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Time: 4 hours
Level: Introductory
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 Introduction Resource- Maps and plans, architects‗ and engineers‗ drawings, graphs and tables: all are models we use in everyday life. This unit will introduce you to the modelling process enabling you to recognise that systems...
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- 1 Preamble Resource
- I have assumed that you have come to this unit because you are interested in the use of models as part of a systems or systemic approach to some situation. This means that I expect certain things of you:...
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| | 2 An introduction to models
- 2.1 Defining ‘model’ Resource
- The word ‘model’ has a range of colloquial and technical interpretations, so we need first to establish the way in which this unit uses the term. As a start, we might suggest that a model is a simplified...
- 2.2 Mental models: implicit and explicit Resource
- We all have mental models of the world in which we live. We have mental models of ‘how X will react if I ask her to do a particular job’, of what would be ‘a nice holiday’, ‘what should happen if I turn...
- 2.3 Some general categories of model Resource
- The preceding text has probably suggested several examples of different types of model to you, and at a very broad level, we can categorise the sorts of model we are likely to use in systems work as
- 2.4 Models as part of systems work Resource
- Thinking systemically involves identifying systems relevant to some situation, and models are invariably used as part of this process. An example of this forms part of Checklands' Soft Systems Methodology...
- 2.5 A model of systems modelling Resource
- Much, if not most quantitative modelling is carried out in the context of engineering, business and financial studies. These uses of quantitative models are usually not part of a systems approach. Furthermore...
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| | 3 Systems modelling in practice
- 3.1 The steps to systems modelling Resource
- Systems modelling in practice usually involves six broad steps, within each of which there may be many subsidiary steps and some checking and revision. There is also likely to be iteration back to the...
- 3.2 Why quantitative models Resource
- The stage of choosing a model could include consideration of diagrams or conceptual models as well as quantitative models. So when should you consider a quantitative model as the appropriate next step?...
- 3.3 Types of quantitative systems model Resource
- There is a wide range of quantitative models, of varying degrees of sophistication and complication. In this pack, we will only cover those that I think you are likely to encounter in systems studies or...
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| | References and Acknowledgements | |
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