System dynamics requires the intense use of qualitative data and human judgment in all stages of model development. Most approaches to the formal inclusion of qualitative data have been employed with the purpose of knowledge elicitation during the conceptualization or formulation stages of modeling. In recent years, a small community of practice has explored the creation of interviewing tools to assess system dynamics models. We present the disconfirmatory assessment interview as a specific technique to be used during model assessment. This paper explores the use of interviews as a research and knowledge acquisition technique and more fully describes disconfirmatory assessment as an interview strategy. Based on a comparison of four applications of disconfirmatory interviews as a tool to assess system dynamics models, we present seven features that should form the core of the disconfirmatory interview. Copyright © 2012 System Dynamics Society.

The authors present an interactive simulation model on which the academic aspects of university management can be analyzed and alternative management strategies tested. The model focuses specifically on long-term, dynamic, strategic management problems, such as growing student/faculty ratios, poor teaching quality, and low research productivity. It yields numerous performance measures about the fundamental activities in a university: teaching, research, and professional project activities. Results suggest that the university management game (UNIGAME) promises to be a useful technology to support strategic decision making and a laboratory for theoretical research on how to best deal with strategic university management problems.

We propose that XML should be used as an interchange language for system dynamics models and we have designed and implemented a demonstration that we call XMILE. We believe that there will be many benefits for the system dynamics community in developing a full-scale interchange language. This paper discusses the motivation factors behind the idea of developing an interchange language for system dynamics models, and explains why XML is a good candidate framework. An initial implementation of XMILE is also presented along with initial findings about its applicability to models built on various system dynamics software platforms.

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We analyze the dynamics of the Open Source Software (OSS) movement and its impact on the proprietary software world, particularly its dominant player, Microsoft. We contend that OSS is here to stay, and that it has a capacity to outperform (at least in some markets) even the monopolistic market leader on the basis of superior and more numerous resources as well as more effective processes. Accelerated software development processes yield shortened time-to-market/time-to-user cycles. We use System Dynamics computer modeling for capturing feedback mechanisms and nonlinear dynamics inherent in this system of (market and other) forces. We conclude that Internet-based, large-scale intellectual collaborations lead over time to broader, deeper, and more rapidly attained results than closed, small-scale, and profit-oriented R&D undertakings in some areas of the software sector. We predict that the dominance of the market leader will erode in the not too distant future.

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