Theory of Modelling and Simulation
Theory of Modelling and Simulation
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My research into system design and simulation indicates at least two areas where General System Theories (GST) can provide insights and support for more detailed efforts. These areas are (I) system design as approached in a hierarchical fashion, and (II) system simulation by relatively naive users for systems that contain complex control or decision structures. As an example of a problem in area I, some designers of large software system have advocated a hierarchical structure to represent the interaction of the components of the software system. Structured Analysis (Ross 1977) is an example of such a methodology. An implicit assumption of such methods is that of closure of certain system properties under interconnection. That is, given functional or realizable components, the series, parallel, or feedback interconnection of such components is assumed to be again a functional or realizable component. An application of GST to this problem area has shown that, for both static (i.e., no concern for time-behavior) and dynamic perspectives, the assumed closure is certainly satisfied in the “bottom up” direction (i.e., connecting components together). However, in both cases, a well-established GST foundation for closure in a “top-down” direction (i.e., breaking a system into components) is not yet evident (Talavage). In fact, further developments in GST will be necessary before that issue can be settled.