Systems Thinking Module

What is the point of this?

— Wife

Overview

The idea behind this module is that it uses a text based DSL (created with ANTLR4) to describe a Systems Thinking diagram. It then does the following things:

Produces an image representing the text in png format
The source for the image in DOT format (Graphviz)
Analyses the text and looks for:
- Cycles which represent loops and thus archetypes
- The number of:
  - Calls in (per entity)
  - Calls out (per entity)
  - Number of positive influences
  - Number of negative influences
  - What other entities are affected by this entity

I will upload the source once it is a bit more 'polished'

Usage

This program is designed to be used as a stand alone component or as a plugin into a program like AsciidocFX

Input into program

The grammar of the input looks like this:

originator affects recipient ':' description \n

Table 1. Grammar description
Key	Description
originator	Thing causing the action
affects	Either + or - ( "+" means adds to, "-" means takes away from)
recipient	Thing being affected
description	Description of the event

Example input file

This is a random made up example (Gemma is a dog if you are wondering…)

Steve + Karen : Walk
Steve - Gemma : Swim
Steve + Robert : Gaming
Karen - Georgie : Clean room
Karen + Steve : Hello
Gemma - Dog : Bark
Dog - Steve : Bite
Steve - Dog : Shout
Georgie + Steve : Swim
Robert + Georgie : Play Games
Karen + Robert : Books
Karen + Georgie : Food
Karen + Gemma : Feed
Georgie - Karen : Grumpy

Output

Image output

Analysis

Cycles detected:
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Karen  ->  Georgie
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Karen
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Karen  ->  Robert  ->  Georgie
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Karen  ->  Gemma  ->  Dog
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Gemma  ->  Dog
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Robert  ->  Georgie
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Robert  ->  Georgie  ->  Karen
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Robert  ->  Georgie  ->  Karen  ->  Gemma  ->  Dog
    Cycle : Steve  ->  Dog
    Cycle : Karen  ->  Georgie
    Cycle : Karen  ->  Robert  ->  Georgie

Entity analysis:
    Karen : out:5 in:2 positive:4 negative:1
        recipients:Georgie  ,  Steve  ,  Robert  ,  Georgie  ,  Gemma
    Steve : out:4 in:3 positive:2 negative:2
        recipients:Karen  ,  Gemma  ,  Robert  ,  Dog
    Georgie : out:2 in:3 positive:1 negative:1
        recipients:Steve  ,  Karen
    Robert : out:1 in:2 positive:1 negative:0
        recipients:Georgie
    Gemma : out:1 in:2 positive:0 negative:1
        recipients:Dog
    Dog : out:1 in:2 positive:0 negative:1
        recipients:Steve

Image source in DOT format

@startdot
digraph foo {
size="6,6";
node [color=lightblue2, style=filled];
    "Steve" -> "Karen" [label="Walk",color="black"];
    "Steve" -> "Gemma" [label="Swim",color="red"];
    "Steve" -> "Robert" [label="Gaming",color="black"];
    "Karen" -> "Georgie" [label="Clean room",color="red"];
    "Karen" -> "Steve" [label="Hello",color="black"];
    "Gemma" -> "Dog" [label="Bark",color="red"];
    "Dog" -> "Steve" [label="Bite",color="red"];
    "Steve" -> "Dog" [label="Shout",color="red"];
    "Georgie" -> "Steve" [label="Swim",color="black"];
    "Robert" -> "Georgie" [label="Play Games",color="black"];
    "Karen" -> "Robert" [label="Books",color="black"];
    "Karen" -> "Georgie" [label="Food",color="black"];
    "Karen" -> "Gemma" [label="Feed",color="black"];
    "Georgie" -> "Karen" [label="Grumpy",color="red"];
overlap=false
fontsize=12;
}
@enddot