Philosophical criticism of RfPs by #CWestChurchman (one of the luminaries of #SystemsThinking).

> All planning begins with a problem; however, it should not be confined to the problem statement. Also, the beginning should not be a clear problem formulation, but rather should be an utterance of moral outrage. John Dewey once said that problems arise from felt needs; however, that is much too mild a statement. One very sad aspect of a great deal of planning research is that the roots of the Request-for-Proposals are cut off at the very start; no wonder the plant withers and dies as proposals, interim, and final reports are written.

Churchman, C. West. 1984. “Thought and Wisdom.” In _Rethinking the Process of Operational Research & Systems Analysis_, edited by Rolfe Tomlinson and Istvan Kiss, 67–77. Frontiers of Operational FORS. Amsterdam: Pergamon. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-030830-2.50010-6.