To determine system conditions, one must first look at the drivers. As the book states “they are analogous to the driver of a car” (Remington-Doucette 124). Meaning that they are just like the drivers of a car, whenever they drive, they drive forward or toward something. There are two main types of drivers like indirect and direct. Indirect means that it does not deal with the problem specifically, but still affects it somehow. Direct drivers are things that correlate directly to the problem itself and are driving it forward. There are the main types of changes in a problem and those are “critical transitions”. These are basically the “point of no return,” you cannot usually reverse these transitions, and they are very difficult to predict.

There is something called causal chain analysis which helps in finding solutions to problems. This just takes a larger look at the problem at hand, and finds the indirect and direct causes to a problem and the effect. There are also stakeholders in a problem as well. These are people who contribute to the problem, or the ones that are being affected by the problem. As the book states “identifying stakeholders is not a straightforward process.” There are many ways to know about stakeholders, but the main ones are interviews, or focus groups that think about the ways that a stakeholder operates. These include their values and beliefs, while also including their resources and technology.