The Company Crayon. Mapping Skills: 7.3: Systematic approaches. 7: Giving structure to thinking 7.3: Systematic approaches Having a systematic step-by-step process for thinking about certain academic tasks can be particularly useful so that everything is done as efficiently as possible.
For example, the DANCE system (Rose and Nicholl, 1997) is one of many tools for solving problems. D - Define and clarify what the problem really is (sometimes it is not initially clear). What are your goals? A - Think of a range of alternative ways of solving the problem. N - Narrow down the range of possible solutions to leave the best. C - Choose the ideal solution and check what the consequences might be. E - Effect action using the best solution. Activity 15 Try using the DANCE technique on a problem from your course. Discussion. iLogos. Relevant Online Content. Relevant Online Content Find places where Issue Mapping, Dialogue Mapping™, IBIS, Compendium, Wicked Problems and many other related topics are discussed online.
Chris Chapman's blog on Derailleur Consulting There was an interesting discussion on the Intranet Professionals group on LinkedIn recently where Luc De Ruijter asked this question. Issue-Based Information System. To quote from their original paper, "Issue-Based Information Systems (IBIS) are meant to support coordination and planning of political decision processes.
IBIS guides the identification, structuring, and settling of issues raised by problem-solving groups, and provides information pertinent to the discourse... ". Subsequently, the understanding of planning and design as a process of argumentation (of the designer with himself or with others) has led to the use of IBIS as a Design rationale.[2] Overview[edit] The elements of IBIS are issues (or questions that need to be answered), each of which are associated with alternative positions (or possible answers).
These in turn are associated with arguments which support or object to a given position (or another argument). IBIS, dialogue mapping, and the art of collaborative knowledge creation « Eight to Late. Introduction In earlier posts I’ve described a notation called IBIS (Issue-based information system), and demonstrated its utility in visualising reasoning and resolving complex issues through dialogue mapping.
The IBIS notation consists of just three elements (issues, ideas and arguments) that can be connected in a small number of ways. Yet, despite these limitations, IBIS has been found to enhance creativity when used in collaborative design discussions. Given the simplicity of the notation and grammar, this claim is surprising, even paradoxical. The present post resolves this paradox by viewing collaborative knowledge creation as an art, and considers the aesthetic competencies required to facilitate this art. Knowledge art “One might think (as many in his day did) that he was betraying beauty, nature, and emotion by going in such an abstract direction.
Facilitating collaborative knowledge creation So, knowledge art requires a wide range of technical and non-technical skills. Summing up. Eight to Late. The one best-practice to rule them all – Part 4. Hi there Welcome to the fourth post in my series on how to deal with the true root cause of project failure. The first three posts were really to set the scene for this post where I will explain the basics of my craft for resolving some of this.
First up, I described my journey through the maze of of well known methodologies and best-practice standards, trying to make sense of a character known as “SharePoint vs Skype guy”. After seemingly taking one step back for every two steps forward, I finally found an area of research that I strongly identified with – the concepts and phenomena of wicked problems. I described how I have come to believe very strongly in the principle that understanding a problem comes from exploration of potential solutions, and that the act of exploring solutions will change your understanding of the problem. This sense-making process is utterly critical to project success. Hmm…Such a conundrum…Is there a way out? Issue Based Information System « Eight to Late. Note: This post is based on a presentation that I gave at BA World Sydney on 26th June.
It draws from a number of posts that I have written over the last few years. Introduction – the myth of rational decision making A central myth about decision making in organisations is that it is a rational process. The qualifier rational refers to decision-making methods that are based on the following broad steps: Identify available options.Develop criteria for rating options.Rate options according to criteria developed.Select the top-ranked option. Visualising arguments using issue maps – an example and some general comments « Eight to Late. The aim of an opinion piece writer is to convince his or her readers that a particular idea or point of view is reasonable or right.
Typically, such pieces weave facts , interpretations and reasoning into prose, wherefrom it can be hard to pick out the essential thread of argumentation. In an earlier post I showed how an issue map can help in clarifying the central arguments in a “difficult” piece of writing by mapping out Fred Brooks’ classic article No Silver Bullet. Note that I use the word “difficult” only because the article has, at times, been misunderstood and misquoted; not because it is particularly hard to follow. Still, Brooks’ article borders on the academic; the arguments presented therein are of interest to a relatively small group of people within the software development community.
Most developers and architects aren’t terribly interested in the essential difficulties of the profession – they just want to get on with their jobs. Figure 1: Issue Map Stage 1 Like this: Dialogue Map. Compendium Institute.