SYSTEMS DEFINITIONS AND DERIVATION BASED ON STRUCTURAL DATA-FLOW MODELING

General systems definitions are often too vague or too prescriptively narrow for consistent, meaningful application by researchers across di sciplines. The lack of a common, functional system definition has tend ed to fragment systems research and slow the advancement and general a pplicability of general systems theory (GST) development. This paper s ubmits a general system definition based on a functional technique for dataflow diagramming (DFD) used in computer system analysis. This DFD -based definition illustrates added coherence and utility for deriving many kinds of systems at different research levels, and urges wider a doption and trial of the definition and modelling technique as a basis for systems research and GST theory testing.