TABLE 1

FROM:

A Methodology for Learning from System Failures and its Application to Pc Server Maintenance

Takafumi Nakamura and Kyoichi Kijima

Table 1. Overview of existing structural methodologies

	Decision dynamic model analysis (DEMATEL)	Interpretive structural modeling (ISM)	Hayashi's quantification theory type III	Cognitive mapping	Soft systems methodology (SSM)
Element features	Can be defined quantitatively	Ambiguous but qualitative	Ambiguous but qualitative	Ambiguous and complex	Ambiguous and complex
System structure	Model is difficult to modify once created (black box)	Model is very flexible and easy to modify. Causal relationships of elements can be defined. Possible to measure relationship quantitatively	Enables quantification of the qualitative elements, as well as grouping and visualization	Enables analysis of cognitive structure based on causal chain	Enables structuring of a problem from the gap between the ideal and real world (current status)
Purpose	To determine numeric values (i.e. optimal values or estimates)	To clarify the relationship between factors	To extract the main factors behind complex symptoms	Decision-making related to social problems	To provide a link to the problem-solving management layers
Applications	Systems in which the causal relationships can be defined quantitatively	Systems that include human processes and for which causal relationships cannot be defined quantitatively	Groups of symptoms	Complex social systems. Political decisions	All human processes
Ability to manage emergent properties	—	—	—	—
Related literature	Developed by Battell Geneva Institute in the 1970s (Warfield, 1976)	Developed by Warfield in the 1970s (Sage, 1977; Warfield, 1976, 1980)	Developed by Hayashi in the 1950s (Hayashi, 1952; Gifi, 1990; Greenacre, 1984, 1993; Van de Geer, 1993)	Cognitive mapping techniques have been widely used in strategic management and political science to depict and explore cognitive structures of organization members (Huff, 1990)	Developed by Checkland in the 1970s (Checkland and Scholes, 1990; Jackson, 2003; Kijima, 1997)