Mastering Complexity

5

Putting on My Shoes

Figure 5.1 shows a DSM spreadsheet for a familiar process, one we do every day—putting on our shoes. The marks below the DSM spreadsheet diagonal indicate, for instance, Get Socks must precede Put on Socks, and Get Shoes must precede Put on Shoes and Inspect Shoes. Reading across row 3, we see Put on Socks depends on Get Socks; reading across row 4, we see that Put on Shoes depends on Get Shoes and Put on Socks. Reading across row 2, we see Get Shoes depends on Inspect Shoes. Because this mark is above the diagonal, we make an assumption about this dependency and proceed without it. But, the mark above the DSM spreadsheet diagonal indicates that once we have inspected our shoes, we might find that they are scuffed or ...