Tool Description
DSMEditor was written as an alternative method to Excel for creating DSMs. The application makes it
much easier to create and modify DSMs by automatically managing element names, their background
color for clustering, their connections, and their ordering. With a simple click of a button, any of these
fields can be updated without users needing to modify cells individually. DSMEditor saves time and
allows for better management of DSMs.
Field of application
As a general-purpose tool, DSMEditor allows for highly configurable DSMs that can be used in a wide
range of applications. The supported matrix types are Multi-Domain, Symmetric, and Asymmetric.
Users can pick one of these options to allow for different functionality that corresponds to their
intended use of the matrix. Adding to the configurability, very few restrictions are placed on users with
respect to what data they are required to input for elements, connections, or groupings. At its core,
DSMEditor is a specialized version of Excel with extra functionality to make it easier to view, edit, and
analyze complex DSMs.
Description of Supported tasks (for main description – max. ten lines of text in Arial 10pt)
DSMEditor allows users to enter elements into a matrix which can then be clustered by user-defined
groupings.
Main features
● Multiple DSM types: Multi-Domain, Symmetric, and Asymmetric
● Export to various formats: CSV, Excel, and PNG
● Functionality to easily configure elements and their order, domains, groupings, and connections
● Propagation Analysis
Supported use cases
● Creating DSMs for a variety of applications including describing system architecture, form-function
mapping, process flow, etc.
● Visualizing different interfaces in a DSM
● Sorting and clustering DSMs
● Analyzing change propagation in DSMs
● Performing research on DSMs through exporting to CSV or Excel
● Open source platform to extend for future research into new DSM analysis techniques
Contact
Aiden Carney
ajcarney314+dsmeditor@gmail.com
David Carney
dtcarney@runbox.com
The Design Structure Matrix (DSM) 