Sue Holwell

Senior Lecturer in Information Systems
Email: s.e.holwell@open.ac.uk

Qualifications

BComm (Western Australia)
MSc (Information Management) Lancaster
PhD (Systems) Lancaster
PG Diploma (Computing) Curtin University
CPA (Certified Practising Accountant) [this is true]

I was born in Melbourne, Australia and educated in Canberra. Before embarking on an academic career I worked for the Australian Public Service in both Canberra and Perth in Finance, Personnel and IS. The last few years were as the IS manager, responsible for all aspects of IS in a mixed mainframe, PC technical environment with both commercial and design applications.

A mid-career break brought me to the UK and a new career. Since 1988 I worked on research and consultancy using Soft Systems Methodology in the NHS and multi-national companies in Europe, completed my PhD and co-authored a book of �conceptual cleansing� of the fundamentals of the field of IS with Peter Checkland.

I joined Cranfield University in 1998 and taught on the MSc in the Design of Information Systems and MBA at the Royal Military College of Science. In April 2002 I joined the Systems Department at the Open University.

I am a keen and sometimes adequate golfer.

Current Post

Senior Lecturer in Information Systems, Centre for Complexity and Change, Technology Faculty, Open University

Courses

I am a member of the Course Team and Critical Reader for T306 Managing Complexity: a systems approach, TXR248 Experiencing Systems residential school Course Team Tutor, and Course Chair for T850 "Exploring Information Systems", a 15 point course on the fundamental concepts of IS for the IS Masters programme.

I am currently developing course material for OU Masters programme in Systems Practice (title to be confirmed) with Martin Reynolds.

Research Activities

I have been a member of 2 EPSRC funded research networks

INCISM and COGS.

I am spending half of my time with the PersSyst project, an internal Open University research and change management project.

I am also a Director of the UK Systems Society and if you are interested in systems ideas then do think about joining us.

Publications

Information, Systems & Information Systems: Making Sense of the Field, P Checkland & S Holwell (1998) Wiley 1998-09-23

An Information System Won the War S Holwell & P Checkland Proceedings of IEEE 1998
Action Research: Its Nature and Validity Systemic Practice and Action Research P. Checkland and S. Holwell 1998
Soft Systems Methodology: Other Voices Systemic Practice and Action Research S. Holwell 2000
Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. By P.Checkland (republished 1999 in paperback, with a 30-year retrospective). Reviewed from an academic perspective Systems Research and Behavioral Science 2000.