STR.Preface:13 - Relations - Obtain the professional results the decision needs
FPF is the common conceptual and Method basis. Use the professional practice that can answer the unresolved question on which the strategic choice depends.
Development Opportunity Construction and Development Direction Advising (DOCA) helps find contrasting leads, explain whose problem a proposed contribution addresses, develop a direction or assess whether and how it could be reached. A provisional problem explanation can be a useful result while its support remains incomplete. These Methods can be used directly, with or without an advisory engagement.
Problem Structuring and Decision Support (PSD) can provide a formulation of the decision problem, an account of the participants’ values, an uncertainty analysis, a comparison of options or follow-up of an earlier choice. Use the PSD answer as an input when recommending or choosing a direction or commitment.
For a proposed diagnostic service, the following questions illustrate different professional contributions. Obtain only those that can change the strategic decision.
| Question the strategic choice depends on | Professional result to obtain or reuse |
|---|---|
| Can the promised service and incident response coexist with current commitments? | An Operations Management (OPS) account of the required service, usable capacity, staffing and response window. |
| Can the organization deliver and accept the whole contribution, including an exception response? | An Organization Change Engineering (OCE) result for the selected arrangement. OCE.9 establishes the contribution and exception path under its permitted conditions, or identifies what remains unavailable. |
| Can the intended practitioner perform meaningfully unfamiliar diagnostic work with the available support? | A Human Capability Development (HCD) result about that person’s performance. HCD.12 qualifies transfer from the earlier work to the unfamiliar task; the result retains the actual assistance and conditions. |
| Can the product or platform supply the required technical result? | A Systems Engineering (SYSE) or other qualified engineering result for the relevant configuration, function and acceptance conditions. |
| What does the whole proposal cost and return, and can its payments be met when due? | A qualified financial comparison including provision, support, displaced work, the timing of payments and receipts, and funding conditions. |
For example, missing out-of-hours incident cover in SensorCo’s service proposal calls for the service, staffing and cost answers needed to compare the offer. A functioning platform leaves that support question open. STR.8 explains how to locate such a missing contribution; the professional work obtains the answer about the proposed service.
A framework explains how to obtain or qualify a result. The strategic decision needs the applicable professional answer about its actual subject, conditions and horizon, with the limits of the supporting evidence. Check whether an existing answer supplies that contribution; if it does, reuse it. Otherwise ask the responsible practitioner for the missing answer, keeping any dependent commitment conditional.