Permanent record
RIR-3003 · Logged 13 July 2026
Integrating Soft Systems Methodology into Operations Research for Long-Term Strategic Scenario Planning
This paper explores the future of operations research by applying critical uncertainty approaches and soft systems methodology. It suggests that future studies should investigate the integration of these soft tools to address complex, non-linear changes in the field.
In plain words
Operations research uses models and numbers to help organisations plan. This study asks how softer methods, which focus on people's differing views of a messy problem, could be combined with it to build better long-term scenarios.
Primary research question
How can Soft Systems Methodology be effectively integrated with traditional Operations Research to improve scenario planning outcomes?
Knowledge gap
What remains worth asking
The source suggests that the application of soft operations research tools in future studies is currently lacking sufficient methodological development.
Potential contribution
Why it may matter
This integration could provide more robust frameworks for managing uncertainty in complex operational environments.
Academic placement
Academic fields and topic tags
Study frame: Academic and professional operations research communities · Method signals: Delphi Method, Soft Systems Methodology, Workshop-based Scenario Mapping
Possible study pathways
One question, different levels
Professional master’s / MBA
Operations strategy and decision support systems
Doctoral
Methodological innovation in operations research
- originality
- Moderate
- methodology
- Advanced
- Data access
- Accessible
- ethics
- Accessible
Quality and audit
85/100 quality
Safeguard-based audit was not recorded under the prior standard.
- Addresses the identified lack of methodology in existing operations research futures.
- Open-access scholarly source and DOI metadata verified
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Research Idea curation
- DOI and bibliographic metadata independently resolved
- Open-access status verified
- The research direction is transparently marked as AI-inferred
The public contributor code contains no name or account email.
APA 7 source
Fathi, M. R., Maleki, M. H., Sobhani, S. M., & Koksal, C. D. (2020). Future study of operations research based on scenario planning and soft systems methodology. foresight, 22(2), 223-249. https://doi.org/10.1108/fs-11-2018-0098
Paper abstract and discussion context; AI-inferred direction
This is an AI-inferred direction. The source authors did not state it as a recommendation.
Open source ↗