The Systems Engineering discipline teaches the concept of a feedback loop to monitor any process with the intent of taking corrective actions, as necessary.
There are many expressed variants of the concept that are being applied to design, construction, manufacturing, software, banking, and just about any discipline or industry that requires processes.
The concept when fully understood and applied, carries several implicit sub-concepts and nuances. Unfortunately the reduction of such into a single simple graphic has invariably yielded the loss of some significant portions of the concept.
The root concept is Design-Implement-Feedback and loop back. The implied sub-concepts are:
- The concept is fractal. Design, for example, does not normally occur in a vacuum. Some need is identified, analyzed, then a design is planned and implemented, with feedback that will help “tweak” the design.
- Identification and analysis are implied in most representations of the concept.
- Feedback aggregates tracking and controlling.
- The process is assumed to have completed before it loops back.
- The model assumes perfect communication.
