DTM.1:1 - Problem frame

Use this when a spreading practice, component or tool relies on other participants’ resources and someone concludes that this dependence makes it harmful—or that its popularity makes it beneficial.

A team using an external reasoning service may deliver better results while losing an alternative way to obtain them. A new exchange standard may help its users while imposing conversion work elsewhere. A teaching technique may be copied widely without producing the ability its learners wanted. In each case, determine what continues or spreads and what changes for those who support and use it.

The first result is a small account of the dependence and its consequences under a stated comparison. It lets the participants distinguish useful support, cooperation, extraction at another’s expense and an unresolved relation before choosing a response.

For a routine purchase with known service conditions and no question about continuation or spread, use the applicable procurement or operational method. This method is useful when the relation itself is being misclassified.