Secondary Links

The Secondary Links feature is used primarily in situations where mapping of secondary relationships is necessary for effective decision making or understanding of the situation. Secondary Links are useful when it is obvious that the inclusion of an additional type of relationship will be helpful in understanding the problem or it will aid in the design of the solution. It offers the user a single pass problem solving structure where the situational complexity is high.

The Secondary Links feature allows you to enhance the analysis and decision making process by including additional relationship information on your Model. This additional set of links can (and should) have a different meaning than the primary relationship (as defined by the Relation Phrase) being analyzed. Up to three color coded secondary link meanings are available, corresponding to the three secondary link colors (red, green, & blue). The user must associate a meaning to the links. (For additional details please refer to the ConceptStar Uer Manual version 3).

• The Secondary Link feature is available for all 3 Relationship Modeling tools (ISM, LIM, PID).
• Up to 3 concurrent secondary relationships can be mapped during a session.
• It is recommended that in a group session, secondary relationships only be included when absolutely necessary in order to avoid complicating the decision making process.

Mars Rover Testing Strategy using PID and 2 secondary links

The following example shows the use of Pairwise Interrelational Diagraph (PID) used with secondary links to design the test strategy for the mars Rover. the blue secondary links are defined as control signalling, the red arrows show the power distribution to the sub-systems. (Rover picture courtsey NASA)

The relation phrase used was:

...testing will significantly help to test