Adequacy: What Makes a Simulation Good Enough?

We examine several notions of what makes a simulation adequate, i.e., good enough for application. Social simulations, or artificial societies, are complex systems that integrate data from multiple sources, model intricate behaviors and processes, and generate large amounts of data. Adequacy, thus, is a nuanced concept that has to be applied at every stage of the development of the simulation, from initial conceptualization to final use. We go through this process step by step, and suggest some best practices for developing adequate models, drawn from experience with developing large-scale social simulations in multiple domains.