[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Systems Thinking episode #4: DSRP

## Details

**Authors** Flemm

**Year** 2020

**Publisher** d.c.m.e. (Dutch agile consultancy blog), final post in a five-part series

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Business & Management

**Kind of engagement** reach

[Read it](https://www.dcme.nu/systems-thinking-episode-4-dsrp/)

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

Flemm explored how DSRP can be used by Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and managers to understand complex adaptive organizations and solve difficult organizational problems. He presents DSRP as the set of simple rules underlying systems thinking and applies each pattern to practical examples from Scrum, teamwork, organizational pressure, and problem solving.

### What they found (results)

Works through worked examples (Scrum role definitions as distinctions, choosing team vs. organisation as the system boundary, a Sales–Scrum relationship treated as an entity with parts) to argue local optimisations follow from picking the wrong part–whole level.

## Commentary

### In short

Teaches DSRP to Scrum Masters and agile coaches, mapping each pattern onto concrete team dysfunctions and framing DSRP as the missing tool for building useful causal loop diagrams.

### In more detail

This is an explanatory practitioner article, not an empirical study. Flemm describes his own effort to deepen his understanding of systems thinking after finding traditional tools such as causal-loop diagrams difficult to apply effectively outside the classroom. He explains DSRP one pattern at a time and uses workplace scenarios to demonstrate how changing distinctions, system boundaries, relationships, and perspectives can alter the way a problem is understood. Examples include examining whether a poorly functioning team should be treated at the level of an individual, the team, or the larger organization; analyzing the relationship between Sales and Scrum teams as a system in its own right; and deliberately shifting among customer, employee, efficiency, emotional, competitor, and other perspectives. The article is therefore primarily a practical demonstration of how DSRP can structure analysis of complex organizational problems.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**Added** 2026-08-15

**How to cite this** Flemm (2020). Systems Thinking episode #4: DSRP. d.c.m.e. (Dutch agile consultancy blog), final post in a five-part series.