How to see simplicity from a complex system?

Continuation from yesterday's topic. So we know that a complex system is a composition  of multiple simple systems. How to identify them and split the whole system into small pieces. I'm going to emphasis on software system.

Understanding the magnitude of complexity
There should be a start and an end. If we look any system, first observation would be where it is starting and where it is ending. It is like travel between two cities, if you want to travel from Chicago to San Jose, you have to travel approximately 2000 miles. The magnitude of complexity is directly proportion to length of starting and end point. If a system involves so many integration with other system then obviously the system's complex is high.

Chopping complex into simple solutions
This is the most tough job. Our understanding of complex system relies on how good we are chopping into simple workable solutions. The above travel example can be used here also, if we want to end up in San Jose, We have to cross so many cities in between, since a simple solution steps are route between 
Step 1 : Chicago to Omaha, 
Step 2 : Omaha to Denver, 
Step 3 : Denver to Salt Lake City 
Step 4 : Salt Lake City to San Jose. 

So this intermittent cities are going to be our simple solution to go San Jose. Our concentration should be understanding these simple routes first, step by step, to understand the whole complex system.

Presenting Complex Systems
Now the final part of presenting complex system to others, so they need not go through above exercises. When ever we present a complex system, we need to draw as much as diagrams. If we just type a 450 pages of document, no body going to read it all, concise explanation with diagrams are more than enough to understand. One good thing is, if the system is real complex, we can write separate documents for each steps identified from chopping complex into simple solutions. We can present one by one to consumers to digest information one at a time. 

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