1. Course Website: http://www.comp.dit.ie/bmacnameehttp://www.comp.dit.ie/bmacnamee Exercises From Lectures 1 - 6

2. 2 of 20 Introduction All of the exercises that we have done in class and at home are given in the following slides Your problem solving journals should feature something about each of these at this stage If there are any omissions, mistakes etc just let me know

3. 3 of 20 Dublin Traffic Exercise Dublin traffic is terrible! Come up with 3 ideas to help solve Dublin’s traffic problems –1 st idea should be easy to implement within 1 to 2 months –2 nd idea should be more long term –Go wild for the 3 rd idea! We should have a record of our three ideas Stephen’s Green WestClanbrassil St O’Connell Bridge Stephen’s Green East

4. 4 of 20 Brainstorming Exercise We performed a mock brainstorming on a one of the topics on the following slide

5. 5 of 20 Brainstorming Exercise –Working for a large search engine company we have collected huge amounts of data on peoples’ search terms – what can we do with this data? –Easily distributed digital music is now a fact of life. As workers in a large music publishing company how can we turn this to our advantage? –As facilitators of an M.Sc. level course in problem solving what methods of continuous assessment can we use to evaluate students? –E-mail spam is now a huge problem. As developers in a security applications development company what can we do to solve this?

6. 6 of 20 Brainstorming Exercise (cont…) We should have all of the ideas we came up with organised into the categories excellent, interesting and useless Night-time students should also have a half page to a page on their thoughts about brainstorming – is it any good etc

7. 7 of 20 Thinkertoys Exercises Try out one of the techniques (false faces, cherry split, slice & dice or phoenix) on each of the following problems – what new ideas can you come up with? Working for a large search engine company we have collected huge amounts of data on peoples’ search terms – what can we do with this data? Easily distributed digital music is now a fact of life. As workers in a large music publishing company how can we turn this to our advantage?

8. 8 of 20 Force Field Analysis Exercise A mature student is thinking of enrolling in a new evening course Perform a force field analysis outlining the forces for and against Evaluate, and if necessary, modify your plan

9. 9 of 20 Force Field/S.W.O.T. Analysis Exercises Try out the following exercises Pick one of the excellent ideas from our brainstorming session last week and perform a Force Field Analysis on it Pick one of the excellent ideas from last week’s brainstorming exercise and perform a SWOT analysis on it Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself (keep this one private if you prefer!)

10. 10 of 20 Force Field/S.W.O.T. Analysis

11. 11 of 20 Force Field Analysis Template 4 Driving ForcesRestraining Forces 352143521

12. 12 of 20 S.W.O.T. Analysis Template StrengthsWeaknesses OpportunitiesThreats

13. 13 of 20 Root Cause Analysis Exercise “This week DIT suffered a massive e-mail failure. The hard-drive on our mail server crashed and the contents of all mail boxes were lost. Furthermore all e-mails arriving over the following days were lost with no indication given to senders that they were not received. When back-ups were sought the last back-up had been made 5 months before” Let’s do a root cause analysis of this event For this exercise I will have to act as an oracle for our investigation – sorry! Hopefully, you will have some notes on this! If not don’t worry about it

14. 14 of 20 Force Field/S.W.O.T./Root Cause Analysis Exercise Into your problem solving journals, write a ½ page – full page on your thoughts about force field analysis, SWOT analysis and root cause analysis In particular focus on how useful you feel the techniques are – does the formalism help, or is it just “common sense” dressed up in a fancy coat?

15. 15 of 20 PMI PMI Exercise “We should scrap the notion of using software installed on individual machines in favour of the use of web based applications” Perform a PMI

16. 16 of 20 CAF CAF Exercise I Can you list 10 factors involved in choosing your hairstyle? 1. __________________ 2.___________________ 3.___________________ 4.___________________ 5.___________________ 6.___________________ 7.___________________ 8.___________________ 9.___________________ 10.___________________

17. 17 of 20 CAF CAF Exercise II “As part of the design of a web-based application we have to choose which database management system to use” Come up with 8 factors involved in the choice above Swap your sheet with your neighbour and add 3 more to theirs

18. 18 of 20 OPV OPV Exercise The Agilent SJ50 is a machine used for automated optical inspection (AOI) of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for quality purposes The system uses sophisticated, highly customisable machine learning algorithms to learn the differences between good parts and bad parts

19. 19 of 20 OPV OPV Exercise (cont…) Consider the design of the interface to the SJ50 from the following perspectives (in groups try to come up with a couple of points for each): –The end-user –The machine learning expert –The marketing manager –The factory owner

20. 20 of 20 AGO AGO - Exercise Develop an AGO (8 objectives) for the police and put them in order of priority (FIP)

21. 21 of 20 APC APC – Exercise II As part of the technical support team in your company you have just received a call from one of the staff to say that the e-mail server is down? Perform an APC on the above situation – what different causes can you come up with? In groups try to come up with at least 8

22. 22 of 20 C & S – Exercise I A new device has been created to immediately and easily tell if someone is telling lies Perform a C& S to predict what may happen in the future, try 3 suggestions per time frame

23. 23 of 20 C & S Exercise II Breakthroughs are made in the development of artificial intelligence which allows the creation of cars which can drive themselves Perform a C& S to predict what may happen in the future, try 3 suggestions per time frame To see how close we are to this check out the DARPA Grand ChallengeDARPA Grand Challenge

24. 24 of 76 Quick Exercise Match the statements to the hats – invent context where appropriate Retooling would take a minimum of three months My intuition tells me that won’t work Most of the work on this project has already been done The cost of the plastic tray has increased by 15% She can speak French very well Are we ready to come to a final decision? That secretarial agency is very expensive

25. 25 of 76 Six Hats Exercise 1 First Ideas –“There is a suggestion that after the age of 60 years, people should pay a lower rate of income tax” –In a group perform a three hat first ideas sequence on this Remember to elect a facilitator Remember to keep an eye on the timings

26. 26 of 76 Six Hats Exercise 2 Evaluation (PMI) –“On a prominently displayed board in the workplace each person can indicate one of two things: that he or she is under pressure at the moment and is not available for discussions or further work or that he or she is not under such pressure” –In a group perform a three hat evaluation (PMI) sequence on this Remember to elect a facilitator Remember to keep an eye on the timings

27. 27 of 76 Six Hats Exercise 3 Perform an 8 hat creative effort sequence on one of the following: –“Young students are not taking up science, engineering and technology courses in school or at third level. What can we do about this?” –“As the Irish minister for finance we are going to do something about stamp duty on homes purchased”