Talk:Systems thinking/Archives/2016

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Input/Output Analysis

For open systems the comparison between the input and output surely allows us to evalate what the system consists of or at least something about how it works. None of this has yet been included.

Even for a closed system which is closer to the holistic concept more commonly found in natural configurations, one can take input and outputs at different points in the system and consequently learn about what lays between them.

Kenneth Boulting expressed it in his inimitable poetic way:

             A system is a big black box/
             Of which we can't unlock the locks/
             And all we can find out about/
             Is what goes in and what comes out.//

             Perceiving input-output pairs,/ 
             Related by parameters,/
             Permits us, sometimes, to relate/           
             An input, output, and a state.//

              If this relation's good and stable/
              Then to predict we may be able,/
              But if this fails us heaven forbid!/
              We'll be compelled to force the lid!//

Macrocompassion (talk) 13:51, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

Expansion required

Systems theory and systems concepts
Hard and soft systems
Peter Checkland’s soft systems methodology
Beer’s viable systems model
Theory of constraints
Deming’s theory of profound knowledge
Organisational learning
Understanding and managing processes
Seddon’s systems thinking concepts - Purpose-Measure-Method
Purposive and transactional systems
Understanding systems boundaries
Structured systems analysis and design methodology
Systems dynamics
Understanding and modelling the concepts of value, variation, time and constraints