PSD.6:1 - Problem frame

Use this when a favorite workshop recipe, analytical technique, or problem-structuring method is being proposed before anyone has tested whether it can produce the needed result with these participants, uncertainties, conflicts, and resources. Also use it when several useful Methods are available but their combination has no clear contribution or usable join.

Start by naming the result the engagement is missing. Compare the simplest sufficient Method with a serious alternative, including a bounded combination when one Method cannot supply the needed contributions. The practical gain is a defensible way of proceeding, with visible limits and a cheaper exit when elaborate facilitation adds no value.

A Method (U.Method) is a reusable way of doing under stated applicability, participant meanings, preconditions, intended effects, and bounds. The governed question here is which such way fits this decision-support engagement and whether a proposed combination is coherent. A document describes it, a plan schedules intended work, and people enact it in actual work; none of those is the Method merely by appearance.

Do not use this pattern to select software by feature count, establish that a named person is competent or authorized, or schedule an already-selected Method. If one direct calculation or an existing sufficient Method closes the question, use it. If the missing result is the engagement’s purpose or scope, return that question before choosing a workshop.