introduction to systems thinking: system structures and behaviour
Post on 17-Oct-2014
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DESCRIPTION
Presentation for the Sydney Limited WIP Society An introduction to Systems Thinking for people who I assume are familiar with designing, building IT systems and/or the mess of large organisations Targeting beginners OR a review of fundamentals for non-beginnersTRANSCRIPT
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Introduction to Systems Thinking: System Structures and Behaviour
Sydney Limited WIP SocietyJason Yip
[email protected]://jchyip.blogspot.com
@jchyip
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Select a problem as a working example. It should be somewhat complicated, and not too simple.
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What is a system?
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A system is a set of things interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behaviour over time
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A system is more than the sum of its parts
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http://mennodiscuss.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16392#p456262
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Systems consists of three things
1. Elements2. Interconnections3. Function (non-human system) or Purpose
(human system)
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Examples of systems
● Digestive system● Sports team● School● City● Factory● Corporation● National Economy
● Animal● Tree● Forest● Earth● Solar system● Galaxy● IT system
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Systems mostly cause their own behaviour; outside events unleash that behaviour
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Do politicians cause recessions and booms? Or is it inherent to market economies?
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Do competitors cause companies to lose market share? Or do their own policies create losses that competitors exploit?
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“Every system is perfectly designed to achieve the results it gets.”
Dr. Don Berwick
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Describe your situation as a system
● What are the elements?● What are the interconnections between the
elements?● What is the purpose of the system?
Intended vs actual based on behaviour?
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Stocks and Flows
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Stocks are the elements you can see, feel, count, or measure at any given time
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Examples of Stocks
● Water in a bathtub● A population● Books in a book store● Wood in a tree● Money in a bank
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Stocks change over time via Flows
● Work flow● Information flow● Both inflow and outflow
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http://lssacademy.com/2008/02/24/lets-create-a-current-state-value-stream-map/
Information Flow
Work Flow
Stocks
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https://flic.kr/p/9az8q1
Inflow
Outflow
Information flow
Stock
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Stocks provide a memory of flows
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Stocks act as “shock absorbers”
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Stocks introduce delay.
It takes time for flows to affect stocks.
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Delays decouple inflow and outflow
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Examples of stocks decoupling flows
● Gasoline storage tanks● Wood in a forest● Water reservoir
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“Stocks are pretty much queues”
Me
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Let’s try describing a typical Agile team using stocks and flows
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How might stocks and flows change how you describe your situation?
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Feedback loops
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Systems run themselves via feedback loops
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Balancing feedback loops
● Thermostat● Guided missile● Iterative, incremental software development
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A stock with two competing balancing loops
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How feedback fails
● Late, lost, unclear, incomplete, hard to interpret information
● Weak, delayed, resource-constrained, ineffective response
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Two competing balancing loops with delays
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The problem with forecast-driven supply chains
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A delay in a balancing feedback loop makes a system likely to oscillate
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Aside: This is generally solved by using kanban
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Reinforcing feedback loops
● Market collapse: uncertainty -> remove money -> more uncertainty
● Compound interest● Death march: Too much to do -> work
harder -> more bugs -> work even harder
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A stock with one reinforcing loop and one balancing loop
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If A causes B, is it possible that B also causes A?
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How might feedback loops change how you describe your situation?
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Dealing with systems
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Systems consists of three things
1. Elements2. Interconnections3. Function (non-human system) or Purpose
(human system)
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Changing elements usually has the least effect; changing interconnections or purpose is usually more dramatic
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Examples
● Change all members of a sports team vs change rules of the game or the definition of winning
● Change people in the organisation vs change the way of working or the definition of organisational success
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Focus more on interconnections and interactions than elements
● Interaction flow / sequence over class structure
● Work flow / value stream over org structure
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System interactions operate through information flow
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Address incongruent purposes
System purposes do not necessarily match the intention of the designers or actors within it
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How might you intervene in your situation to improve the system?