Brian Wilson (born 1933 in

Newton-le-Willows Newton-le-Willows, often shortened informally to Newton, is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census was 24,642. Newton-le-Willows is on the ea ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

) is a British systems scientist and honorary professor at

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

, known for his development of

soft systems methodology Soft systems methodology (SSM) is an organised way of thinking applicable to problematic social situations and in the management of change by using action. It was developed in England by academics at the Lancaster Systems Department on the basis o ...

(SSM) and

enterprise modelling Enterprise modelling is the abstract representation, description and definition of the structure, processes, information and resources of an identifiable business, government body, or other large organization. It deals with the process of underst ...

.Robert Macredie (1998), ''Modelling for Added Value'', p.168.

Biography

After graduating from

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

with a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

and

control system A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial ...

design, Wilson joined the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). T ...

where he studied the control and spatial stability of gas-cooled reactors and power plants. In 1966, he left the world of nuclear power engineering and control system design, and became a founder member of the Department of Systems Engineering at the

University of Lancaster Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

. Wilson has had an association with Cardiff University for a number of years, in a variety of roles, and has recently been conferred as an honorary professor in the Department of Computer Science. He left the University of Lancaster in 1992 and built his own consultancy company, Brian Wilson & Associates, where he continued to develop and apply his particular brand of SSM, leading to the uses of SSM in enterprise model building.

Work

During his time at the University of Lancaster, Wilson was involved in the development of a particular form of business analysis known as

(SSM). This development was driven by the action research programme carried out in that department, in which his particular interest was the application of SSM to information and organisation-based analysis. The work appeared in the book, ''Systems: Concepts, methodologies and Applications'', (editions 1 & 2), published by John Wiley.Brian Wilson
at koiosgroup.com., retrieved October 2007 He has 40 years of experience of tackling organisation-based problems of various kinds and he has undertaken projects in the pharmaceutical industry, the

Met Office The Met Office, until November 2000 officially the Meteorological Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather and climate service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and ...

, the

Office of Government Commerce The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) was a Government of the United Kingdom, UK Government Office established as part of HM Treasury in 2000. It was moved into the Efficiency and Reform Group of the Cabinet Office in 2010, before being closed ...

(OGC), the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

(MoD), the Police, the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

and a variety of other organisations in both private and public sectors. His most recent work has been focused with the development of SSM-based models to bring about the integration of children's services within Tameside; to contribute to the MOD's "Carrier Strike" programme and to explore the organisation of the detection and containment of illegal importation and use of nuclear and radiological materials as part of the anti-terrorist programme, "Cyclamen". Also, a contribution was made to the development of an "enterprise" architecture for information assurance in the public sector and to the development of new information support across a number of publishing companies within

Hachette Livre Hachette Livre S.A. (; simply known as Hachette) is a French publishing, publishing group that was based in Paris. It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif which later became successively L. Hachette et Compagnie, Librairie Hachette, ...

Publications

Books: * 1980, ''Systems: Concepts, methodologies and Applications'', John Wiley. * 2001, ''Soft Systems Methodology—Conceptual model building and its contribution'', J.H.Wiley. Papers: * 2006
''Deriving Information Requirements''

References

External links

at koiosgroup.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Brian 1933 births Academics of Lancaster University British systems scientists Living people People from Newton-le-Willows Alumni of the University of Nottingham British consultants