Reference Behaviour Modes

The graphs representing changes over time of each of the important variables are the reference behaviour modes for the subsequent development of system dynamics models. They are the patterns over time that will be referred to again and again in the modelling effort. One test of the validity of a system dynamics model is its ability to reproduce the reference modes identified at the outset. Thus reference modes help to define a problem, they help to focus model conceptualisation, and they figure in the later validation stages of a system dynamics study (Richardson and Pugh, 1981: 21-22).