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• An article by James Love on Convincing Others When You're Convinced
• and some Hints and Tips on using SIMUL8.

Convincing Others When You're Convinced by James Love

A number of our previous newsletters have demonstrated techniques to get the most value from SIMUL8. These have highlighted specific features within SIMUL8, as well as dealing with common steps in development such as identifying the question you are attempting to answer, managing data issues as well as debugging and testing your simulation.

Once the answer is a resounding ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Does the simulation meet its objectives?’, the tough bit begins of attempting to convince others of the results. This newsletter offers some learning points from consultancy work we have undertaken in the past on how best to handle this stage.

Get People Involved Early

In fact the earlier the better! Most projects have their mix of supporters, doubters, and opponents. First hint: identify who fits in to which category as each will require their own style of management.

Involving each of these groups at the very beginning of the process can make life throughout the project, and in presenting the results, a lot easier. Some of the most successful organizations we work with make a specific point of inviting all parties along to a Simulation Specification Meeting to agree the output required and ensure all parties interests and buy-in is assured.

Keep them updated as to progress

For shorter term projects it isn’t always practical to deliver formal reports, but even in these cases setting up a kick-off/goal meeting and then providing timely updates of progress can be useful. In our experience much of this is simple stakeholder management, but you can also get some interesting feedback, generating discussion and interest, helping to convert potential opponents in to supporters.

Allow all to contribute to building the simulation

OK, this is risky. Allowing everyone to throw their thoughts at you can get confusing, even provide contradiction, and potentially generate more work in building the simulation. However, the benefit of allowing each stakeholder to feel they have contributed, and dealing with objections and contradictions as the project evolves, means that the presentation of results will be focused on the output, conclusions and potential actions, rather than on the detail of the input.

This stage of the process is best carried out independently, on a one-to-one basis, although potentially time consuming it will reap its rewards. SIMUL8 Professional can save some time in this by allowing you to distribute the simulation via the Free Viewer, particularly useful for keeping the supporters on side whilst you mange the opponents face-to-face.

Present a convincing and credible conclusion

To present as few obstacles as possible to your conclusion being accepted its crucial to present your simulation in a professional manner. Professionalism comes both from how your simulation looks and also how you communicate it to others.

Our newsletters of January and February 2005, highlighted ways to present appealing Graphical Simulations. When choosing a style its important to remember your audience. High level decision makers will probably prefer a simplified overview display, perhaps in the style of a flowchart. Those closer to the process will probably prefer a more real life animated display.

Again, depending on your audience different levels of detail will be most appropriate. Many high level decision makers do not want to know the intrinsic detail of the Visual Logic involved or the inputs being used. Whilst analyst may wish to understand every aspect of the simulation. It's best to work out a script to present your simulation.This way you can work out in advance the right level of detail and the most clear way to demonstrate the key learning points from the simulation. See our newsletter on Presenting Your Simulations for some SIMUL8 features that can help.

The relevant importance of each of the above stages is really down to the culture of the organization you work within, the organization’s experience of the benefits of simulation and your particular style of working. However, in our experience, at least considering each of these points should help deliver even more successful simulations in the future.

Hints and Tips

• If you want to show animation entering or leaving a Sub Window place Dummy Work Centers just behind the Sub Window and make them invisible.
• To create animation for a Sub Window use Display+ to display images based on certain conditions.
• To display a count of how many work items are in a Sub Window create a variable called var_count. In the On Exit Visual Logic section of the last work center before work enters the Sub Window increment the count by 1. In the last Work Center before work leaves the Sub Window decrease it by one. Then use the Visual Data drawing object to display this onscreen.

Download this example simulation to see these tips in action.