Creation Chain

Another important term related to the three main types of systems is the creation chain. This term is more closely associated with the creator or the creation systems.

Let’s continue examining the system of interest: the automobile. One of its creation systems would be the automotive factory. To build the factory, another creation system is required—this would be the creation system for the automotive factory. In this way, we end up with long chains.

For systems like an automobile or a bridge, such chains are usually intuitive for many people. However, in the case of software, these chains can be much longer and more complex. This is because software must ultimately connect to the physical world; in other words, you need to determine how the software is linked to a particular system of interest. Software is rarely created in isolation—it always connects to some system in the physical world.

For example, consider any of the many programming projects involved in creating an automobile. Why do they exist? Why is all this software needed? So that, in the end, an automobile comes into being! Systems thinking requires you to trace the entire chain from the IT program used in the creation project all the way to the automobile itself.