Think-in-Systems

An intuitive Introduction to Systems Engineering and Dynamics

Project maintained by sohamphanseiitb Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

What is a system?

Think about it: we use the word system countless times in our lives; for instance, the e-ticketing system you use to plan and book tickets for your upcoming holiday, the traffic management system that manages the road traffic in your city, the public transportation system that you must have used to commute to college, work, and the education system comprising schools, colleges, and testing agencies of which you are currently a part. The list is never-ending, and there are many more such examples that make up the large zoo of systems around us.

It’s surreal that we come across countless systems in our lives, but we look at them locally, based on a reductionist view, the cause-and-effect mentality, and not at all as a holistic picture. This series of stories aims to bridge this gap by intuitively explaining systems science in an undergraduate-accessible manner and inculcating the habit of holistic systems thinking in daily life.

So what are systems? Are they abstract in any sense? Do they comprise physical components — can humans be part of a system? How large or small can systems be? Can systems be nestled inside other systems? There are lots more such questions, and I will try my best to tackle them in a straightforward yet powerful and intuitive manner.

For now, let’s focus on what a system is. Before delving into details, let’s have a quick look at the definition:

A system is a set of interacting components, coherently organized in such a way to bring out a characteristic behavior, perform a function, or satisfy a purpose.

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Cartoon Tour of Systems Thinking


Okay, I can understand; it is indeed too much. Let’s not try to gobble it all up at once. Let’s dissect it piece by piece.

By ‘system is a set of interacting components,’ we mean every system is made up of elements; they can be humans, plants, animals, or, for that matter, even inanimate objects. All these together form a system — but wait a minute, do these components form a system in isolation? Don’t they talk to each other? The answer is yes; the elements interact via physical flows, information exchange, and other forms. Then comes ‘coherently organized,’ i.e., the components interact so that, as a whole, they ‘bring out a characteristic behavior, perform a function or satisfy a purpose.’

To put it concisely, a System has three important traits:

To cement these concepts, let’s take an example of your school or college – whose internet services you might be using right now, to read this page! :P

To cement these concepts, let’s take an example of your school or college — whose internet services you might be using right now, to read this page! :P

Let’s start with what functions a school performs — the first thing that pops up is ‘Knowledge dissemination.’ In a school, professors and senior students exchange and pass on their knowledge and experience to the juniors, who reciprocate the same, thus continuing knowledge transfer in newer generations of society. To accomplish this mission at hand, a school sets some rules that govern academics, extracurriculars, the grading policies of students (which you might hate the most, don’t worry, same here! :P), and a host of other things. Students, professors, administration staff, laboratories, equipment, and classrooms are the elements that make up the school system. The set of rules governing all the activities at school, your relations with your professors, their teaching, and grade allotment form the interconnections between the elements. And finally, all of these interacting elements, as a whole, perform the function of ‘Knowledge Dissemination.’

You must be wondering that as a student, you might want to study, get good grades, and get a good job, which might not be in tune with disseminating knowledge. That’s the essence of the nature of systems; it isn’t necessary that the functions and purposes of the elements match those of the system. A professor might want to become the head of the department, a student might want to get good grades and land a good job, and an admin officer might want to get promoted, but all these actors acting coherently in a quest to achieve their own objectives, in a way, together accomplish the system’s objectives.

That’s the beauty of the system architecture! However, this non-linearity in systems comes at its own cost. More on that sometime later!

Try to think of examples that can be seen through the systems lens — use the 3-point dissection method for every system and try to find the elements, interconnections, and functions it performs. Try doing this exercise for an airport, a railyard, a power plant, or anything else you find interesting!