Problem Analysis

1. S1 Business
Prasetiya Mulya Business School

2. PROBLEM ANALYSIS

3. What’s the best way to define or specify a
problem?
What are the “right” questions to ask?
How should you go about isolating and verifying
the cause of the problem?

4. “PROBLEM ANALYSIS”
EXPLAIN A DEVIATION
IDENTIFY
SHOULD - ACTUAL
SPECIFY
IS & IS NOT DATA
INVESTIGATE
DISTINCTIONS & CHANGES
TESTING
EXPLAIN IS AND IS NOT
VERIFY
LOGIC AND REALITY

5. PROBLEM ANALYSIS
Provides the skills needed to explain
any situation in which an expected
level of performance is not being
achieved and in which the cause of the
unacceptable performance is unknown

6. ELEMENTS IN COMMON
•Every problem is based on a discrepancy
•Each has its own distinctive
characteristics
•Every problem’s cause is related to
change

7. STRUCTURE OF A PROBLEM
DEVIATION
SHOULD
PRESENT
performance
PAST ACTUAL
CHANGE
performance
performance
SHOULD

8. STRUCTURE OF A DAY ONE
PROBLEM
DEVIATION
SHOULD
ACTUAL
PAST PRESENTDAY ONE
performance
performance
Some condition required for
achievement of the SHOULD
NEVER HAS EXISTED
or
NEVER AS FUNCTIONED
CORRECTLY

9. TECHNIQUES OF PROBLEM ANALYSIS
1.IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM (Definition of the
problem)
2.SPECIFY THE PROBLEM (Description of the
problem in four dimensions: IDENTITY,
LOCATION, TIMING, MAGNITUDE)
3.INVESTIGATE THE PROBLEM (Extraction of key
information in the four dimensions to
generate possible causes)
4.TESTING THE MOST PROBABLE CAUSE
5.VERIFY

10. 1. IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
•We define the problem with the deviation
statement or name of the problem
•Contains two elements:
1. nature of discrepancy
2. subject or object affected
•Ask ourselves: “Can the effect of this
problem as we have describe it in the
deviation statement be explained now?”.
If it can, we must back up to the point at
which we can no longer explain the
deviation statement.

11. 2. SPECIFY THE PROBLEM
A. Describing the Problem:
•IDENTITY – what is the problem?
•LOCATION – where is the problem?
•TIMING – when is the problem occurring?
•MAGNITUDE – how serious, how extensive
it is?
B. Determining the boundaries of the
Problem: “IS” and “IS NOT”

12. “IS” and “IS NOT”:
A Basis of Comparison
•Identify COULD BE but IS NOT data
•We will be able to identify the peculiar factors that
isolate our problem: exactly what it is, where it is
observed, when it is observed, and its extent or
magnitude
•Once we have identified bases of comparison in all
four dimensions, we are able to isolate key
distinguishing features of the problem

13. 3. INVESTIGATE THE PROBLEM
•DISTINCTIONS
As the questions “What is distinctive?” (the IS data
compared with the IS NOT data) is applied to all four
dimensions of a problem, our analysis begins to reveal
important clues to the cause of the problem
•CHANGES
“What changes are most likely to suggest the cause of our
problem?” (when the distinction is appreciated as
representing a change – its significance as a clue is
greatly heightened)
•GENERATION OF POSSIBLE CAUSES
“How could this distinction (or this change) have
produced the deviation as described in the deviation
statement?”

14. 4. TESTING THE MOST PROBABLE
CAUSE
•Testing for cause is a process of matching the
details of a postulated cause with the details
of an observed effect to see whether that
cause could have produced that effect.
•The true cause must explain each and every
aspect of the deviation, since the true cause
created the exact effect we have specified.
•Testing a possible cause against the
specification is an exercise in logic.

15. 5. VERIFY
•To verify a likely cause is to prove that it did
produce the observed effect.
•Verification is easy to perform once you have
identified a likely cause.
•Verification is an independent step taken to
prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
•Verification is possible in most problem
situations. What it consists of will depend on
the circumstances.

16. Problem Analysis was not developed with
improved communication in mind.
It was developed as a system that would make
best use of a people’s natural cause-and-effect
thinking pattern