CHAPTER 2

iThink Symbols and Relationships

Overview

This chapter is drawn very heavily from An Introduction to Systems Thinking Guide Book,1 and is intended to give a brief summary of the symbols used by iThink and the relationships that can be created between them. As we will see, there are relatively few symbols and the rules that govern their use are fairly easy to master. What is more difficult is envisioning and describing a system of interest, usually a company or organization, and capturing those relationships in the form of a testable model. That is the subject of Chapter 3.

For those first looking into system dynamics (SD) modeling, I recommend referring to Richmond’s book as a starting point. There are several reasons for this recommendation. ...

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