Functional Resonance Analysis: Diagramming Your System
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Nobody’s system works exactly the way they think it does. On top of that, systems of people and software are constantly changing, resulting in a regular need to update our limited understanding of how things actually work - where the sources of our success are, where our risks are, and how things behave.
The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) is one way to study complex systems. It models them in terms of their functions, dependencies, and interactions - identifying variance in function outputs (which can be good too!) instead of a “success/failure” paradigm. This approach allows for a better understanding of how systems work and - importantly - how they interact.