Laws of Software Engineering · Framework
Framework
System Dynamics
A way of modelling systems made of stocks, flows, and feedback loops. The behaviour of a system over time follows from its structure, not from individual events.
How to use it. When the same problem keeps coming back despite fixes, the structure is producing the behaviour. Map the stocks (what accumulates), the flows (what moves between them), and the feedback loops (what reinforces or balances). The leverage point is usually in the loop structure.
How it gets misused. Reduced to causal-loop diagrams without the dynamics. The diagrams are a starting point. The actual modelling needs equations and simulation. Forrester's work is harder than its popularisations suggest.
Related
- Framework The Fifth Discipline Systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning. The five disciplines of an organisation that can learn.
- Framework Beer's Viable System Model A model for designing organisations that can survive and adapt. Five interdependent systems handle operations, coordination, control, intelligence, and identity.
- Principle Feedback Loops Every system improves at the rate of its slowest feedback loop. Shorten the loops between action and outcome.
Clusters
- The Systems Thinking cluster - Ways of seeing systems whole.