Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
is part of a changing series of online help content — the current version
is release 3.1. As a field, it stands in relation to other content in the
application and other ways of getting help: the online help must change if
the application content changes. We need to mention that the user has
others ways of getting help, for example, through the user manual or by
calling a helpdesk number. If one was describing the online help module,
these three angles — static, dynamic, and field — can be a useful way of
organizing what one wants to say about online help.
McKinsey's MECE
Ethan Rasiel, in his topic entitled
The McKinsey Way
, describes the prob-
lem-solving process called MECE, which is an acronym for Mutually
Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive. Every issue that one wants to address
should be separate and distinct. The set of all such distinct issues should
cover all that needs to be covered. This is a good communication
approach, as well as a good problem-solving approach, when one is trying
to get a number of points across, whether it is in a presentation or in a
requirements document.
MECE
MECE structures your thinking with maximum clarity
(hence minimum confusion) and maximum complete-
ness. MECE starts at the top level of your solution—the
list of issues making up the problem you have to solve.
When you think you have determined the issues, take
a hard look at them. Is each one a separate and distinct
issue? If so then your list is
mutually exclusive
. Does
every aspect of the problem come under one (and only
one) of these issues - that is, have you thought of every-
thing? If so, then your issues are
collectively exhaustive
.
—From Ethan M. Rasiel,
The McKinsey Way
The Tree Structure
The tree structure is a familiar organizing mechanism. It has some nodes
at higher levels, branching out as one goes deeper or lower. If one
