Exercises From Lectures 1 - 6

1. Exercises From Lectures 1 - 6

2. Introduction • All of the exercises that we have done in class and at home are given in the following slides • Your problem solving journals should feature something about each of these at this stage • If there are any omissions, mistakes etc just let me know

3. Dublin Traffic Exercise • Dublin traffic is terrible! • Come up with 3 ideas to help solve Dublin’s traffic problems • 1st idea should be easy to implement within 1 to 2 months • 2nd idea should be more long term • Go wild for the 3rd idea! • We should have a record of our three ideas O’Connell Bridge Stephen’s Green East Stephen’s Green West Clanbrassil St

4. Brainstorming Exercise • We performed a mock brainstorming on a one of the topics on the following slide

5. Brainstorming Exercise • Working for a large search engine company we have collected huge amounts of data on peoples’ search terms – what can we do with this data? • Easily distributed digital music is now a fact of life. As workers in a large music publishing company how can we turn this to our advantage? • As facilitators of an M.Sc. level course in problem solving what methods of continuous assessment can we use to evaluate students? • E-mail spam is now a huge problem. As developers in a security applications development company what can we do to solve this?

6. Brainstorming Exercise (cont…) • We should have all of the ideas we came up with organised into the categories excellent, interesting and useless • Night-time students should also have a half page to a page on their thoughts about brainstorming – is it any good etc

7. Thinkertoys Exercises • Try out one of the techniques (false faces, cherry split, slice & dice or phoenix) on each of the following problems – what new ideas can you come up with? • Working for a large search engine company we have collected huge amounts of data on peoples’ search terms – what can we do with this data? • Easily distributed digital music is now a fact of life. As workers in a large music publishing company how can we turn this to our advantage?

8. Force Field Analysis Exercise • A mature student is thinking of enrolling in a new evening course • Perform a force field analysis outlining the forces for and against • Evaluate, and if necessary, modify your plan

9. Force Field/S.W.O.T. Analysis Exercises • Try out the following exercises • Pick one of the excellent ideas from our brainstorming session last week and perform a Force Field Analysis on it • Pick one of the excellent ideas from last week’s brainstorming exercise and perform a SWOT analysis on it • Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself (keep this one private if you prefer!)

10. Force Field/S.W.O.T. Analysis

11. Force Field Analysis Template Driving Forces Restraining Forces 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5

12. S.W.O.T. Analysis Template • Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

13. Root Cause Analysis Exercise • “This week DIT suffered a massive e-mail failure. The hard-drive on our mail server crashed and the contents of all mail boxes were lost. Furthermore all e-mails arriving over the following days were lost with no indication given to senders that they were not received. When back-ups were sought the last back-up had been made 5 months before” • Let’s do a root cause analysis of this event • For this exercise I will have to act as an oracle for our investigation – sorry! • Hopefully, you will have some notes on this! If not don’t worry about it

14. Force Field/S.W.O.T./Root Cause Analysis Exercise • Into your problem solving journals, write a ½ page – full page on your thoughts about force field analysis, SWOT analysis and root cause analysis • In particular focus on how useful you feel the techniques are – does the formalism help, or is it just “common sense” dressed up in a fancy coat?

15. PMI Exercise • “We should scrap the notion of using software installed on individual machines in favour of the use of web based applications” • Perform a PMI

16. CAF Exercise I • Can you list 10 factors involved in choosing your hairstyle? • __________________ • ___________________ • ___________________ • ___________________ • ___________________ • ___________________ • ___________________ • ___________________ • ___________________ • ___________________

17. CAF Exercise II • “As part of the design of a web-based application we have to choose which database management system to use” • Come up with 8 factors involved in the choice above • Swap your sheet with your neighbour and add 3 more to theirs

18. OPV Exercise • The Agilent SJ50 is a machine used for automated optical inspection (AOI) of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for quality purposes • The system uses sophisticated, highly customisable machine learning algorithms to learn the differences between good parts and bad parts

19. OPV Exercise (cont…) • Consider the design of the interface to the SJ50 from the following perspectives (in groups try to come up with a couple of points for each): • The end-user • The machine learning expert • The marketing manager • The factory owner

20. AGO - Exercise • Develop an AGO (8 objectives) for the police and put them in order of priority (FIP)

21. APC – Exercise II • As part of the technical support team in your company you have just received a call from one of the staff to say that the e-mail server is down? • Perform an APC on the above situation – what different causes can you come up with? • In groups try to come up with at least 8

22. C & S – Exercise I • A new device has been created to immediately and easily tell if someone is telling lies • Perform a C& S to predict what may happen in the future, try 3 suggestions per time frame

23. C & S Exercise II • Breakthroughs are made in the development of artificial intelligence which allows the creation of cars which can drive themselves • Perform a C& S to predict what may happen in the future, try 3 suggestions per time frame To see how close we are to this check out the DARPA Grand Challenge

24. Quick Exercise • Match the statements to the hats – invent context where appropriate Retooling would take a minimum of three months She can speakFrench very well The cost of the plastic trayhas increased by 15% Most of the work on this projecthas already been done My intuition tells methat won’t work Are we ready to cometo a final decision? That secretarial agencyis very expensive

25. Six Hats Exercise 1 • First Ideas • “There is a suggestion that after the age of 60 years, people should pay a lower rate of income tax” • In a group perform a three hat first ideas sequence on this • Remember to elect a facilitator • Remember to keep an eye on the timings

26. Six Hats Exercise 2 • Evaluation (PMI) • “On a prominently displayed board in the workplace each person can indicate one of two things: that he or she is under pressure at the moment and is not available for discussions or further work or that he or she is not under such pressure” • In a group perform a three hat evaluation (PMI) sequence on this • Remember to elect a facilitator • Remember to keep an eye on the timings

27. Six Hats Exercise 3 • Perform an 8 hat creative effort sequence on one of the following: • “Young students are not taking up science, engineering and technology courses in school or at third level. What can we do about this?” • “As the Irish minister for finance we are going to do something about stamp duty on homes purchased”