Problem and Opportunity Identification in Management Science

The development of OR/MS has been such that much emphasis has been placed on processes for solving problems with little or no regard for processes which identify problems. The field is replete with schemes and algorithms which assume that the problem has been nicely formulated as a mathematical statement. Textbooks abound with examples of these techniques, which usually start with a statement such as “Consider the problem ...” But the haunting questions remain to be discussed. How did the analyst come about to consider that problem? How does the analyst know that this problem is the one that the client wants solved? How does the client know that he has a problem in the first place? This area of problem identification has long been ignored in textbooks or pushed aside with such assertions as “problem definition is an art,” implying that one must sit at the feet of a master for several years in order to gain the needed expertise. But when one does that, one finds that the master has certain methods he/she uses to identify and specify problems. I believe that these techniques are not as mystifying as one might think and that they can be discussed and generalized. I propose that this column be a forum for the exposition and generalization of problem identification techniques.