Simulation Software Characteristics: An Integrated Framework and the Users' Perspective

Abstract

Simulation is a powerful method for measuring and predicting the effect of changes to a process without disrupting and committing actual resources. Currently, a great variety of simulation software packages have been developed to aid practitioners during their simulation study. Each of these packages has its own strengths and weaknesses depending on the domain of the simulation study. Therefore, it is important to gain insight into the desirable characteristics of simulation tools. In literature, various studies have been devoted to constructing evaluation frameworks, establishing important features, and the comparison of such tools. However, only limited research has been conducted on the integration of simulation software features described in literature into a framework and its validation by practitioners. This paper presents such an integrated framework and the results of interviews with simulation practitioners about the most important characteristics of simulation software packages and innovative functionalities which are currently not included in these tools.