Top-down vs. bottom-up process improvement

An actor-model based bottom-up simulation — An experiment on Indian demonetisation initiative

“…We extended a well-known modelling method (Sargent 2005) with the concept of a bottom up approach for developing a conceptual model (Thomas et al 1994). We built further on the notion of actor model for organisations (Hewitt 2010) to come up with an executable/simulatable model.…”

“…Data-centric approach makes use of sophisticated AI algorithms over past data to predict future consequences of a course of action. The model-centric approaches come in two categories namely top-down or bottom-up (Thomas et al 1994). Top-down approach considers a reductionist view (Beckermann et al 1992) wherein global state and overall system behaviour contribute to conceptualise a system.…”

“…The behaviour of the entire enterprise is not known (and hence it cannot be specified) but emerges through the interactions of constituent elements. These inherent characteristics motivated us to use actor model (Hewitt 2010) as modeling abstraction, the bottom up approach as a design method (Thomas et al 1994), and actor based simulation as analysis technique. Next section proposes a modelling approach to systematically construct an experimental model (i.e., a synthetic environment) to study demonetisation.…”

“…Our modelling approach to construct a synthetic environment for demonetisation adopts a three-step process suggested by Robert Sargent (Sargent 2005) to construct a machine interpretable model in a systematic manner, refines the process step with introduction of bottom up modeling approach (Thomas et al 1994) to include diversified population behaviour, and leverages a form of actor based modelling abstraction (Hewitt 2010) capable of specifying emergent behaviour. We augment the actor abstraction with the philosophy of known and unknown (Rumsfeld 2011) to cater to specification of uncertainty (Conrath 1967).…”

ESL: An Actor-Based Platform for Developing Emergent Behaviour Organisation Simulations

“…Specification and analysis of complex systems can be approached top-down or bottom-up [11]. A top-down approach conceptualises a system using a global state and the behaviour represented using an aggregated macro-behaviour of the system elements.…”