A Methodology for Simulation Development on the Basis of Cause-and-Effect Modeling in E-Commerce

Abstract—The optimal configuration of an e-commerce system is a complex problem. The objective of the research project SimProgno is therefore the development of several e-commerce simulations and the integration of these simulations in order to support the shop man-agers in their decision making process. The structured development of these simulations is a challenging task for a development team. In this paper, we address this problem and present the SimProgno methodology which is used for the simulation development. This method-ological framework is based on specific requirements of the research project and the e-commerce domain. Furthermore, we evaluate the methodology on the basis of its usage in the SimProgno project. Keywords-methodology; simulation; e-commerce; cause-and-effect modeling; development process; System Dynamics; agent-based simulation I