Application
System dynamics has found application in a wide range of areas, for example population, ecological and economic systems, which usually interact strongly with each other.
System dynamics have various "back of the envelope" management applications. They are a potent tool to:
- Teach system thinking reflexes to persons being coached
- Analyze and compare assumptions and mental models about the way things work
- Gain qualitative insight into the workings of a system or the consequences of a decision
- Recognize archetypes of dysfunctional systems in everyday practice
Computer software is used to simulate a system dynamics model of the situation being studied. Running "what if" simulations to test certain policies on such a model can greatly aid in understanding how the system changes over time. System dynamics is very similar to systems thinking and constructs the same causal loop diagrams of systems with feedback. However, system dynamics typically goes further and utilises simulation to study the behaviour of systems and the impact of alternative policies.
System dynamics has been used to investigate resource dependencies, and resulting problems, in product development.
Read more about this topic: System Dynamics
Famous quotes containing the word application:
“It is known that Whistler when asked how long it took him to paint one of his “nocturnes” answered: “All of my life.” With the same rigor he could have said that all of the centuries that preceded the moment when he painted were necessary. From that correct application of the law of causality it follows that the slightest event presupposes the inconceivable universe and, conversely, that the universe needs even the slightest of events.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
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—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)