About system thinking

This is the first post in a series on systems thinking and systems engineering, in which I will try to describe these cool things in simple language and explain why they are needed.

Systems thinking is a practical approach to the perception of the world, which greatly accelerates the ability to analyze, make decisions and learn. Practical because it is formed by practice, and did not grow out of abstract mathematical theories.

If you are familiar with the abbreviation TRIZ , then I would say that the methods of TRIZ are a set of particular cases of the application of systems thinking in physical production.
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Systems

The system is an abstract concept that allows us to structure the world in a form convenient for analysis.
A system is a collection of interconnected entities.

Connected - in the sense of somehow influencing each other: transmitting information, welded together, jerking each other over the ropes, etc.

It is important to understand: only a person decides what to call a system, nature does not distinguish between systems. In fact, any set of any entities can be called a system, but this is an ineffective method. The system must be conceptually complete, only then its use will be useful.


Any system can consist of subsystems and be part of one or several metasystems.

For example:

• engine - a system of valves and other parts;
• car - a system of various devices, one of which is the engine;
• road - a system of engineering structures, vehicles and pedestrians;
• bus stop - a system that is part of the “road” and “residential quarter” metasystems.

So, system thinking is the ability to select systems, switch between them and analyze them.

System thinking

The concept of the system does not look complicated and it is hardly hellish to think in this style, but why?

Systems thinking is a product of practice. As it turned out, many properties of systems weakly depend on the area in which they are isolated (physics, pedagogy, logistics, etc.), but strongly - on the topology of the system - the structure and types of connections between its components. It turns out that the world is not as diverse as it seems, it is enough to abstract properly.

Typical general properties of systems include, for example, the life cycle , feedback, and orthogonality . These concepts live well and without references to systems engineering, but it is she who gives a convenient way to extend them to the world around us.

Therefore, as soon as we begin to think systematically, we get a number of important advantages.

The ability to generalize and share their experiences in one area to the world around them.

Suppose you have worked all your life with machine tools and other mechanisms, and you probably know a lot of cunning laws and peculiarities of their functioning. Be sure that a significant part of these patterns can be transferred to other systems, for example, informational or, what is there, human.

The main thing is to replace in these patterns the details and the connections between them, with the humans and the connections between them (such is a tautology). It is difficult to do this directly, but a systematic approach gives us a common language for representing such knowledge in the form of systems. Therefore, if we learn to look at our work with machines and with people as working with systems, then many of our knowledge can naturally be applied directly to these two areas (as well as to the others).

Universal "toolkit" for the analysis, forecasting and development of new systems.

Engineers have identified many properties characteristic of all systems, and for their groups. Using these properties in their work can not only greatly simplify and speed up the solution of problems, but also get a common language for communicating with colleagues, including from other areas of activity.

This is especially useful for IT people because today you are developing banking software, tomorrow is medical, and the day after tomorrow is a mobile toy, CMS or any other mysterious thing. There is no time to delve into each area, fortunately, this is not required - it is enough to think systematically. However, this does not obviate the need to learn the basic principles of the relevant field, since they allow you to choose the right abstractions.

What's next…

If you are interested in systems thinking and systems engineering, I recommend reading the book: “Traveling through the system landscape” by Harold Lawson - this is a good tutorial for those who are starting to get acquainted with system engineering.

Also in the comments I accept suggestions on topics of new articles. Of course, if they are interesting to you :-)