Mastering Complexity

26

Problematics PSM 32

Software to create, manipulate, and understand DSM spreadsheets is available from Don Steward’s own website (http://www.problematics.com). Currently, his software is being used successfully in many business applications at companies large and small.

The graph theory methods used by PSM 32 are discussed at length in Donald Steward’s book, Systems Analysis and Management: Structure, Strategy and Design (New York: Petrocelli, 1981). Here, we give a much-shortened description of how they work. We describe the procedure PSM 32 uses in terms of its equivalent graph. For a more detailed discussion, visit the website (http://www.problematics.com).

Analysis occurs in two stages: partitioning and tearing. Ordering requires we ...