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Paper Instructions;

Cause and Effect Analysis and Problem Restatement

Purpose

To assess your ability to:
employ a cause and effect diagram (also referred to as a fishbone diagram) for identification of root problem cause and effect elements
clarify a problem statement through application of restatement techniques

Overview

A key element of effective decision making is ensuring a problem statement truly reflects the full scope and root cause(s) of a business situation. Anyone can say that there are problems that need to be resolved to improve effectiveness. However, many times these problems are merely effects from other causes that may or may not be related to the actual problem.
The use of a fishbone diagram allows decision makers to assess potential causes and effects related to problems in a visual format. In this assignment, you will outline the perceived cause and effect relationships associated with the fishbone diagram. This process allows decision makers to reflect upon, note, and determine key factors that can be the root cause and effects associated with a given problem. The process is essential to eliminating factors that may at first appear to be the cause of a problem. Therefore, the key causes and related effects are focused on.
For the second part of this assignment, you will follow sequential steps to restate the draft of the problem statement you crafted in PS Dev: Draft. This process will enable you to view the problem from different viewpoints, perspectives, and lenses. The process of restatement allows decision makers and problem solvers to have confidence that the true problem and all of its elements have been properly identified, concisely defined, and effectively stated for appropriate action to take place. Now that you have analyzed the causes and effects of your potential decision, problem, or opportunity, you are now ready to finalize your problem statement. Remember to keep your problem statement short and focus on descriptive verbs.

Action Items

There are two parts to this assignment as follows:
Part One:
Review the draft of your problem from Week 1.
Develop a fishbone diagram outlining the related causes and effects of your problem, based upon your readings for this week.
Note: You may use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel, or any of the software tools introduced in the Week 1 Preparation to build your fishbone diagram.
Make a record of your key findings you obtained by developing the fishbone diagram and placing them in a maximum 1-page document.
Note: Access and view the following multimedia presentation: Cause and Effect: Fishbone Diagraming for guidance in your work.
Part Two:
Review the draft of the problem statement you developed in Week 1.
Write a 2- to 3- page paper in which you include the following elements:
Problem Statement Testing: Test your problem statement by using the following five problem restatement techniques by the author of your text, The Thinker's Toolkit.
Paraphrase - Restate the problem using different words. (What really is the issue?)
180 Degree - Turn the problem completely around. (What is the opportunity here?)
Broadening the Focus- Restate the problem in a larger context. (How is the problem part of the bigger picture?)
Redirection - Change the overall focus of the problem. (What does it look like from another perspective?)
Why ask Why - Review the original problem, ask why again and then answering that question, again asking why, and so on. (What's at the bottom of the problem, underlying everything?)
Note: Access and view the following multimedia presentation: Problem Restatement for guidance in your work.
Conclusion: End your paper with 2-3 paragraphs including the following items:
Final problem statement: Restate your problem in a final form and in one sentence.
Clarification of changes: Note whether or not the changes in your problem statement are based on the application of the restatement process. If your problem statement did change, justify why and how you changed it.
Newly discovered problem knowledge: State what you discovered through the problem restatement process that may require further investigation or research.
Submit your paper to Turnitin.com. Your instructor will give you a login and password to the site.