RE: [xml-dev] The Prophet of Unintended Consequences

["Costello,Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>]

Thanks for the link[1] to this article Len.  It was a good read.

I have a question regarding a comment you made with respect to this
article.  But first, let me summarize the article:

SUMMARY 

The article is a short biography of MIT Professor Jay Forrester and his
creation of the field of "system dynamics".  

System dynamics is a methodology for understanding a system and its
interdependencies by creating and simulating a computer model of the
system.  

Forrester notes that oftentimes corporate and government leaders make
decision based upon their own "mental models" of  how the world works.
Unfortunately, those mental models are typically simplistic, and do not
take into account all of the complex, interrelated forces.  As a
result, they make bad decisions.  

On the other hand, if those corporate and government leaders were to
create computer models that took into account the complex, interrelated
forces then they would be able to make much better decisions.

Forrester's lifelong goal is to "bring enough people across the barrier
separating their usual, simple, static viewpoint to a more
comprehensive understanding of dynamic complexity."

QUESTION

Len, in your original post you asserted that this article is "mandatory
for schema designers."  Would you please explain why you state this?
But let me preempt your explanation with what I presume to be the
reason for your statement (and you can correct me).

An XML Schema is a model of what data is needed by a system.  Just like
the above corporate and government leaders who make decisions based
upon their own simple mental model of the world, schema designers make
schemas based upon their own mental model of the system in which it
(the schema) will be used.

Leaders fail to take into account the complex interrelationships and
thus make bad decisions.  So too, schema designers fail to take into
account the complex interrelationships in a system and thus make poor
schemas.

The system dynamics approach would be to model the system and its
information, including all of the interrelationships.  From that
computer model and simulation would emerge indications of what the XML
Schema should contain.

Thus, the system dynamic's approach is to create XML Schemas after
creating and simulating computer models of the system.

Do I have it right Len?  Is this what you were hinting at?  /Roger


[1] http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/05308