Customizing Business Simulations: An Exploration and a Hierarchy

Abstract

Developing a new business simulation is a time consuming and hence costly task. A way to speed development and reduce cost is to customize an existing simulation. Here the ways an existing simulation was customized to create three new versions and three totally new business simulations are described. The case study simulations are used to propose and illustrate a customization hierarchy that consists of two parts – micro customization where a new version of the original simulation is created and macro customization where a new simulation is created. The reasons that drive the need to customize are described and the software aspects that ease and support customization are explored.