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'''Strategic assumptions surfacing and testing''' ('''SAST''') is a method for approaching ill-structured problems. It can be applied as a [[dialectical]] approach to policy and planning.

An ill-structured problem may alternatively be also labelled as a [[wicked problem]]. SAST may be applied as a technique of [[systems thinking]].

An ill-structured problem is "one for which various strategies for providing a possible solution rest on assumptions that are in sharp conflict with one another".<ref>Mitroff, I. I., and J. R. Emshoff. 1979. "On Strategic Assumption-making: A Dialectical Approach to Policy and Planning." ''Academy of Management Review'': 1–12. https://www.jstor.org/stable/257398</ref> The purposes for an SAST method are:
* to help surface for explicit examination the underlying assumptions that analysts often unconsciouly bring with them to a problem situation;
* to compare and to evaluate systematically the assumptions of different analysts;
* to examine the relationship between underlying assumptions and the resulting policies which are derived and dependent upon them; and
* to attempt to formulate new, novel, and originally unforeseen policies based on previously unforeseen assumptions.

Four stages in the method include:<ref>Mitroff, I. I., and J. R. Emshoff. 1979. “On Strategic Assumption-making: A Dialectical Approach to Policy and Planning.” ''Academy of Management Review'': 1–12. https://www.jstor.org/stable/257398</ref>

# Assumption specification
# Dialectic phase
# Assumption integration phase
# Composite strategy creation

The method originated through the collaboration between [[Richard O. Mason]] and [[Ian Mitroff]], as an extension of the philosophy on the design of inquiring systems originating from [[C. West Churchman]]. SAST follows the prescriptions of ''dialectic inquiry'', sweeping in multiple perspective onto the full breadth of underlying assumptions to collaborative problem solving and strategic design.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Acar | first1 = William | last2 = Druckenmiller | first2 = Douglas A. | year = 2010 | title = Designing Insightful Inquiring Systems for Sustainable Organizational Foresight | url = | journal = Futures | volume = 42 | issue = 4| pages = 405–416 | doi = 10.1016/j.futures.2009.11.025 }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==

Mitroff, I. I., and J. R. Emshoff. 1979. “On Strategic Assumption-making: A Dialectical Approach to Policy and Planning.” ''Academy of Management Review'': 1–12. https://www.jstor.org/stable/257398

Mason, R.O., and Mitroff, I.I., 1981; "Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions:Theory,Cases and Techniques", NY, Wiley, {{ISBN|0-471-08219-8}}

Mitroff, Ian I., and Richard O. Mason. 1981. ''Creating a Dialectical Social Science: Concepts, Methods, and Models''. D. Reidel. https://books.google.com/books?id=cKJ8AAAAIAAJ.

Mason, Richard O., and Ian I. Mitroff. 1981. ''Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions: Theory, Cases, and Techniques''. Wiley. https://books.google.com/books?id=EmaQAAAAIAAJ.

[[Category:Business planning]]
[[Category:Problem structuring methods]]

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