Tools for representing and deciding between alternative strategies

[blink416]

1) I'm looking for methodologies available for 'corporate project control processes', for tools that help in developing strategies for scientific research in which there are billions of paths that one could follow, most of which are cul-de-sacs. In order to deliver, I believe one has to very carefully explore all the options (tasks and strategies involved) and make a realistic choice as to which path to spend your life trying to pursue. Developing a drug for treatment of cancer for example.

Any suggestions ?


2) I'm also looking for software solutions that support the above methodologies. I would like to do that with Microsoft Project if possible ( see post at

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1311531&page=1

), but I'm not sure if trying to do this with Project involves too much effort ? Are there alternatives that work well with Outlook ? (I use Outlook a lot and would like my project management software to be compatible with it)

In terms of the specification, I'm probably looking for an amalgam of Microsoft Visio and Project, to be able to first set up the alternative strategies - visually as well as operationally with competing and optional (sets of) tasks - and then estimate cost, time, resources and quality for the tasks to explicitly use these criteria to choose exactly what is the best route forward. Ideally I'd be able to ask Project or some other software to highlight / choose the strategy with minimal cost and with another click of the button with minimal time requirements or with highest quality estimates ignoring other criteria, or even better assign relative weights to the criteria and choose the best strategy accordingly. The specification may, however, change if other methodologies for choosing between alternative strategies are suggested in (1) ...

PDQBach suggested Macroscope (see link above), would that do the job ?


Thanks for your comments in advance !

 

[grooke]

I have one thought here. To solve that problem you need inspiration and persperation. If you rely on software for that you will be disappointed.

To get inspirations, you may need some tool to help your mind around all the binary possibilities. I use FreeMind (its free).

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/

There are other marketing tools that help with subjective decisions.

To justify your inspiration, you may need software, but what is wrong with Power Point or Excel?

Don't let a computer program determine your career. Let your emotions and intuition do it.

Gil

 

[blink416]

Thank you for the link Gil, Freemind seems to neatly do what standard bullet lists can't, with a nicely structured visual organization and the folding feature. Does Freemind allow the user to input custom values at each node - e.g. cost, time, value for effort etc - that could be used in integrative comparisons for decision-making ?
This takes me to the subjective vs objective suggestion. I take your point in the sense that I'm aware of the dangers of GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out), but disagree with reliance on emotions and intuition when dealing with long-term, complex scientific projects. I believe in rationality combined with inspiration and perseveration.

 

[grooke]

FreeMind just allows you to define tree structured static logic. You can edit values, just as part of the text. You can represent networks instead of trees using cross links, but they gey a bit messy.

All of us have some Eureka moment, when something that was puzzling us, so in a sense we were thinking about it. But it is often when we had decided to go in a totally different direction. I have seen this often. I can quote examples.

I'm not also saying that GIGO applies. You can put perfect sense in and get perfect sense out, which you then follow. The key seems to be when that butterfly flaps its wings, random events may open a door for a few moments, and it is those who dive through it who get the prize.

Look at Crick and Watson. They were puzzled by the structure of DNA, which was tantalisingly close. So was the woman who should have shared the fame with them. If I remeber correctly, she was being precisely systematic and refused to be excited by these quixotic blokes. They got it and she missed the boat. I may not have the facts 100% here, but that is what I remember.

What I'm saying is that I agree with your concepts of inspiration and perserverence, but you have to give that inspiration the space to fluctuate.

Gil

 

[blink416]

Any references with regard to the original questions (1) and (2) ?

 

[johnherman]

Please see my response in thread731-1313616. There are many PM methodologies available rather than the traditional Waterfall. I suspect that if you have ID'ed the available paths and have some knowledge on which paths to try first, that the Staged Delivery or Spiral methodologies may be what you're looking for.

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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright