Instructions - Part 13

Evaluate Your Solutions

In the last two sections, you've analyzed your objective data and subjective thoughts regarding your solutions. If you haven't found a superior solution yet, you should probably analyze the solutions that you do have for potential problems. You may also want to use our analytical evaluation techniques.

Potential Problems

Step 1:  Use Time Framed Consequences to observe the consequences of your solutions from different time frames.

Step 2:  Generate potential failures with Negative Brainstorming.

Step 3:  Analyze your solutions using Potential Problem Analysis.

Step 4:  Look for contradictions inherent in your solutions using Contradiction Analysis.

Step 5:  Assume that future outcomes have already happened and identify their impacts with What If? Analysis.

Step 6:  Assume an unlikely outcome has happened and determine its impacts with High Impact / Low Probability Analysis.

Step 7:  Use Pre-Mortem Analysis to assess how your plan could go spectacularly wrong.

Step 8:  Play the Devil's Advocate by presenting the best possible case against a proposed plan.

Analytical Evaluations

Step 9:  Evaluate the good, bad, and interesting points of your solutions with the Pros, Cons, and Interesting tool.

Step 10:  Rank your alternatives by comparing them in paired sets using Paired Comparison Analysis.

Step 11:  Use Grid Analysis to rank your alternatives.

Step 12:  Create a matrix for testing your hypotheses using the Hypothesis Testing Matrix tool.

Step 13:  Use the Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH) computer program to analyze multiple hypothesis.

Stakeholder Analysis

Step 14:  Examine the stakeholders involvement using Stakeholder Analysis.

Step 15:  Use a Commitment Chart to determine the minimum stakeholder commitment required to succeed.

Decision-Making Methods

Step 16:  Easy Way Out:  Choose the easiest way out, then justify it.

Step 17:  Spell Out the Reasons:  Choose each alternative, then justify it.

Step 18:  Give Up What?:  Choose each alternative, then knock it.

Step 19:  Ideal Solution:  Rank alternatives by their nearness to the ideal solution.

Step 20:  Best Home:  Examine the best home for each alternative.

Step 21:  When Does It Become Unattractive:  Find out when each alternative becomes unattractive.

Step 22:  Well-Being of the Whole:  Rank alternative by their contribution to the well-being of the whole.

Step 23:  Fear, Greed, and Laziness:  Examine the influences of fear, greed, and laziness on each of your alternatives.

Step 24:  Stand Pat:  Consider doing nothing.

Step 25:  Defer Decision:  Examine the reasons for deferring your decision.

Step 26:  Final Decision:  Make your final choice.

Go to the next step, click A Few Words on Implementation.

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