Create your own model to understand complex things

I'm currently guiding some coworkers through the process of system analysis. I finally got permission to reengineer some descriptions we got from the UK and create a proper process model out of it. The nice thing about it is, I do not have to the boring detail work. I'm just there to explain the method, set some goals and help out when problems appear. Just like being an advisor for dissertations.

Btw, in case you want to hire me as advisor, just contact me ;)

There are some methodologies to turn information into knowledge and to use experience to turn knowledge into wisdom. I will just focus on turing information into knowledge within this post. There is a model by Probst et al. that describes what elements knowledge is based on. The thing I want to focus on is Systems Engineering. There are several books about that topic but I will provide you a super easy to remember methodology I learned from Haberfellner.

Start top-down - coarse grained to fine grained - but don't forget the details
I know that people want to start bottom-up because most of the information is provided in a very detailed manner. You will feel lost as soon as you want to get all the details in the beginning. On the other hand, you will have to run an endless amount of problem solving cycles when you just do top-down.

Use the big problem solving cycle
The problem solving cycle has four to seven steps, depending on the source. I like the big description best, because it include the top-down with details approach. By thinking about your problem, you can go up and down all levels without defining solutions. Do not ask any "How to ..." questions during the explore phase as they always lead to solutions and you don't want to be biased when defining your goals.

How does this help with creating a model? Well, you use the problem solving cycle to identify a problem that states something like "I need to represent [insert something here] visually on any detail level as model". And, as I said, you don't want to start at the bottom, as most of the time, there is too much information. Don't get biased by details but don't do the problem solving cycle over and over again because you didn't look into details before.

As a writer of scientific papers, I can make everything fit into everything by creating the right model. You should know that in case you need to work with a model you're not satisfied with. With a little bit of modeling experience, you can create a model that fits your needs and somehow reflects the provided model as well.