Problem Solving and

Decision Making

LEVEL – PRACTITIONER
 Session Rules

To make the most of the session, participate in the discussions,

surveys, and whiteboard discussions.

Share your experience wherever applicable.

Please keep your phone on mute during the session.

Please wait for the trainer to pause to take your question.

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 About the Facilitator

• Awards • Contributions
– Most Valuable Professional (MVP) – – Facilitates leadership, behavioral and
Business Solutions (Microsoft) project management topics
– Global Trainer of the Year Award – Editor of “Forecast Scheduling with
(Cognizant) Microsoft Project 2010 & 2013” book
– Delivery Excellence Award 2011- .
2012, 2012-2013 (PMI India)
• Outreach
– Past Champion Advisory Committee
• Certifications member, PMI India Champion
– Microsoft Certified Technology – President, MPUG Chennai Chapter
Specialist: Microsoft Project 2010 (http://chennai.mpug.com)
– PMI-certified Project Management
Professional (PMP) ®
– PMI-certified Scheduling Professional
(PMI-SP)®
– Certified Six Sigma Green Belt

4
 A BAD DAY

Your team missed to complete the design on time. You need to find
out the reason why this happened. Six team members were involved
at different stages of designing the product.

You discuss this issue with three of this team. One team member
says by his past experience this issue is due to lack of planning.
Second team member says a recent research published by reputed
magazine states only five of 100 projects had this issue, and we
don’t need to worry about. Third team member says we had
frequent changes in requirements and this caused this delay.

What will you do next?

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 “Most people spend more time and energy
going around problems than in trying to solve
them.”
Henry Ford

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 Overview

This session will help you to

1. Identify the right problem
2. Identify the right solution

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 Problem Solving and Decision
Making: Objectives
After completing this course, you will be able to:
– Identify the difference between symptom, problem and cause
– Learn techniques for problem solving and decision making
– Systematically identify the root cause and make better decisions

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What is the difference
between Problem
Solving and Decision
Making?
 Problem Solving and Decision
Making

Problem Decision
Solving Making
 Problem Solving and Decision
Making

• A process by which one

uses cognitive abilities and
facts to arrive at the root
cause of a problem and
develop options for
potential solutions for it.

Problem Decision
Solving Making
 Problem Solving and Decision
Making

• A process by which one • A process by which a few

uses cognitive abilities and alternatives are chosen as
facts to arrive at the root potential decisions from the
cause of a problem and viable options, considering
develop options for the context and the
potential solutions for it. decision guidelines.

Problem Decision
Solving Making
 Symptom, Problem, and Cause

• The obvious Problem • The Root Cause

manifestation of a
that created the
problem
problem and
• For example, • The area or initial resulted in the
having a level cause(s) that manifestation
headache resulted in the • For example, Viral
symptom infection, food
• For example, due to a allergy
Symptom stomach problem
Cause

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 Solve This

Use the Chat window to indicate which section of each statement

states the symptom, problem or its cause.

1. Shyam sent the design document to Client yesterday. Due

to bad quality, there was an escalation.
2. New process was followed by the team for testing the
product. This caused confusion among members and
affected the quality of the product.
3. Server crashed
4. Testing failed because the test data was incorrect.

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 Angry Client
Case Study

One of the leading Banking and Financial institutions has

outsourced the Double entry Bookkeeping, calculating the daily
debit and credit transactions for its premium customers. These
transactions are placed on five servers for security reasons.

The client needs this transaction report on the last Friday of every month.
This report is used by them to generate the bills and give rewards points.
These transactions are usually in thousands of dollars.

The transaction report generation is 40% automated using Excel macros.

The excel template includes date picker and five buttons. Date picker
allows you to select the transaction date range. Each button corresponds
a database server which reads its transactions and places the transaction
details in separate worksheets. The team member should validate its
format and then copy these transactions to a new file.
 Angry Client
Case Study

All the team members in the team are trained on this process of
creating this report. This report is usually generated in 5 hours.

For this month, Prakash created the transaction report

yesterday. He used the latest Excel template to create this
report. Report was sent to the Client by the manager.

Today, you received a call from the Client. She was furious. She
complained their premium customers were billed incorrectly because the
transaction report has errors.
 Angry Client (Contd.)

How are you as a

consultant, going to help
them?

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 Process

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 Define the problem

Symptom: Premium customers were billed incorrectly.

Problem: Transaction report has errors.
 Process

22
Identification of Causes
Tools
Identification of Causes
Tools
 Some more information …

1. Database servers were recently upgraded to new version.

2. Log files in all servers were not archived properly for 3 months.
3. Prakash, the team member, was working on other urgent
deliverables on that date which was unusual.
4. Customer’s expectation has changed over a period of time.
5. Manager reviewed the report yesterday.
6. Some team members had reported that process document was
not accurate
7. Manager has observed there were few instances team members
were not taking process seriously, and they are not motivated.
8. Excel macro had issues 6 months back, and this could have
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caused this error.
 Identification of Causes
Tools

Process
document is
not accurate
Team not
Did not Follow the
motivated Work load of
Steps Prakash

Log file was Logical

not archived Errors

Version
Macro Version Customer
upgrade issue
Issues Expectation
was different
 Cause and Effect Diagram

Advantage Disadvantage

Place the pointer tool in Annotate toolbar on this slide. Then, select T (text) and write your
response next to your name

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 When to use fish bone diagram?

• Brainstorm to identify potential causes of the problem

• Want to study all the possible reasons why a process is
beginning to have difficulties, problems, or breakdowns?
• Need to identify areas for data collection
• Want to study why a process is not performing properly or
producing the desired results?
• Commonly used categories
– The 8P’s Procedures ,Policies ,People ,Price, Promotion, Process, Plant and
Product
– The 6M’s Machinery ,Materials ,Maintenance, Methods, Mother Nature
and Man
– The 4S’s Skills , Surroundings, Systems and Suppliers
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 Five-Why Technique

What could be the

possible causes for an
error in the report?

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 Let Us Investigate
Tools

How was Prakash work load on that day?

• He was working on report and other urgent deliverables.

How did the urgent deliverables affect report generated?

• He did not spend enough time to understand the requirement.

How did we know he did not understand the requirement?

• He has selected a wrong date before generating the report.

Why was date entered incorrectly?

• Though he knew this is a monthly report, he was in a hurry to get the
report generated
 Five Why Analysis

Advantage Disadvantage

Place the pointer tool in Annotate toolbar on this slide. Then, select T (text) and write your
response next to your name

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 When to use root cause analysis?

• Recurrence of a Problem (Long test cycles, high volume of

defects )

• Recurrence of Related events (Learning of new

requirements when the product is under test, missed project
delivery dates)

• Occurrence of certain Infrequent but high impactful events

(Highly experienced team member quits, Source code needs
to be restored from last months tape)

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 Drawbacks of Root Cause
Analysis
• It is least scientific. It is based on ones opinion
• Five Why analysis done by two people can yield to different
findings
• It assumes each symptom/problem has only one cause
• This method requires a skilled person

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 Process

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 Decision Making Interactive
Activity

What can I do to solve this

issue now and in the long
run?
 Multi-Attribute Analysis
Tools

Elimination of errors in the transaction report

Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4 Criteria 5

Solutions

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 What are the Options?
Tools

Elimination of errors in the transaction report

Weightages

Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4 Criteria 5

Solutions Cost Time Quality Scalability Integration

Scale to rate each criteria: 1 - Low; 2 - Medium; 3 - High

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 What are the Options?
Tools

Elimination of errors in the transaction report

Weightages 3 3 3 2 1

Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4 Criteria 5

Solutions Cost Time Quality Scalability Integration

Scale to rate each criteria: 1 - Low; 2 - Medium; 3 - High

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 What are the Options?
Tools

Elimination of errors in the transaction report

Weightages 3 3 3 2 1

Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4 Criteria 5

Solutions Cost Time Quality Scalability Integration

70%
automation
with review
100%
Automation

Scale to rate each criteria: 1 - Low; 2 - Medium; 3 - High

39
 What are the Options?
Tools

Elimination of errors in the transaction report

Weightages 3 3 3 2 1

Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4 Criteria 5

Solutions Cost Time Quality Scalability Integration

70%
automation 2 2 2 1 1
with review
100%
Automation
3 3 3 3 3

Scale to rate each criteria: 1 - Low; 2 - Medium; 3 - High

40
 What are the Options?
Tools

Elimination of errors in the transaction report

Weightages 3 3 3 2 1
Wi

Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4 Criteria 5

Solutions Score
Cost Time Quality Scalability Integration
Sum(Wi*Si)
70%
automation 2 2 2 1 1 21
with review
100%
Automation
3 3 3 3 3 36

Scale to rate each criteria: 1 - Low; 2 - Medium; 3 - High

41
Decision Making Interactive
Activity

Which option should I go

for?
 Analyzing Options
Tools

Plan A Cost Benefits Savings

70%
automation
with review

Plan B Cost Benefits Savings

100%
automation
 Analyzing Options
Tools

Plan A Cost Benefits Savings

70% • Development: 20 hours * 20 USD
= 400 USD
automation • Review: 1 hour * 20 USD = 20
with review USD per month
• New Process: 15 minutes
(running time) + 1 hour (review)
= 75 minutes per month

Plan B Cost Benefits Savings

100% • Development: 30 hours * 20 USD
= 600 USD
automation • New Process: 30 minutes
(running time) per month
 Analyzing Options
Tools

Plan A Cost Benefits Savings

70% • Development: 20 hours * 20 USD • Accuracy is high
= 400 USD • Report generation
automation • Review: 1 hour * 20 USD = 20 time is reduced
with review USD per month • Less defects
• New Process: 15 minutes
(running time) + 1 hour (review)
= 75 minutes per month

Plan B Cost Benefits Savings

100% • Development: 30 hours * 20 USD • Accuracy is high
= 600 USD • Report generation
automation • New Process: 30 minutes time is reduced
(running time) per month • Near zero defects
• No dependency on
the team
 Analyzing Options
Tools

Plan A Cost Benefits Savings

70% • Development: 20 hours * 20 USD • Accuracy is high • Time Saving: 60 hours
= 400 USD • Report generation (current process)– 20
automation • Review: 1 hour * 20 USD = 20 time is reduced hours (development) -
with review USD per month • Less defects 18 hours (new process)
• New Process: 15 minutes = 22 hours per year
(running time) + 1 hour (review) • Cost Saving = 1200 USD
= 75 minutes per month – 400 USD – 360 USD =
440 USD per year

Plan B Cost Benefits Savings

100% • Development: 30 hours * 20 USD • Accuracy is high • Time Saving: 60 hours
= 600 USD • Report generation (current process)– 30
automation • New Process: 30 minutes time is reduced hours (development) –
(running time) per month • Near zero defects 6 hours (new process) =
• No dependency on 24 hours per year
the team • Cost Saving = 1200 USD
– 600 USD – 120 USD =
480 USD per year
What Will Impact My
Solution? Interactive
Activity

What are the factors that

influence implementation
of the chosen option (If
Plan A)?
Force Field Analysis
Tools

Distractors Solution Enablers

“100%
Automation”
 Force Field Analysis
Tools

Distractors Solution Enablers

1. Development cost is high 1. Faster report

generation

2. Difficult to verify 2. Existing Excel Macro

can be extended

3. Complexity is high “100% 3. Report accuracy is

Automation” high
4. Software and hardware
cost is high
4. Saves effort

5. Requires high skilled

team to handle changes 5. Person to process
Independence
 Force Field Analysis
Tools

Score Distractors Solution Enablers Score

4 1. Development cost is high 1. Faster report

4
generation

2 2. Difficult to verify 2. Existing Excel Macro

4
can be extended

2 3. Complexity is high “100% 3. Report accuracy is

Automation” 4
high
4. Software and hardware cost
3
is high
4. Saves effort 3

5. Requires high skilled team to

2 5. Person to process
handle changes 3
Independence
 Force Field Analysis
Tools

Score Distractors Solution Enablers Score

1. Development cost is high 1. Faster report

4
generation

2. Difficult to verify 2. Existing Excel Macro

4
can be extended
3. Complexity is high 3. Report accuracy is
“100% 4
high
4. Software and hardware cost Automation”
is high
4. Saves effort 3

5. Requires high skilled team to

5. Person to process
handle changes 3
Independence
 Recap: Process and Tools

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53
 Summary

• The key points covered in this course are:

– Problem Solving is a process by which one uses cognitive
abilities and facts to arrive at the root cause of a problem
and develop options for potential solutions for it.
– Decision Making is a process by which a few alternatives are
chosen as potential decisions from the viable options,
considering the context and the decision guidelines.
– Symptom is the obvious manifestation of a problem.
– Problem is the area or initial level causes that resulted in the
symptom.
– Cause is the Root Cause that created the problem and
resulted in the manifestation.
– Fish bone analysis helps get a deeper analysis of the causes.
– Five why or why technique helps identify the root cause of
the causes that are identified using the fish bone.

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Congratulations!

You have successfully completed -

Problem Solving and Decision Making