NATURE OF PROBLEM ILL‐STRUCTUREDNESS: IMPLICATIONS FOR PROBLEM FORMULATION AND SOLUTION

Abstract

ABSTRACT The distinction between ill‐structured and well‐structured decision problems is extended in this paper to include the degree of familiarity that a decision maker has with the initial state of the problem, its desired state, and appropriate transformations for resolving the problem. It is shown that problem ill‐structuredness may result from inadequate information regarding any of these components and that the nature of problem ill‐structuredness has important implications for problem formulation and solution. A decision tree is presented which represents strategies for either reformulating primary problems of each class of ill‐structuredness to a more readily solved form, or solving the problem as initially formulated.