A structured methodology to build discrete-event simulation models

Simulation, a powerful tool for problem solving and decision making, involves complex systems analysis and management activities. A key for conducting a successful simulation project is to have a model that can facilitate problem structuring, improve communication among personnel within the problem domains and smoothly translate a system into programs. However, the building of simulation models has long been considered an art rather than a science, and there is no systematic approach. In this paper we shall discuss how Yourdon’s structured methodology, a systematic framework in developing large-scale systems, can be adapted to build simulation models. We shall demonstrate how the adapted methodology can facilitate problem structuring through modeling the environment of a system, improve communication between modelers and end-users by simple graphical modeling tools, and derive and analyze a system systematically by the event-partitioning approach. More importantly, we shall show how a system can gradually be translated into simulation models that can easily be understood, validated and implemented.