PSD.Preface:2 - How the results connect

Problem structuring makes a difficult situation investigable. It can change which question is worth answering, whose consequences are considered, what counts as the problem and which interventions become plausible. Decision support uses suitably qualified formulations, alternatives, value accounts and evidence to help a receiving decision. A problem formulation can be a complete useful return before a recommendation is possible; a well-formed question can also enter comparison directly.

PSD.1 establishes the receiving use when that use is unclear. PSD.2 supplies attributed concerns and participation limits, while PSD.3 shows how rival formulations change evidence needs, boundaries and possible responses. PSD.4 uses the needed engagement and participation results directly, alongside the formulations, to choose a usable inquiry boundary. A formulation alone cannot establish who receives the result or whether an affected person’s concern has been represented adequately.

Within that boundary, a model can answer one question and expose another. PSD.5 makes the contributions and limits of complementary models usable. PSD.6 compares the ways of obtaining the needed results and qualifies any combination. PSD.7 helps participants examine the developing meanings and return shared and contested claims. A corrected concern can therefore change a model or reopen the boundary while independent analysis continues. PSD.16 becomes useful when the actual interaction between these activities threatens their results.

Formulations and models inform the alternative construction in PSD.8. A consequential difference may then need a value account from PSD.9, an uncertainty account from PSD.10, a consequence comparison from PSD.11, or the conditions under which a comparison holds or reverses from PSD.12. Obtain only the result that is missing. For example, a sensitivity result can expose a missing road-access premise without requiring another round of alternative generation. A new service concern that the option set cannot address gives a reason to revisit that set or its formulation.

PSD.13 connects the qualified inputs to what the recipient can use now: a direction, a retained set, a conditional comparison, a probe, a request or an abstention with its reason. PSD.14 connects a material later observation to the advice it can change when follow-up is needed. Neither relation requires performing all preceding patterns. The full flood-pump application shows the connections, including a useful first engagement question and a later whole-investment blocker.