A Taste of OPM

Abstract

Imagine that an intelligent, friendly extra-terrestrial creature has just landed on planet Earth, without any prior knowledge of earthly physical and societal systems. Trying to figure out what his senses are telling him and how to construct a model of the surrounding reality, this creature is in a situation not unlike that of a human system developer, who is beginning to evolve a new system in an unfamiliar domain. Lacking sufficient knowledge about the domain that hosts the system and its environment, the analyst must start with an arbitrary collection of facts. The collected observations are not overly refined nor are they extremely abstract. The knowledge and understanding of the system is gradually improved through activities such as observing the current state of affairs and practices, inquiring, interviewing professionals in the field, and reading relevant documents.

…We’re limited only by our imaginations and what we think we can make computers do. Ben Kovitz (1998)