Chapter 2 From Organizational Concern to Analytical Question

The quality of an applied analysis depends on the quality of the questions that guide it. This chapter develops a disciplined way to move from a broad organizational concern to management, research, analytical, and implementation questions that can be investigated with appropriate evidence and revised as the project develops.

Learning outcomes

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

• use questioning to uncover the decision behind an initial request;
• distinguish management, research, analytical, and implementation questions;
• convert broad concerns into answerable analytical questions;
• identify assumptions and evidence gaps before analysis begins; and
• maintain a question map as the project develops.

Key terms

• Organizational concern: A broad issue, uncertainty, opportunity, or perceived problem that motivates investigation.

• Management question: A question about what an organization should understand, decide, prioritize, or do.

• Research question: A question answered by gathering and evaluating existing knowledge, external evidence, or new contextual information.

• Analytical question: A question that identifies what will be described, compared, explained, predicted, classified, segmented, or projected using data.

• Implementation question: A question about how a proposed action would be carried out, monitored, and adjusted.

• Assumption: A condition treated as true for the purpose of analysis even though it may not be directly established by the available evidence.

• Question map: A structured record connecting the organizational concern to management, research, analytical, and implementation questions.

• Scope boundary: A clear statement of what the project will and will not investigate.