What's the D.E.A.L.?

People face problems all the time. Big problems, little problems, and yes--medium sized problems. You probably faced more than one problem today that you had to solve. For example, how did you decide what you were going to wear today? Did you think about the weather? Is it hot or cold? Do you have to go anywhere that has a dress code(school, church, out to eat at a fancy retaurant, etc.)? Do your clothes match? What shoes did you choose to wear? Why? Even though this is a simple problem, it involves several things to think about. The problem solving process can be broken down into four steps(Listed in bold below). You may not have known it, but you often go through these steps when solving a problem without even thinking about it. Read the steps below and identify what would be happening in our example problem about choosing what to wear at each step.

1. Define the problem - What's wrong?
   1. Faultfinding - the process of looking for the cause of the malfunction(Finding out what is wrong)
   2. Variable - unknown that could change
2. Explore Alternatives - Make educated guesses as to what to to fix the problem
   1. Brainstorming - group process used to generate solutions to a problem. Proper brainstorming must do the following :
      1. list as many solutions as possible
      2. do not judge your answers until brainstorming is over
      3. set a time limit.
   2. Concept Mapping - a graphical way to organize ideas
   1. Graphic Organizers - Organize your thoughts before you start writing!
   2. Flowcharts - Used to describe a process
3. Act out the best solution - Try out your ideas and select the best one
   1. Weighting- assign number values to each solution
   2. Prototype- a full size working model of an idea or product to test it
   3. Mock-up- a model that usually does not work
   4. Invention - designing new products
   5. Innovation - improving an existing technology
   6. Design - a plan for making something
4. Look back and evaluate - Did your idea work? Would anything else work better?
   1. Performance testing- evaluate how good your solution works. IE.-take a survey, rate it, or use a checklist.

What are some other problems that you face every day?