CB.5:4.4 - Develop useful case work and comparison

Choose a construction that fits the question, available experience and time. The following adaptations from the Communities of Practice Guidebook retain different results.

Case clinic: obtain a reasoned continuation. Ask the case owner for a real challenge, a focused question and just enough permitted context. Begin with clarification; let contributors ask about conditions before offering solutions. Then draw out relevant experiences and compare proposed actions with the case. Keep observations, experience-based suggestions and qualified technical conclusions distinguishable. The owner explains what they will take away, what they will not use and what remains undecided. Arrange a later response when actual use can be observed.

For a complex case, the work may require substantial clarification and more time than a short round permits. Divide the question or obtain separate preparation when needed. With a large group, CB.4 can provide a speaking circle or smaller groups with a return. A facilitator protects the question and turn-taking; domain contributors supply technical judgement. If advice conflicts, recover the differing conditions or the missing evidence rather than choosing the most popular answer.

Design clinic: widen the possible next moves. Use this when time is short or participants’ contexts are too different for a deep case judgement. Give the owner a short opportunity to state the challenge. Follow with concise clarification, relevant experiences, suggestions and the owner’s account of what changed their thinking. Keep a record of possibilities useful to the owner. The result is a broader set of options, with further examination still needed; do not present the speed of the exchange as evidence that a solution has been selected or tested.

Story of practice: make experience available. Ask the teller to recover what happened, the conditions, actions, difficulty and outcome. Let listeners ask for details that change their interpretation and explain what may be relevant to their own situation. An interviewer can help expose a choice or failure that the teller treats as obvious. Keep a story’s context available when drawing a lesson. If someone needs a validated method or general causal explanation, obtain that further work; one compelling account does not provide it.

Project review: obtain an informed view of a larger body of work. Agree the question the project owner wants answered and give reviewers access and time to inspect the relevant work. Alternate examination with reflection so that claims can be challenged against the project, rather than against a short presentation alone. A rehearsal can help the owner prepare for an actual review. The project owner’s applicable acceptance and release decisions remain separate.

Demonstration or joint work: expose an action and its reasons. Choose a representative situation, let a competent practitioner perform or explain the difficult action, and give participants a chance to ask about a consequential choice. When they try the action, supply the relevant practice and feedback through HCD. Their experience can also expose a question for method description or development. Keep the observed action and the result it actually establishes recoverable.

These forms can be combined. A story can clarify a case, a demonstration can test an interpretation, and a project review can expose a smaller question. Explain the change of receiving result when the activity changes, so that participants know which contribution is now wanted.