Rich Picture

A Rich Picture is a free-form, annotated drawing used in the early exploratory stage of Soft Systems Methodology to represent the full complexity of a problematic situation. Developed by Peter Checkland at Lancaster University, it captures people, roles, concerns, processes, conflicts, and environmental factors in a single visual canvas. It is used primarily by systems analysts, organizational consultants, and action researchers who need to surface multiple stakeholder perspectives before imposing any formal structure on a messy, ill-defined problem.