itSMF 2017 June Bulletin Bulletin -June 2017 | Page 8

approach to problem solving here is ton ‘Sense -
Categorise – Respond’. It is within this type of scenario
that the use of best practice as we understand it is most
relevant. Consider a Service Desk analyst resolving an
issue via a standard operating procedure or Incident
model. Since the situation is well known, the approach
is to sense the situation, categorise it based on
documented experience, and apply an understood
solution.
unknown unknowns — you don’t even know the right
questions to ask. Even beginning to understand the
problem requires experimentation. In hindsight it
seems obvious, but it was not apparent at the
However, there is a danger that obvious contexts may be
oversimplified. This often happens when people
experience success and then become complacent.
The 2 nd domain is ‘Complicated’ - assessing the situation
requires expert knowledge to determine the appropriate
course of action, that is, the relationship between
cause and effect requires analysis or some other
form of investigation and/or the application of expert
knowledge, the approach is to ‘Sense - Analyse –
Respond’ and here we can apply good practice. Consider
a Problem Management team of subject matter experts
getting together and coupling their knowledge and
experience to perform a more in depth analysis and
questioning approach because the answer and the
context is not straight forward.
There is some debate over the terms good and best and
for the purposes of this article I don’t want to get too
hung up on the distinction. It is enough to consider that
the ‘Obvious and Complicated’ domains are ordered
outset. There is a scene in the film Apollo 13 when the
astronauts encounter a crisis (“Houston, we have a
problem”) that moves the situation into a complex
domain. A group of experts is put in a room with a
mishmash of materials which replicated the only
resources available to the astronauts in flight. Without
a solution the astronauts would have died. In this
situation, experimentation is important to allow
knowledge gathering so that as things become clearer
then next steps are forged. The goal here is to move
the problem into the ‘Complicated’ domain.
The 4 th domain is ‘Chaotic’, in which there is no
relationship between cause and effect. The approach is
to ‘Act - Sense – Respond’. Chaotic is the domain
of novel practice. As the name implies, this situation
requires a rapid response. There is a crisis and a need
to act immediately to prevent further harm and
re-establish some order. Any conventional rule-based
tactic for decision-making in this kind of context will
usually just make things worse: instead, it requires
something that respects the chaotic as such. The
solution applied may not be the best, but if it works
systems.
that is sufficient in terms of establishing control before
rd
The 3 domain is ‘Complex’, in which the relationship attempting to move the problem to another domain.
between cause and effect can only be perceived in The 5th domain is ‘Disorder’, which is the state of not
retrospect; the approach is to ‘Probe - Sense – Respond’. knowing what type of causality exists, where people
Here we can sense emergent practice.
Consider will revert to their own comfort zone in making a
8 itSMF Bulletin—June 2017