Books

Shahla Ghobadi's first book, System Dynamics: An Application of Systems Thinking, was first published in February 2007. The book was written with the aim of making systems thinking accessible to students and professionals, helping readers understand complexity, improve decision-making, and analyse the behaviour of interconnected systems. The book remained in continuous publication, reaching the seventh edition by 2015. The book introduced systems thinking and system dynamics to Persian-speaking students, researchers, and practitioners, and became a widely used reference in universities. Inspired by Russell Ackoff's vision of integrating Eastern and Western approaches to systems thinking, the book explains the fundamental concepts of systems thinking before introducing System Dynamics as a method for understanding, modelling, and managing complex systems. Using practical examples, the book demonstrates how dynamic systems can be analysed through causal loop diagrams, stock-and-flow models, and computer simulation. It also includes an appendix introducing the Vensim modelling software, enabling readers to build and simulate their own system dynamics models.