Rich Pictures
- Often first stage in design process
- Free format diagram to capture system
- Identifies politics, processes, emotions
- Theme places in middle, link words placed around it
Systems Dynamics
- Show states and rates for given situation
- Example: human population and rate of increase/decrease
- Other states can be modelled against human population such as food consumption, food production, water consumption
- Allows point of intervention to be identified & modelled, i.e. if population increases by x what increase in food production will be required
- Helps identify impact of time lags on system
- Effective in identifying feedback loops
Spreadsheets
- Commonly used for mathematical modelling
- Effective for “what if” analysis
Influence Diagram
- Illustrates influences that occur in system
- Can be used as both hard and soft model
- Can help identify hard-to-spot influences when used as soft model
Force Field
- Identifies forces driving & restraining change in situation
Conceptual Models
- Part of soft system methodology
- Model purposeful activity in system – i.e. what are logical activities of system