Fixing problems is a common activity in all companies. In areas such as Quality, they receive special treatment, with methods for identifying root causes and corrective actions. However, we often do not give due attention to an important step in the problem-solving process: formulating an adequate description.
A proper description will significantly clarify the problem, also identifying its severity, location, and financial impact. It also serves as a great communication tool, helping to gain buy-in and support from others. When problems are well described, people will notice and understand what you are trying to accomplish.
How to describe a problem?
The problem should have a concise description of the facts that need to be addressed. In addition, it must answer the five Ws of the 5W2H methodology: Who, Where, What, When, and Why.
Note that the H of the methodology (“Como”, in Portuguese) is not included. It is because of this question that investigative efforts will uncover the root cause of the problem. By knowing the facts associated with the issue, it can be analyzed and resolved in less time and at less cost.
The difficulty in describing a problem is that many assume that everyone knows what the challenge is to be faced. In these cases, inevitably, a poorly elaborated or even incorrect description of the problem is produced.
When you assume that the reason for a problem is already known, you end up with one of these two possible versions of the problem description:
- In one case, the description of the problem is extremely sparse in information and details, such as: “Our department has been receiving complaints from customers.”
- At the other extreme, this can lead to a detailed but completely wrong problem description or one that already points to identifying the solution. For example: “We need to retrain employees because they are taking too long to perform their tasks, causing customers to complain about the slowness of our department.”
As you can see, both problem descriptions are inadequate to invest valuable resources in solving them.
And in practice, where do I start solving a problem?
Starting from a sketch is a great way. It can be represented as a problem description matrix that includes tips for identifying the five Ws (see table below).
The data needed to fill out the matrix can be found through targeted interviews, historical data, or preliminary analysis that can be done quickly at low costs.
The array should then be used to write a detailed description of the problem. For example: “Our work order processing department has seen a 20% higher monthly average of complaints over the past three months after introducing the new tool to manage work orders for all organizational departments.”
An objective description with relevant data will help the team in the following steps, which aim to investigate the causes and define possible actions so that the complaint rate decreases again.
More tips for describing a problem
To help you, check out a summary of six good practices when describing a problem!
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Write the description of the problem with the audience in mind
Keep in mind that you’ll likely have to convince management to provide resources to solve the problem and recruit team members to help you. You don’t want to spend your precious time repeatedly explaining what you’re trying to accomplish. Therefore, be clear and objective when describing the problem.
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Keep the problem description concise and include at least:
- A brief description of the problem;
- Indication of where the problem is occurring;
- The length of time during which the problem is occurring;
- The size or magnitude of the problem.
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Be careful not to reduce the problem description too much
A natural tendency is to write a problem description in a very simplistic way, as you are already familiar with it. Remember that other people also need to understand the context and meaning to be able to support you in solving the problem. So try to provide enough context and information for everyone.
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Be careful with the solution
Do not include any indication or speculation about the cause of the problem or what actions will be taken to resolve the issue. Never try to solve the problem or direct the solution at this stage.
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Make it easy to interpret
Remove information that leads to some interpretation bias. Intuition is not welcome at this stage, always be objective and avoid leaving something dubious.
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Include numbers when possible
Include some quantification of the magnitude of the problem to help readers make a better decision.
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Concluding
Support of problem management software is crucial to guide people through the description and correction of a problem.
With SoftExpert solutions, you have the tools you need to help your organization investigate incidents, accidents, errors, defects, failures and deviations in several different areas of activity.
Find out how we can help your company adapt to change, improve processes and achieve goals. Contact us today!.
