REPLY Models, Problems and Systems (SD7046)

[SDMAIL Jack Homer]

Posted by  "Jack Homer" <jhomer at comcast.net>


Christina Spencer says:
> I agree that it is perfectly reasonable that people with questions that
> may have come up before should investigate before posting old questions

Let me state again that I haven't asked newbies to investigate before 
posting questions, but rather that newbies show discretion when 
RESPONDING to questions, recognizing that most questions, especially 
questions about best practices in SD, have already been well answered 
over the past 50 years.

I agree that a wiki would be the right place for an archive of compiled 
wisdom regarding best practices.  If somebody (or, let's hope, multiple 
somebodies) had the time and were so inclined, they could work their way 
through the exemplary published works of SD literature (both books and 
articles) to find the nuggets (short excerpts) of wisdom, quote them 
verbatim, and give them topical headings to make them searchable.  I 
would suggest this "backward" approach rather than a "forward" approach 
of attempting to develop a list of frequently asked questions and then 
going on a search for the answers; or, even more problematic, trying to 
develop answers from scratch and reinvent the wheel.  A "compiled 
wisdom" approach just seems much more feasible to me than a "FAQ" 
approach.  In a wiki, it could start small and grow as more people see 
the value and become involved in the project.  I don't know whether 
there are copyright issues to worry about, but I would think most people 
in our field would be only to happy to have brief excerpts of their 
works quoted as part of Compiled Wisdom (!), as long as proper 
attribution is given.

One resource that could perhaps help steer the effort, balancing the 
backward with a bit of forward, is the study of best practices by 
Ignacio Martinez presented at the SD conference in Atlanta in 2001 along 
with a large panel discussion.  This study involved eliciting best 
practice ideas from SD experts, and ended up identifying 41 best 
practices in the areas of problem definition, conceptualization, and 
model formulation.  This could at the least help identify some good 
topical headings for the compiled wisdom.

Jack Homer
Posted by  "Jack Homer" <jhomer at comcast.net>
posting date  Thu, 15 May 2008 09:07:24 -0400