Functional Analysis Systems Technique (F.A.S.T.) as a Group Knowledge Elicitation Method for Model Building

摘要

Information gathering is the most important and often the most difficult phase of dynamic system model building. Many methods have been proposed to elicit knowledge from systems experts. Most modelers avoid the social and political barriers found in group elicitation and have focused on various interviewing techniques. If properly employed, group elicitation can be an effective and extremely efficient method to get the necessary knowledge to analyze and model a system. This paper discusses the use of the Functional Analysis Systems Technique (F.A.S.T.) diagramming method as a tool for eliciting knowledge during the information-gathering phase of the modeling process.