CONSENSUS-MAKING SUPPORT SYSTEMS DEDICATED TO CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

There are many creative thinking manual methods in the world. They are brainstorming method, brain-writing method, mind mapping, NM method, Equivalent Transformation method, KJ method, etc. Human thinking process for creative problem solving consists of four sub-processes. They are divergent thinking sub-process, convergent thinking sub-process, idea crystallization sub-process, and idea verification sub-process. In accordance with this proposal, most Japanese research and development is centered on this four types of creative thinking manual methods and support systems. In this paper, we describe three types of Group Decision Support Systems (DSSs) for creative problem solving, similar to KJ method. All design philosophy depends on bottom-up decision-making. They are knowledge acquisition support groupware GRAPE, consensus-making support systems Group Coordinator (I) and Group Coordinator (II). The characteristic function of GRAPE is knowledge merging for GRAPE users, and that of Group-Coordinator (I) and Group-Coordinator (II) is tradeoff resolution by sensitivity analysis and adjusting of user requirements by the QDA method, respectively. The systems that we have developed are similar to the KJ method, which is the most popular methodology for creative problem solving in Japan. The essence of our developed methodology and tools is that it boosts intellectual productivity. GRAPE and its successors can speed-up the given group decision making problem by two to three times with respect to the idea crystallization (evaluation and judgment) sub-process.