Thinking holistically
Definition of holistic
Relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts (© 2020 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated)
Systems thinking provides a way to untangle the complexity caused by the stochastic impacts of interrelated elements within a system. Stochastic is a mathematical term that simply means the elements that are measured—in this case, the components of our product development and organizational systems are subject to the whims of seemingly random variables. The term elements includes anything that can impact the system or be impacted by other elements within the system. In other words, elements are the parts that make up a system.
System complexity increases exponentially with the number of elements involved in the system. The mathematical expression for such growth is n(n-1)/2. Figure 4.1 is a graph that shows the exponential growth in system connections...