DSMs and DMMs can then be used to model whole systems consisting of multiple domains, each having multiple elements, connected by various relationship types. This is called a Multiple Domain Matrix (MDM). MDM allows analyzing a system’s structure across multiple domains, condensing each single analysis into one DSM that represents multiple domains at a time. As especially the last DSM conferences have shown, matrix-based approaches integrating multiple views (“domains”) become more and more accepted to manage several perspectives onto a system, especially when it comes to large structures (e.g. >1000 elements per DSM). The figure below illustrates the concept of an MDM. It shows how an MDM basically is a DSM with more detailed DSMs along its diagonal and DMMs outside the diagonal. It also depicts how multiple relationship types create several representations of a specific submatrix of the overall MDM.
The organizational chart that is shown on the right hand side of the figure below shows how the people responsible for the different tasks are structured within the company. As the project team differs from the actual organizational setup, both representations are integrated into the MDM that now represents the whole system.
The Design Structure Matrix (DSM) 