Preparation has to include some real work. The Project/Business Manager needs to prepare information about the project or activity: its objectives, the 'concept of operations', a functional breakdown structure along with a risk breakdown structure, which would be informed by the work and elemental breakdown structures. These all provide a tangible point of departure for the 'workshop'. The workshop also needs input about the activity context, analyzed in terms of Checkland's SSM structure of: Customers, Actors, Transformation, Work context (he calls it 'world view'), Owner/organization, Environment (as in PESTEL: political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal).
