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How To Write A Problem Statement

- The problem statement should include a vision of success, a clear issue statement describing the specific problem, and the method that will be used to address it. - The 5 W's - who, what, where, when, why - can help uncover pertinent details to include in the issue statement. - A good problem statement defines a problem that is solvable within a reasonable timeframe.

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Thamaiyanthi Subramaniam
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496 views2 pages

How To Write A Problem Statement

- The problem statement should include a vision of success, a clear issue statement describing the specific problem, and the method that will be used to address it. - The 5 W's - who, what, where, when, why - can help uncover pertinent details to include in the issue statement. - A good problem statement defines a problem that is solvable within a reasonable timeframe.

Uploaded by

Thamaiyanthi Subramaniam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How To Write A Problem Statement

SUMMARY

 A problem statement is a clear description of the issue(s), it includes a vision, issue


statement, and method used to solve the problem.
 The 5 'W's can be used to spark the discussion about the problem.
 A problem statement expresses the words that will be used to keep the effort focused and
it should represent a solvable problem.

How to Write a Problem Statement

A problem statement is a clear concise description of the issue(s) that need(s) to be


addressed by a researcher. It is used to center and focus the researcherm at the beginning,
keep the researcher on track during the effort, and is used to validate that the effort delivered an
outcome that solves the problem statement. It has a specific form:

 Vision - what does the world look like if we solve the problem?
 Issue Statement - one or two sentences that describe the problem using specific issues. It is
not a "lack of a solution" statement. For example, our problem is that we don't have an ERP
system.

 Method - the process that will get followed to solve the problem.

 How to get started

The 5 'W's - Who, What, Where, When and Why - is a great tool that helps get pertinent
information out for discussion.

Who - Who does the problem affect? Specific groups, organizations, customers, etc.

What - What are the boundaries of the problem, e.g. organizational, work flow, geographic,
customer, segments, etc. - What is the issue? - What is the impact of the issue? - What impact
is the issue causing? - What will happen when it is fixed? - What would happen if we didn’t solve
the problem?
When - When does the issue occur? - When does it need to be fixed?

Where - Where is the issue occurring? Only in certain locations, processes, products, etc.

Why - Why is it important that we fix the problem? - What impact does it have on the business
or customer? - What impact does it have on all stakeholders, e.g. employees, suppliers,
customers, shareholders, etc. Each of the answers will help to zero in on the specific issue(s)
and frame the Issue Statement. Your problem statement should be solveable. That is, it should
take a reasonable amount of time to formulate, try and deploy a potential solution.

Example

Consider a software development and hosted data services company that supplies products
and services to wireless carriers. They had issues deploying new software releases into the
production environment. Deployment in this case is the work necessary for taking a production
ready binary and installing, testing and releasing it into the production environment. The
company failed to deploy the releases on-schedule over 50% of the time.

Problem Statement:

We want all of our software releases to go to production seamlessly, without defects, where
everyone is aware and informed of the outcomes and status. (Vision)

Today we have too many release failures that result in too many rollback failures. If we ignore
this problem; resources will need to increase to handle the cascading problems, and we may
miss critical customer deadlines which could result in lost revenue, SLA penalties, lost business,
and further damage to our quality reputation. (Issue Statement)

We will use our Kaizen Blitz methodology in evaluating the last release to help us improve
our processes. (Method)

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