Problem Solving...

• The starting point of every problem is the problem itself i.e. the way the problem is expressed. The Problem Statement. And, believe me, this is the most crucial part in solving any problem. A well stated problem could easily guide to an optimal solution while a poorly stated problem could lead you astray with no hope of return. So work on "Problem Restatement".Here is a story that tells the importance of "Problem Statement".
  
  A person had a water bed in his bedroom. One day as he woke up he found a puddle of water on his bed. He got a cello-tape from the drawer and started searching for the leak. He turned the bed upside down, looked carefully at the edges but could not locate the leak. Sensing that the light and the space was not adequate in his bedroom he decided to take the bed outside and continue his search. While lunging the bed outside he slipped, and the bed came down the stairs and hitting something pointed and tore near the edge. As this bed was useless he got a new one. But the next morning he found the same puddle. Then he realized that the leak was not because of the bed. On further research he found that the bathroom upstairs was leaking
  
  Here the mistake our protagonist did was to define the problem incorrectly. His problem statement was "How do I fix the leak?" Had he reworded, or rethought, his problem and said, "What's the source of water on my bed?" his approach, probably, would have been different. Mind you, a simple problem statement can work wonders looking into techniques of "Problem Restatement" lets look at the pitfalls in problem definition.
  1. No focus--definition too vague or broad.
  2. Focus is misdirected--definition is too narrow.
  3. Statement is assumption driven.
  4. Statement is solution driven.

Lets look and the solutions in the next post.....