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Problem Solving and Decision Making in Groups 273

followed an overzealous and misinformed leader, they never collectively talked about
the risks of resigning or formulated any contingency plans should their strategy fail. 32
Once the group has developed its solution and made its choice, it is ready for the
final phase of this problem-solving discussion: implementation.

Step 5 of P-MOPS: Implementing the Solution Chosen
Once a group has made its choice, it is now ready to implement its solution. Members
must now decide What will we do to put our solution into effect? Sometimes a group will
hand this task off to a different group or individual, but here we are assuming that the
same members who made the choice are responsible for carrying it out. Sometimes the
implementation process is almost as complex as the entire problem-solving process;
someone needs to see that the group has worked out all necessary details. The group
must answer the following questions: Who will do what, when, and by what date? Do we
need any follow-up evaluation of how well our solution is working? If so, how will we do that?

Use PERT to Keep Track of Implementation Details For complex problems involving
the entire group, the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) can help mem- Program Evaluation
bers keep track of implementation details. Sometimes a solution is very complicated, and Review Technique
involving a variety of materials, people whose work must be coordinated, and steps (PERT)
that must be completed in a specific sequence. Think of what is involved in remodel- A procedure for
ing a large building on campus or constructing something like a space station. PERT planning the details
was developed to expedite such detailed operations so that they can be done efficiently to implement a
and so that people can keep track of each step of the process. The procedure can be complex solution that
simplified to help even a student project group keep track of who is responsible for involves many
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what. The main points of PERT are summarized in Table 10.7, and an example of a people and
simple PERT chart for a student project group is provided in Table 10.8. resources.
We have just described all the P-MOPS steps. P-MOPS, as with any problem-
solving procedure, is not meant to provide rigid steps that group members must
blindly follow. P-MOPS is meant as a guide—a flexible, adaptable sequence of things
to consider. For instance, a group may realize they forgot to think about something in
an earlier step. They should then recycle and take care of the work that was forgotten
instead of risking a poor decision later. Throughout our discussion of P-MOPS,

TABLE 10.7
1. Describe the final step (how the solution should appear when fully operational). Steps in the PERT
2. Enumerate any events that must occur before the final goal is realized. procedure
3. Order these steps chronologically.
4. If necessary, develop a flow diagram of the process and all the steps in it.
5. Generate a list of all the activities, resources, and materials needed to
accomplish each step.
6. Estimate the time needed to accomplish each step; then add all the estimates to
get a total time for implementing the plan.
7. Compare the total time estimate with deadlines or expectations and correct as
necessary (by assigning more people or less time to a given step).
8. Determine which members will be responsible for each step.

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