Course Code: SWE - 304

Enterprise System Engineering

Lecture # 6
Dr. Syed Saood Zia
Assistant Professor

6th Semester
Software Engineering Department
Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology
Table of Content

Chapter # 2: System Theory

• System • System Dynamics
• Purposefulness • Causal Loop Diagram
• Feedback and Control • Stock and Flow Diagram
• Complexity
• Dynamics
• Equifinality

02
 • Purposefulness
• Feedback and
Control
System • Complexity
• Dynamics
• Equifinality

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Purposefulness

• Enterprises have purpose, which is defined in the mission statement of the

enterprise.
• Furthermore, the people in the enterprise have a purpose, their individual goals, and
these individual goals may or may not be aligned with the enterprise purpose.

• Ackoff [1] termed these purposeful systems. Because the enterprise is purposeful
there is a rationale that explains its actions.

• Purposeful systems have all the capabilities of goal-seeking and state-maintaining

systems with the addition that they also exhibit free-will, which is the ability to also
change their goals.
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Purposefulness

• A state-maintaining system can react to its environment but only in a

predefined way. It exhibits no learning and cannot adapt its behavior.

• A goal-seeking system can respond differently to different events but always

in pursuit of the particular outcome (goal).

• A goal-seeking system cannot change its goal. Goal-seeking systems have all
the capabilities of state-maintaining systems.

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Feedback & Control

• The control of a system is the subject of cybernetics, which conceptualizes the

mechanisms of feedback and self-regulation whether by mechanical, electrical
or other means.
• Understanding feedback control is fundamental to systems engineering.

• The system being controlled transforms inputs into outputs.

• The system being controlled is subject to unpredictable disturbances from its

environment. These disturbances may cause the system to deviate from its
desired state.

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Feedback & Control

• The objective of control is to reduce the deviation between a desired state of the
system and the actual state of the system.
• In order to maintain the desired state, feedback control is implemented as
follows:
• A system parameter indicative of the desired system state is measured and
monitored.
• A reference level that describes the desired value for the system parameter
is set.

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Feedback & Control

• A decision-making function compares the current state of the system to the

reference level. The deviation between these two states is the error signal.
• An actuator alters the system state so as to reach the desired state. The
actuator’s behavior is usually directly proportional to the magnitude of the
deviation.
• In enterprises the controlled system is generally not an electro-mechanical
system like the thermostat.
• The cybernetic concepts of control still apply. Enterprise control is performed by
the management structure, whose primary role is to control the systems they are
responsible for.

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Feedback & Control

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Feedback & Control

• In the model of Figure 2.1, the manager fulfills the role of the decision-making
function.

• The measured control parameter could simply be the manager’s observation of

the system performance, but it is better if the manager has a performance
measurement system to measure the state of the system.

• The actuator is the set of actions the manager can take to correct any deviations
between the system’s desired performance and its actual performance.

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Complexity

• Enterprise systems are usually described as being complex. A widely held

viewpoint is that complexity is due to the large number of interacting parts.

• The more parts a system has, then the more complex that system is. Many
enterprises are large, consisting of many different parts, so an enterprise would
be considered complex.

• Complexity arises from not only the number of parts in the system, but also from
the interrelationships of the system parts and the emergent behavior that cannot
be predicted from the individual system parts.
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Dynamic

• An enterprise changes over time; it grows, shrinks, adds parts, removes parts,
and changes its parts and the relationships between those parts.

• Enterprises seem to go through stages of continuous change, characterized by

slow, small-scale improvements to limited parts of the enterprise that are
interrupted by larger more dramatic reengineering projects cutting across several
functions of the enterprise.

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Equifinality

• Enterprises exhibit the property of equifinality, which means the enterprise can
accomplish its objectives with different inputs and with different internal processes to
reach the enterprise’s goal.

• Equifinality is an important property to remember when analyzing enterprises because

how an enterprise chooses to pursue its goals will be influenced by the culture it
operates within.

• The enterprise analyst needs to be aware that a best practice in one organization might
not be transferable to another organization because of the mismatch between the
practice and the organization’s culture.
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System
Dynamics
Introduction

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System Dynamics -- Introduction

• System Dynamics is a theory that says systems should be viewed as interrelated

groups of parts, and by modeling the structure of the system we can understand
and even predict the system behavior.

• System Dynamics was started at MIT by Forrester, and is derived from ideas in
computer simulation, control theory, and decision-making.

• System Dynamics provides two tools that are useful in the study of enterprise
systems: causal loop diagrams and stock and flow simulation models.

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Causal Loop Diagram

• A causal loop diagram depicts a system as an inter-related system of variables.

• The variables are system elements of interest that are connected by arcs denoting
relationships.
• The purpose of the diagram is to depict beliefs about the causal structure of the
system.
• Figure 2.2 shows the notation for three types of relationships. Each node, shown as
text, is a system variable.
• The arcs show relationships between variables. Relationships are either positive
(shown as +) or negative (shown as -).

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Causal Loop Diagram

• The definitions of the relationships are:

• Positive Relationships: If A increases,
then B also increases. If A decreases,
then B also decreases. (They change in
the same direction.)
• Negative Relationship: If C increases,
then D decreases. If C decreases, then
D increases. (They change in opposite
directions.)
• Delays: The delay may be positive or
negative. In a negative delay, if E
increases, then F decreases after a
period of time. Delays are denoted by
two diagonal lines drawn through the
arc as shown.
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Causal Loop Diagram (Example)

• Figure 2.3 shows a causal loop

diagram of a thermostat controlling a
room’s temperature.
• In the diagram, the arc from Heat to
Room Temperature is positive.
• This means that as the Heat increases,
the Room Temperature increases.
• The arc between Room Temperature
and Gap is negative.
• This means that as the Room
Temperature increases the Gap
decreases.

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Causal Loop Diagram (Example)

• The Desired Room Temperature is higher

than the actual Room Temperature. So as
Room Temperature increases, the Gap
(Desired Room Temperature - Room
Temperature) will decrease.
• A closed loop created by two or more arcs
shows feedback in the system.
• The loop created between Heat, Room
Temperature, and Gap represents a
negative feedback loop.
• It is denoted by a curved arrow with a
negative sign in it.
• Similarly, a positive feedback loop is
denoted by a curved arrow with a positive
sign in it.
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Stock and Flow Diagrams

• A stock and flow diagram views the system as consisting of stocks that accumulate
things and flows that show the movement of things in the system.
• The “things” that flow and are accumulated can be:
• Materials. This can be any physical object such as products, raw materials, or
inventory.
• Money. This can be money in any of its forms such as a savings account, income
from the sales of a product, or taxes.
• Information Objects. This can be any non-physical object that flows in the system
such as customer orders, reservation requests, or purchase orders.
• People. This can be any group of people such as customers, employees, or
patients.
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Stock and Flow Diagrams

• Stock and flow diagrams have three

types of variables: rate variables, stock
variables, and information variables.
• A stock variable represents the
accumulation or depletion of an
object,
• A flow variable represents the rate of
change of a stock, and
• An information variable represents
information that can influence either
stocks or flows.

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Summary

Chapter # 2: System Theory

• System • System Dynamics
• Purposefulness • Causal Loop Diagram
• Feedback and Control • Stock and Flow Diagram
• Complexity
• Dynamics
• Equifinality

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