A MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE FLOW OF DATA IN A MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM, VOLUME 1

Abstract : Previous work in the formulation of a matrix model for the flow of data in a management information system is extended to include three additional types of systems phenomena. These are: (a) data filtering, both conditional and unconditional, (b) internally generated items of data, and (c) the semantic relation of denotation among items of data. The concept of macro-model analysis vs. micro-model analysis is introduced. Methods are given for solving the models for either the number of paths connecting inputs to outputs or for complete specification of all such paths.