Book Review
The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving
Book Review on a Practical Guide on Policy Analysis:
The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving by Eugene Bardach
The handbook serves as a guide to concepts and methods applied in the analysis of policy for practicing policy analysts and students alike, economizing and uplifting. Approaching the issue complexly, it strives to lead to reasonable efficiency of problem solving, and with a minimum of anxious confusion during the process. The role of policy analysis has widened ever since: according to Bardach, today’s policy analysts “help in planning, budgeting, program evaluation, program design, program management, public relations” (Bardach, 2012), and a multitude of functions, involving individual, teamwork, and organizational actions in the public, nonprofit, and for-profit spheres.
Bardach claims that “policy analysis is more art than science” (Bardach, 2012) which draws on intuition as much as on method. The Eightfold Path, developed by him, is a structured approach to problem-solving process which consists of eight main elements, or stages: defining the problem, assembling some evidence, constructing the alternatives, selecting the criteria, projecting the outcomes, confronting the Trade-offs, deciding, and telling the story (Bardach, 2012). The benefit of the Path is that it could keep you to stay focused on the process and keep in mind all the essential decisions and tasks which otherwise might be easily forgotten.
So long as each step of the Path is further analyzed in details, additional aspects and tips are provided to every single stage. The first step, defining the problem, involves thinking of deficit and excess, making the definition evaluative by using issue rhetoric, diagnosing the conditions which may cause problems and identifying latent opportunities as, according to Bardach, “A special kind of problem is an opportunity missed” (Bardach, 2012). He also emphasizes on the importance of data collection and designing policy alternatives on the basis of market, production, or evolutionary models. While constructing the alternatives, it is important to consider targets and budgets, as well as to take advantage of design efforts made previously by others (Bardach, 2012). The following possibilities concerning this stage include the following possibilities: starting with the least flexible, as well as with the most “powerful” design elements, the most or the least transitory ones, as well as the most or the least costly. The fourth stage of the Path provides a list of commonly used evaluative and practical criteria (such as efficiency, equality, freedom, legality, political acceptability, robustness and improvability), while the fifth one suggests the ways to shape the project outcomes matrix. Decision making stage, the seventh one, explains the efficiency of twenty-dollar bill test, while the last stage introduces so-called Grandma Bessie Test, essential for the reality check.
Bardach mentions, though, that the steps provided by him are not necessarily taken in that precise order, as well as warn not to look too closely at the guide by following strictly all the guidelines, as a personal approach to situation would definitely be of a greater use.
References
Bardach, E. (2012). A Practical Guide on Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective
Problem Solving.
