Strategy & Tactics

Strategy & Tactics (S&T) is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue.

Beginnings

Strategy & Tactics got its start in January 1967 under the auspices of its original editor, Chris Wagner, offering what he saw as a better alternative to Avalon Hill's gaming magazine, The General.Strategy & Tactics began life as a wargaming fanzine published by Wagner (then a staff sergeant with the US Air Force in Japan), at first in Japan, then moving to the United States with Wagner.

Graphic designer Redmond Simonsen was hired to improve the quality of the 'zine. When subscribership stagnated, debts began to accrue.Jim Dunnigan created SPI in order to save Strategy & Tactics. Dunnigan had been a contributor to the magazine since Strategy & Tactics #2 (February 1967), and when Wagner was having financial difficulties with the magazine he sold Dunnigan the rights for $1. A persistent rumour that Dunnigan had purchased S&T from Wagner for one dollar, and that furthermore the dollar was not paid until much later was confirmed by Wagner during an interview printed in S&T issue #83 (The Kaiser's Battle).

Thinking processes (theory of constraints)

Thinking processes in Eliyahu M. Goldratt's theory of constraints, are the five methods to enable the focused improvement of any cognitive system (especially business system).

Purpose

The purpose of the thinking processes is to help answer questions essential to achieving focused improvement:

Sometimes two other questions are considered as well:

and:

A more thorough rationale is presented in What is this thing called Theory of Constraints and how should it be implemented.

A more thorough work, mapping the use and evolution of the Thinking Processes, was conducted by Mabin et al.

Processes

The primary thinking processes, as codified by Goldratt and others: