System Dynamics · Soft Systems inquiry
Model
A representation built to ask a question. Different traditions use models for different purposes; they are not interchangeable.
Related — not interchangeable
Purposeful-activity model
System Dynamics and Soft Systems inquiry · editorial synthesis
A System Dynamics stock/flow model asks how specified rates and relationships produce behavior over time under stated assumptions. A Soft Systems purposeful-activity model helps discuss what the shop ought to do from a declared perspective. A queue simulation cannot settle whose idea of good service governs the shop; an activity model does not itself forecast the unfinished queue.
This comparison is an editorial synthesis for this example. Other contexts can use these words differently. Cybernetics, Critical Systems, Complexity and Network comparisons are not yet reviewed here.
See it at the bike shopWhere this comes from
- Introduction to Project Dynamics · slides 28–30
James Lyneis · MIT OpenCourseWare · 2012. Stock/level and flow/rate distinctions.
- Systems thinking and practice
The Open University · OpenLearn. Perspectives and provisional boundaries inform our reflection prompts.
- Mastering systems thinking in practice · Week 7
The Open University · OpenLearn. Different systems approaches and inquiry inform the model comparison.
The bike-shop case and numerical model are original illustrative exercises from Renaissance Solutions. These institutions have not endorsed this exercise.
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