Unique Selling Preposition USP & the bigger industry picture, real market scenarios and likely impact of solution in world-view, need to be considered, while designing success strategies for the business.

O – Owners:  Owners includes the top management, entrepreneur, investor in a business that hold final say on “GO or NO-GO decisions” related to organization affairs. Key considerations on cost, profit management and ethical consideration for business are decided by these highest decision makers for the organizations.

E – Environmental Constraints:  Environment includes the actual environmental elements influencing business and may curtail strategic decisions for the organization. Political, Ethical, Social, Technical, Legal, Finance Leverage &funding and Environment factors act as environment constraints for organization and business activities. Due consideration is given to chalk best action plan for organization using CATWOE framework.

 

 In a conflicting bear economy, as in low profit market, an investor may be interested in selling investment to close losses, an entrepreneur may declare lay-off to balance losses in account accounts & to optimise process efficiency, employees may favour increasing price of produced goods & services, and community may expect new hiring to improve market sales. The wider contract of perception-based differences among the organization stakeholders, in-effect lowers the effectiveness in decision-making and problem solving. Observed series of conflict of opinion between stakeholders, may bubble into stakeholder conflicts & serious challenges later for the organization.

Consequently, CATWOE checklist, may be used to define and analyse business stakeholder’s perspectives, to reach best achievement.

CATWOE checklist enables problem identification, reviewing company’s targeted achievements and, designing bouquet of potential solutions to influence stakeholders. The techniques offer resolution to complex business situations, conflict of interests, standpoints & backlog, due contrasting interests of multiple stakeholders.

CATWOE checklist, is emphasised as “ROOT DEFINITION CHECKLIST”, implying a list structured— “to enlist stakeholders and represent stakeholder’s positioning” towards segmentation, targeting and promotion of product or service in market.

A competitive market scenario would require stepwise intricate analysis of stakeholder contribution, to develop strategic direction for product or service in a niche market.

CATWOE Stakeholder Analysis

CATWOE allows managers/problem solvers to develop holistic encompassing view approach to review system and its elements in multiple perspectives.

CATWOE analysis attunes clarity to feasible outcome to an issue with multiple perceptions. A converged solution document bearing explicit research about feasible targets and likely achievement of each stakeholder, is generated through CATWOE analysis.

The varied perceptions of different stakeholders are collated at a common platform, through holistic understanding. Facts are assembled to evaluate authority positions of stakeholders, domain-based assertions, baseline assumptions theorizing integrity of the data and information. The emerging solution is scrutinized to test ethical angle in each stakeholder analysis.   The practice forms basis to integration between two or more perspectives, assigning priority to the merits of the respective perspective, and final selection of one perspective while overriding other perspectives.

Thus, the business model is studied, stakeholder’s expectations and targets are evaluated at micro and macro levels; to share projected estimate of business projections, valuation about bottlenecks to be eliminated and final review of ethical consideration is held in decision-room. The process culminates into a correct approach to be followed by organization, at different stakeholder levels.

 

C.A.T.W.O.E. In New product Development
C – Customers.	Real consumers and beneficiaries of transformation--Company customers and marketing executives.
A – Actors.	Persons responsible for transformation activities--Researchers, engineering executives, marketing executives, HR executives, supplier’s engineers, Customer’s engineers, production executive, P/E executive.
T – Transformation Process.	Brief about changes in high-level business process -- VOC + tangible + Intangible assets  à First time right products and services meeting customer requirement at the lowest cost.
W – Weltanschauug or World view.	Stakeholder view/World view on Company positioning -- Strategic business positioning in global market where cost effect NPD is must for the survival.
O – Owners.	Person with authority to direct transformation activities -- Company’s Top-management
E – Environmental Constraints.	Impact on condition/rules under which the business operates --Manufacturing facility, technological development, budget allocation.

 

 

 

CATWOE technique provides a framework for defining and analyzing business stakeholder(s) perspectives and interpretation and the impact that this interpretation will have on the direction of the business transformation.

 

This technique is used by many business analysts to identify: (1) What the business is trying to achieve? (2) What are the problem areas? and (3) How stakeholder views affects the people involved in it?

 

CATWOE stands for:

 

·         Customer: the receiver of the outputs from the business system

·         Actor: the roles that execute the business system processes

·         Transformation: the core process that provides outputs to the customer

·         Weltanschauung (or World-View): the fundamental theories and meaning that describes why the business activity exists

·         Owner: the stakeholder who could initiate change with the overall capacity for the business system

·         Environment: the rules and constraints imposed within and surrounding the business system

 

 

CATWOE defined by Peter Checkland and David Smyth, it is used for motivate thinking to find solutions to problems. It offers amazing solutions and stimulates multiple approaches.

 

Utilization of CATWOE bullet-point form is best for the actual analysis of the stakeholders’ perspectives before putting forward any recommendations, then turn the results into a root definition to present the perspective back to the stakeholder to check that it does, actually reflect their view of the situation.

“CATWOE Checklist”

CATWOE checklist is a design thinking approach, developed by David Smyth in 1975 to understand the business problem and to find the solution. In contrast to “Cause and Effect Diagram” wherein problems in different domain of business are explored or identified; the CATWOE checklist is used to solve the problem, following a structured manner under predefined domains. The different domains/elements involve in this methodology are:

1.      CUSTOMERS

2.      ACTORS

3.      TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

4.      WORLD VIEW

5.      OWNER

6.      ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINS

Thus, collectively known as CATWOE: an acronym.

C.A.T.W.O.E CHECKLIST
C	CUSTOMERS	list out the customers/end-user of the business/process problem and how the problem affects the customers
A	ACTORS	Mention all the stakeholders involved in the problem/situation
T	TRANSFORMATION PROCESS	Mention the process in a clear and concise manner
W	WORLD VIEW	Elaborate big picture associate with problem as world’s view along-with its wider impact
O	OWNER	Mention the owners who can control the process and their role in solving the problem
E	ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRAINTS	Mention constraints that will impact the solution

 

 

Hence, the CATWOE checklist is used to find the solution of a business problem.

Very detailed answers from all respondents. Anshul has provided the best answer to the question. 

 

My view - CATWOE checklist is better suited to identify and understand the problem. Once done, it can then help the team visualize multiple potential solutions. However these are potential solutions - they still need to be evaluated and optimized. (my view has no bearing on the selection of the best answer)