Designed to help problem solvers improve their street smarts, this hands-on guide examines the components of problem solving, and presents a series of graduated exercises—drawn from a variety of industrial applications—to familiarize, reinforce, challenge, and stretch readers creatively in the problem solving process.

Leads readers step-by-step through a complete problem-solving process—from encountering an ill-defined problem to identifying the real problem, effectively exploring constraints, planning a robust approach, carrying it through to a viable solution, and then evaluating what has been accomplished.