Originating in a political slogan of the 1980's, the term has metamorphosed into a verb and outlasted the headlines that launched it. Many readers would find this term obscure. Without a clearly documented, rational approach to solving complex problems, decisionmakers and participants could not understand what teams were analyzing, how teams approached problems, and what the end product would be. This led to confusion, misunderstandings, and delays in the process.
Steps are simultaneous and iterative.
Concepts such as communication, credibility, andpriority are repeated themes throughout each step. We needed to present the decision process concepts in a useful way so readers could understand the interactions. Their first response was to create a conventional paper manual. Though the result won awards from the Burueau and from the Society for Technical Communication, the paper document still didn't meet readers' needs. Readers had difficulty locating the material they needed, and the book continually repeated concepts.