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Systemic Thinking pp 103–123Cite as

The What of Systemic Thinking

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Part of the book series: Topics in Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality ((TSRQ,volume 26))

Abstract

The main focus of the what question of systemic thinking is on attributes of the problem that we are trying to gain increased understanding of. Given that a mess is a system of problems as we describe it in Chap. 2, we take the occasion in this chapter to dissect a given problem and the structured decision analysis and associated concerns that may be employed to gain further insight regarding its parent mess. While it is beneficial to have undergone stakeholder analysis prior to proceeding with this chapter, it is not necessary. The problem analysis phase focuses on decomposition of a problem in a manner that allows for identification of outcomes, their derivative outputs, the outputs’ goals, and the relative importance of these outputs in determining goal attainment and the relative importance of outcomes in achieving problem understanding. This chapter first discusses the basics of decision analysis. We then discuss the anatomy of a problem. Finally, a framework for addressing the what question is presented and this framework is demonstrated on a realistic problem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Patrick T. Hester

  2. Department of Information Technology and Computer Science, University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD, USA

    Kevin MacG Adams

Authors
  1. Patrick T. Hester
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  2. Kevin MacG Adams
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Correspondence to Patrick T. Hester .

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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Hester, P.T., Adams, K.M. (2014). The What of Systemic Thinking. In: Systemic Thinking. Topics in Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality, vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07629-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07629-4_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07628-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07629-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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