Information Requirements for Systems Understanding

Some significant ways are discussed for describing or identifying systems and systems concepts so that less information is needed to understand them and this information can be communicated more quickly. The three major categories, structure, names of distinguishing qualities, and magnitude, probability, and time, identify the similarities and differences between various systems. Emphasis is put on the possibility that parts of these various systems may be sufficiently similar for detailed and authentic work on one system to be of value for another system. With the advent of large multiprocessing computers, such characteristics may result in more efficient use of hardware and software.