A method for making sure that you have considered as many different
aspects of the problem situation as possible by asking six essential questions: Who?
What? When? Where? Why? and How?
Problem Context
This is the situation giving rise to the problem. It includes everything
about the situation. For example, if there are complaints about a restautant’s service
times, then the food preparation process, the layout of the store, the menu, the
customers, and everything else involved in placing and picking up an order can be
considered part of the problem context.
Communicative Context
This is an additional aspect of solving a problem that is often
ignored. The problem context describes the situation; the communicative context helps
one to understand the purpose and goals for solving the problem. Typically, this is
because your boss has contacted you and given you deadlines and goals for the project.
Observation
Either a person or some sort of mechanical process (or combination) records
the occurrence of some pertinent event, usually recorded in a format specially prepared
for this purpose, e.g. keeping tallies on a lined paper form or noting times in one-hour
blocks or an electric eye keeping tallies and times of the traffic flow through a gate.
Survey Questionnaire
A form (paper or electronic) filled out by customers, usually
requires some sort of short answer or circle (check mark) of possible responses, e.g.
Check: Male/Female; On a Likert scale of 1 (most liked) to 5 (least liked), circle one
of the following, etc.
Interview
Either structured (the interviewer asks all interviewees exactly the same
questions) or semi-structured (the interviewer asks each interviewee the same basic
questions but ”goes with the flow,” according to how the interviewee responds).
Structured interviews lend themselves most readily to quantitative analysis and often
are somewhat like a questionnaire, except they are usually longer and have certain
advantages, such as the interviewer making sure that all the questions are answered
and understood.
Archival Data
Data that is compiled from already-existing sources, e.g. company data
banks, government reports, or trade/industry tables that are available in print form,
on CDs or that can be downloaded from the web.
Timeline
A schedule of the events or tasks needed to complete a project along with the
length of time each task will require and, usually, the personnel needed for each task.
RFP
A request for a proposal. A business solicits proposals from other companies to
undertake a project. The business will evaluate all submitted proposals on a competitive
basis with regard to how well the proposals address the task or problem at hand and
at what cost. The business will then award a contract to the company submitting the
best proposal.