TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 showed what a decision is. This chapter discusses the significance, for general engineering, of describing the decision process to others and what we need to do to successfully have others understand the decision process we have pursued.
Why is it necessary to describe the decision process of inventing a technology when the technology already exists? Figure 2.1 shows the reason. Just looking at an established technology does not allow us to reach a real understanding of it, to use it and to develop it further. To enable such further steps, we need to see the process of giving birth to the technology, especially the process of making decisions. We need to know the mind process of inventing the technology (Figure 2.1(a)), and this means the inventor has to record the mind process in a form that can be communicated to other people. The description of such records has to exceed the threshold necessary for technology transfer (Figure 2.1(b)). Once the description surpasses the threshold, the technology can transfer over time, space, organization, culture, and technology field; however, if the record level remains below the threshold, the technology just disappears.
Figure 2.2 shows what happens when we use records of decision processes. These situations include the following:
When the use is undetermined at the time of making the records but the individual or the organization requires them.
Supporting the processes of thinking,...
