Complexity is perceived as an ever-present obstacle in almost every business. Especially in engineering design, the design of highly integrated systems, the management of densely interwoven process organizations, the adaptation of products and their variants to different markets, and the general management of dependencies that drive any system's behavior necessitate approaches that enable the smooth and efficient modeling, analysis and synthesis of appropriate solutions to working with such complexity.
On the other hand, complex systems can e.g. generate better functionalities, they can be made copy-proof, and they allow for innovations otherwise not possible. Therefore, if managed the right way, working with complex systems provides many opportunities to a business.
Dependency and Structure Modelling (DSM) originates from the methods that have come about from using the Design Structure Matrix and similar methods (matrix-based as well as graph based). These methods have proven very valuable in designing complex systems, optimizing technical systems and product architectures and organizations, densely networked processes and large market structures. With its ability to manage complexity by looking into the structure of a system, it has led to many other advances and methodologies nowadays.
The International Dependency and Structure Modelling (DSM) Conference is the annual forum to discuss, how complex systems can be managed by understanding, modeling and designing the dependencies in a complex system. During the conference, practitioners, academics and researchers, and software developers of DSM-related tools can exchange experiences, development results, trends, and develop new ideas to complexity management in all kinds of industries from different perspectives.
Please see the conference review of e.g. last year's conference for more details. For registered members, most papers from the past conferences are available on the community portal DSMweb.org.