Ackermann, Fran with Terry M. Williams, Colin Eden, Andrew J. Tate, "Using Cognitive Mapping to Develop a Large System Dynamics Model", 1994
This paper describes the use of System Dynamics (SD) for making a claim for Disruption and Delay. The case concerns design management of a large development project. Extensive group workshops (GDSS) with the managers, based on the cognitive mapping technique and association software tope COPE, showed that the client-contractor interaction process had set up dynamic feedback loops creating Disruption and Delay to the project. In order to qualify the extent of the Disruption and Delay, the cognitive map was transformed into an "influence diagram" and thence through the acquisition of numeric data into a large SD model. The development of the two continued in parallel, informing and checking one another. As well as simply providing explanations of trends and behavior, the SD model had to reproduce the planned and actual out-turns explicitly for it to be a creditable explanatory tool. The paper will draw lessons from the case study on the process of moving from cognitive map to a SD model, and the mutual benefits of joint development, as well as more general lessons about combining soft and hard methods.
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