[Re-post from dm_misc]
I just finished reading a fascinating book titled, The Thinker’s Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving, by Morgan D. Jones. The book is not new – my version was copyrighted in 1998 – but still a great read. After an interesting look at how your brain is your own worst enemy when it comes to decision making, Jones lays out 14 techniques (with examples and exercise) to help you make better decisions and overcome your brain’s bad habits. Some of these techniques are things you already do and didn’t even know had a name or a formal formulation, like Problem Restatement, Pros-Cons-Fixes, or Devil’s Advocacy. Others you may not have heard of, like Causal Flow Diagramming, Utility Trees, or Weighted Rankings. Either way, by the end of each chapter you have a good feel for the class of problems each technique is best used for, and how to apply the technique.
Jones’ big thing is structuring and sorting data so you (i.e., your brain) can analyze it more clearly and systematically. What struck me as I read through the techniques and examples, was how many problems I have encountered in my career in the information management industry where I wish I had used these techniques. I was able to map some of these techniques to three specific classes of “problems” I have encountered: innovation and requirements development, software feature ranking, and logic diagramming. Let me give you a few examples:
Innovation and Requirements Development
Developing innovative ideas and requirements tend to be creative processes where there are no “wrong” ideas, and the more ideas the better. This process often requires thinking “outside the box”, which are qualities of Divergent-Convergent Thinking. Jones lays out four principles to help you think outside the box:
- The more ideas, the better! (Quantity of quality at this stage.)
- Build one idea upon another (Use the synergy of ideas to propel creativity.)
- Wacky ideas are okay (In fact, some become the best and most interesting ideas.)
- Don’t evaluate ideas (This occurs later. Don’t squash creativity at this stage.)
When you are done, cluster and combine similar ideas, throw out the outliers that clearly don’t fit, and select the most practical and promising ideas.
Software Feature Ranking
In Agile development, it is important to select and rank features for inclusion in each Sprint. The selection and ranking can often get muddled without clear objectives for each Sprint, but even then it is sometimes difficult to be objective. The Weighted Ranking technique can solve this problem by helping you develop clear objectives and assigning importance (weight) to them. Then, each software feature is systematically compared to every other software feature (ranking), weights applied, and objective importance is revealed. This technique ensures all features are ranked using the same criteria (objectives), each criteria is given consistent importance (weight), and each feature is compared to every other feature.
The actual implementation of the Weighted Ranking technique is a little more involved than the description implies and will probably require the use of a spreadsheet, but the book walks through all the steps with examples and exercises.
Logic Diagramming
Documenting decision-making logic in software design documentation is always a challenge. Sometimes it is even a challenge to document it in a way that it can be discussed and explored during the design phase of software development. Thus, a consistent and easy to use and understand methodology is important represent ideas and logic flows. Though Scenario Trees and Causal Flow Diagramming are really decision making techniques, they can be used to document the logic behind decisions also. The Scenario Tree is just like it sounds: it is a branch diagram which depicts different outcomes at each decision point in a chain of events. It is easy to develop if-then-else, Boolean, or case statement logic from the finished Scenario Tree. The Causal Flow Diagram technique uses a similar approach, but from the perspective of cause-effect relationships instead of decisions at each decision point in the chain of events. It identifies and diagrams direct effects, inverse effects, and feedback loops (both stable and unstable). This type of diagramming may be more applicable for system-level modeling than working out nuances of a single logic case like the Scenario Tree. Regardless, these techniques provide a simple and consistent methodology for the decomposition and discussion of logic events.
Like the Weighted Ranking technique, the book describes the techniques in detail with plenty of examples and exercises.
Jones’ background is Intelligence, not software or information management technology, so none of the mappings I just described exist in the book. However, I think the fact that the techniques map easily to the information management realm speaks of their worthiness. I encourage you to pick a copy of The Thinker’s Toolbox to learn about all 14 techniques. It is an interesting read and may very well change the way you approach problem-solving, no matter your background or industry.
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