Software Engineering, Project Management, and Effectiveness
Have you thought about your default thinking patterns? I wrote a post on 3 Thinking Techniques to Improve Your Intellectual Horsepower at Sources of Insight. I use these 3 techniques fairly regularly. If you think about thinking as simply asking and answering questions, then improving your questions, can improve your answers. That’s the power of these 3 techniques; they are simple ways to improve your questions to improve you results.
What’s your favorite thinking technique?
My favorite way of thinking is using mindmaps. It is funny how much is stored in your brain. Like the other day I wrote down the subject World War II. I didn't know I knew so much about it. I think mindmaps are perfectly design for the way the brain works. Standard linear note taking is not capable of your brain's fullest potential.
I have used techniques from "The Thinker's Toolkit" - mostly the "pair ranking" which I couldn't quickly find a good reference to online, but basically, in a list of things you want to rank, you compare each combination of 2 things and record which you think is better and write down the rationalization for why it's better. Each item in the pair that 'wins' gets a point... at the end of all the comparisons, you should have an ordered list based on how many points each item has scored. I highly recommend the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Thinkers-Toolkit-Powerful-Techniques-Problem/dp/0812928083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250717920&sr=8-1
Also, I have used the CARVER Matrix which is supposedly a mission target prioritiation scheme used by Navy SEALS (as outlined in the book "Unleash the Warrior Within" - a mostly BS book, but the CARVER Matrix is cool)
Here's a reference about it:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/05/how-to-prioritize/
Back to the first book, tho... the Thinker's Toolkit has a lot of very very cool thinking tools in it.
Uh, that should be "rationale" not "rationalization" :D
@ Jenny
I'm a fan of mind maps and I use them often.
@ Richard
The Thinker's Toolkit sounds interesting. I originally thought this was part of THINKERTOYS but I see it's different.
I've used CARVER before and it's helpful. I think what's important from it is having an agreed set of values/criteria. I think the most effective decision frameworks are about organizing and clarifying criteria and giving them weights.