BASIC CONCEPTS

and
DEFINITIONS
 IMPORTANT WARNING

These notes have been prepared by

Dr. Sinem BÜYÜKSAATÇI KİRİŞ and are prohibited to be
printed, reproduced, uploaded to the internet or used in
training seminars by a person or organization without her
consent.
 14 WEEKS TOPICS
W1: Basic concepts and definitions for systems
W2: System types and general features of systems
W3: Evolution to systems thinking
W4: Systems thinking
W5: Systems thinking tools
W6: Midterm Exam
W7: Midterm Exam
W8: Stages of System Approach
W9: Stages of System Approach
W10: Process Analysis
W11: System Development Process
W12: System Design
W13: Soft System Methodology
W14: The Fifth Discipline
RESOURCES TO BE USED
 Charles S. Wasson (2005). System analysis, design, and
development: Concepts, principles, and practices, John Wiley
& Sons.

 John E. Gibson, William T. Scherer, William F.

Gibson (2007). How To Do Systems Analysis. John
Wiley & Sons.

 Derek K. Hitchins (2008). Systems Engineering: A

21st Century Systems Methodology, John Wiley &
Sons.

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RESOURCES TO BE USED
 Oğuz Borat ve Berk Ayvaz (2022). Sistem Analizi
ve Tasarımı, Nobel Yayıncılık

 Haluk Erkut (2005). Sistem Yönetimi;

Analiz, Tasarım ve Uygulamalı, İrfan
Yayıncılık

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BACKGROUND
System theory, one of
the modern
management thinking
approaches, is a form
of approach used in
understanding,
analyzing and solving
complex problems.

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 SYSTEM THINKING
Systems thinking is the art of simplifying complexity.
Systems thinking is a tool that helps us understand complexity and
help us develop more effective policies.
Systems thinking is the ability to see complex relationships, manage
interconnections and dependencies between variables, and
understand choices.
Research and studies are carried out in three different areas on
systems thinking. These are
• systems theory,
• systems analysis and
• systems engineering studies.

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 SYSTEM THINKING
General systems theory develops models and studies the resources,
behavior, evolution, and stability of systems. Systems theory attempts
to establish general principles by combining observations and
analytical models.
System analysis covers the practical applications of the systems
approach to problem solving. It builds a system-specific model and
tries to solve or improve the problem in the system. Analyzes human-
based decision problems.
In systems engineering, there are studies related to system design and
creation. Systems Engineering identifies and deals with the activities
that lead to the existence of complex processes. Systems Engineering
deals with the design and creation of future systems rather than the
current operations of the system.

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SYSTEM THINKING

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WHAT IS SYSTEM?
System is a word that we both use and hear
frequently.
 "Blockages in political systems",
 “Oldness of the electoral system”,
 “Need to review the fuel system of the car”,
 “The necessity of shaping our education system according to the
requirements of the 21st century”,
 “Quality problems caused by insufficient cooling system of the
lathe”,
 “My nervous system is brokedown”,
 “the electrical system is faulty”.
These expressions are very common in professional and daily
conversation language.
WHAT IS SYSTEM?
It is a set of elements that have closed borders, have
come together for a common purpose and have
relations / interactions between them. The systems
approach was first introduced by Karl Ludwig von
Bertallanffy.
 A system is a set of elements that make up a complex and
indivisible whole.
 It is a collection of elements that make up a complex whole: the
transport system
 It is an ordered and comprehensive collection of facts and
opinions: the system of philosophy.
 It is a set of methods and plans that are implemented in a
coordinated way: the system of management and organization
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 WHAT IS SYSTEM?
 A network of interdependent components that
work together to accomplish the aim of the system.
The system should have an aim. If there is no aim,
there is no system. (William Edward Deming)

 Coming together of parts, interconnections

and aim …The real power lies in the way the
parts come together and are interconnected
to fulfill some purpose. (Paul Plsek)

 Set of elements stand in interrelations.

(Karl Ludwig Bertalanffy)
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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
A system has nine characteristics:
• Components-----------Subsystems
• Interrelated components
• A boundary
• A purpose
• An environment
• Interfaces
• Input
• Output
• Constraints

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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
A COMPONENT
• an irreducible part or aggregation of parts that make up a
system. Each component contributes to the behavior of the
system it is in and is also affected by this system. System
behavior changes if any component is removed from the
system. The elements that make up the system can form
smaller systems among themselves. These are called
subsystems.

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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
A COMPONENT

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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
INTERRELATIONSHIP
• Relationships form the structure of the system in dynamic
systems, and the general behavior produced by the system is
a result of these relationships.
• Relationship types are different. Relationships can be
mathematical in the form of equality or inequality between
two numbers, logical such as a computer program, structural
such as the distance between components, spatial such as
the distance between the workbenches in the workshop,
temporal such as early, late, before, after, and causal such as
cause and effect relationship. Relationships between
components are effective in making the system useful and
serving the purpose.
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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
BOUNDARY
• The line that marks the inside and outside of a system and
that sets off the system’s environment. In order for the
system to pursue its own goals, it must have a boundary that
forces outside the system cannot penetrate easily.

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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
PURPOSE
• The overall goal or function of a system.

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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
ENVIRONMENT
• Everything
external to a
system that
interacts with the
system.

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The relationship of the enterprise as a system with its external
environment
In the period from the industrial revolution to the present, the effect of the
environment on the business has been considered in different ways and
some models have been put forward.

In the influence model, in which the environment is accepted as a passive

element, it is thought that the enterprise will affect the environment, and
the environment is an ineffective factor on the structure and functioning of
the enterprise.

In the adaptation model, it is emphasized that the business should

harmonize its activities and structure with the expectations of the external
environment.

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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
INTERFACE
• Point of contact where a system meets its environment or
where subsystems meet each other.
• The output becomes the input of the other system without
any changes in the interface.
• Let's say a customer is shopping on an e-commerce site.
These are two separate systems. When the e-commerce site
sends the relevant product to the customer with the cargo
company, the cargo company creates an interface between
these two separate systems.
• In another example, the interface of two computer systems
can sometimes be a cable line or sometimes a wireless data
communication line.
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SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
INPUT
• A limit to what a system can accomplish.
OUTPUT
• Whatever a system returns from its environment in order to
fulfill its purpose.

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OPEN SYSTEM
• Systems that interact with their environment.
• Practically most of the systems are open
systems.
• An open system has many interfaces with its
environment.
• It can also adapt to changing environmental
conditions.
• It can receive inputs from, and delivers output
to the outside of system.
• As the environment influence the system, the
system also influences the environment.

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CLOSED SYSTEM
• A system that is cut off from its environment
and does not interact with it.
• Closed systems exist in usually concept only.

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SYSTEM BEHAVIOUR
Behaviour is a system's performance over time -its growth, stagnation,
decline, oscillation, randomness, or evolution.

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