Conclusions of the Section and Main Concepts

Systems modeling is the process of creating descriptions of a system that help to understand and explain the complexity and structure within the system, as well as the system’s interactions with its external environment. Modeling involves describing only what is most important and omitting what is not. Documenting models allows the entire team to keep the important aspects in focus. The unimportant details are not retained in focus and remain only in conversations.

Role-based descriptions, which together make up the system description, are created using a description method. Most of you are engaged in modeling and creating documentation for various systems. Therefore, it is important to understand which description methods you use. You need to improve your proficiency in them. This is what applied mastery is all about. However, systems thinking, in particular, will help you pay attention to these methods and, if necessary, integrate them into the project activities of your department or the entire company.

There can be many system descriptions, and a system can be described as a “black box” or as a “transparent box.” One of the key descriptions of a system’s external behavior is the usage concept. When discussing the internal structure of a system, we distinguish four main types of descriptions: functional, modular, spatial (placement), and financial (resource-based).

In high-level modeling within project activities, we include identifying all important systems and subsystems, as well as understanding their interconnections. In each cell of the 3x3 Table, you can identify specific documents with descriptions for different areas of interest.

Key concepts: system description; modeling; description method; subject of interest; model; metamodel; multimodel; mega-model; functional = role-based = analytical; modular = structural = synthetic; spatial = placement = location; cost-based = economic = resource-based; functional description; modular description; spatial description.