Using rich pictures for assessing wicked problems In projects

The reality of the as-lived experience of project managers, especially in an aid recovery context, is full of chaos, paradoxes and choices of action that makes managing these projects highly complex. The soft system methodology (SSM) research approach of visualising messy complex problems through the development of rich pictures of situations under study is a robust way to view this PM reality. While SSM is not itself new, the way it was adapted was a highly innovative for visualising complex situations and offers some powerful improvements to SSM. This paper uses examples from several cases from a recently completed PhD study that illustrates and explains how the innovation in developing rich pictures enhances situational understanding. The rich picture approach modified the more traditional SSM technique to add layers of meaning through colour coding and process mapping. These will be explained in detail in the paper, using several examples from the thesis to illustrate this approach. The paper should be of interest at several levels. First, it advances PM research through this innovation in SSM and the use of rich pictures to communicate stories. Second, at the research methods level, the innovation illustrates an important adaptation to the standard SSM technique. Finally, it allows stories to be told from several of the participants and to resolve appropriate methodological responses - highly relevant to this conference theme.