Eberlein, Robert L. with David W. Peterson and William T. Wood, "Causal Tracing: One Technical Solution to the Modeling Dilemma", 1990
ua435
A central dilemma for system dynamics is the fact that the same human limitations that motivate the use of models also make models hard to create, debug and even hard to use. Two commonly proposed escapes from this dilemma are education and generic models. We propose a third, technical approach and give an example. The example approach, “causal tracing,” is a computer tool that makes it much easier to find the feedback loop or input responsible for a given variable’s behavior. Correctly implemented, this tool reduces the time required for causal tracing by a factor of 10 to 100. The payoff is faster and more accurate creation of models and use of models.