This is a technical post, so Julian Assange fans can tune out. I’m actually writing about source code management for Vensim models.
Occasionally procurements try to treat model development like software development. That can end in tragedy, because modeling isn’t the same as coding. However, there are many common attributes, and therefore software tools can be useful for modeling.
One typical challenge in model development is version control. Model development is iterative, and I typically go through fifty or more named model versions in the course of a project. C-ROADS is at v142 of its second life. It takes discipline to keep track of all those model iterations, especially if you’d like to be able to document changes along the way and recover old versions. Having a distributed team adds to the challenge.
The old school way