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Planning > Structured Planning

What Makes a Good Means/Ends Analysis?

General
Means/Ends Analysis is a long standing technique used at least since the 1950's as a creativity tool, most frequently mentioned in engineering books on design methods. In this special application, it is used in reverse (from its traditional practice) to interpret a structure whose ultimate means already exist (as the Functions of the Information Structure). In this process, nodes of the structure are named as ends for the means beneath them. Transforming newly named ends into new means as the process moves up the structure, the analyst (or team of analysts) moves from the specific means at the bottom to the most general end at the top.

A good Means/Ends Analysis will produce a named structure with clear balance at each level. Titles for a process at any given level will be at the same level of description. Going from top to bottom in the structure, the kind of description will move from terms that have broad, general qualities to terms with narrow, discrete qualities, increasing in specificity to the Function level where Functions have the quality of individual actions.

The Form
The Means/Ends form organizes the hierarchy from left (lowest level) to right in order to maximize the use of space on an 8 1/2 by 11 standard page. The form can accommodate segments of an Information Structure up to the third (300) level. For higher level segments, the form takes higher level nodes as its lowest level terms. Thus, when all segments to the 300 level have been named, the analysis can continue by using 300 level nodes at the left of the form; nodes to the 600 level can then be named working to the right.

The form itself is not necessary for the process. For a team working together as a committee of the whole, the process can be conducted in entirety on a black or white board. The critical concept is the means/end progression applied bottom-up from Functions to system title.

Style
Three stylistic features distinguish a good Means/Ends analysis:

  • The progression from lowest level to highest is matched by changes in the title style. At the lowest level (first level clusters), the style is most appropriately that of an Activity--a title of one or more words with the key word ending in a gerund (-ing). At higher levels, the style changes to titles in Mode style, where the key word, describes an operation or major form of system behavior (production, for example, rather than producing, which would better fit the Activity level).
  • All titles are process titles-expressing action, more immediate and specific lower in the structure, more comprehensive and general near the top.
  • Word choices for titles at any level express similar levels of generality across the structure. They match up for style and, among themselves, divide up the system evenly at the level for which they exist.
 

The research project entitled "Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants" (Access to Justice)
was developed jointly by Chicago-Kent College of Law, the Institute of Design and the National Center for State Courts.

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