bottom up
Starting from below
Bottom up describes an approach that starts with details, components, or lower levels and builds toward a larger whole.
In organizations, bottom-up initiatives originate with employees rather than management: The policy change came bottom up, from the factory floor.
In analysis, bottom-up reasoning assembles conclusions from individual data points.
The opposite is top down.
- from scratchStarting with nothing prepared
- decentralizedLacking single authority
- shop floorIndustrial production workspace
- inductiveDeriving general from particular
- constructivistBeliever in built understanding
ground up · data aggregation · experiential · grassroots · grass roots · boots on the ground · detail-oriented · emergent · swarm intelligence · community organizing · self-organizing · iterative · local governance · foundational · participatory democracy · incremental · build up · modular
bottom uptop down
From highest to lowest
top-down · centralized · hierarchical · directed · imposed
bottom uptop down
From highest to lowest
top-down · deductive · holistic · big-picture · conceptual