Information Systems professionals are expected to figure out grey areas before and during resolving issues. It is not far from reality that the level of expectation is a grey area too!
The IS professionals are expected to resolve all issues in a professional manner by handling them themselves if appropriate, discussing with a colleage or in a meeting, assembling in a group to work on it etc to ensure that the requirements of the project they are working on are met.
However, it does not mean things are clear and issues are transparent. Individuals and teams overcome several obstacles before resolving issues.
The focus of this post is to view the expectation as an area of concern. The intention is to look into the possibilities of streamlining the process of "figuring out" to help novice and even experienced professionals when dealing with yet another grey area.
All this depends on the type of tasks and the depth of information to figure out. Project Leaders, decision makers, project task schedulers , developers, teachers and students - everyone experiences this issue of "figuring out". There are no exceptions! Every area in the Information Systems field requires time and considerable thought before any implementation can be started. If anyone is struggling to "figure out", it is rather a norm than an exception. Yet, everyone expects others to "figure out" and resolve issues like magic!
Points to ponder:
1. Does "figuring out an issue" depend on the experience and knowledge of the professional?
2. Is it possible to lose the big picture when figuring out deeper level code related issues? Can it be avoided?
3. Is documenting the "figuring out experiences" useful?
4. How are best practices shared in this area?
5. How do individuals or teams overcome obstacles during the "figuring out" times?
6. What is an effective process to follow for "figuring out issues"?
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_solving#Characteristics_of_difficult_problems
