The goal of simulation is to produce a number of synthetic datasets, where the outcomes are a function of the known regression coefficients. I would like to know if my reasoning behind creating synthetic data is valid.

The steps involved are: <br/>
STEP 1: Based on the true (observed) data, fit GLM (e.g., gamma family). <br/>
STEP 2: Make a synthetic predictors. <br/>
STEP 3: Based on the output from STEP 2 and the *fitted* or *predict* function in R, obtain the expected outcome. <br/>
STEP 4: Based on the expected outcome, get the estimated shape and scale parameters (based on E(X) and Var(X)). <br/>
STEP 5: Obtain simulated outcome using the *rgamma* function in R. <br/>
STEP 6: Combine the output from STEP 5 and the synthetic predictors from STEP 2 to obtain the full simulated data. 

In this manner, I am able to generate a synthetic dataset with the same dimension as the true (observed) dataset. However, I am wondering if this is a right way and if I can (or need to) remove STEP 4 - 6.