The Is vs. Is Not analysis is a powerful problem-solving tool that makes the team think about the problem in more detail - specifically, what is and is not the problem. It helps the team focus its attention on the problems that the team is facing and not stray to areas that are not important. This tool helps the team focus on what is in and is not in scope.
You can use this tool when you are part of the way through a problem, and you are stuck and unsure what you are trying to solve or having difficulty determining what is important. You can also use this tool when planning a solution to decide what to include and what to exclude from the solution. This analysis documents where, what, when, and who are associated with the problem. This is a good technique to pinpoint a problem and narrow the search for a root cause.
To add the Is vs. Is Not a tool to your worksheet, click on Project and then select Is - Is Not Analysis.
Inputs
Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.
Checklist
A sample screenshot of the checklist menu is shown below.
1
Checklist: The input dialog box contains a checklist that you can use to ensure the proper application of the is vs is not analysis. Click on the blue text to toggle the setting to respond to the question.
2
View Example:
Click on this button to open the example file. You can view the example to get an idea of how to fill out this tool, or you can use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your project needs.
3
Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
4
Cancel Button: Click on this button to cancel all changes and exit this dialog box.
5
OK Button: Click on this button to save all changes and compute analysis results.
Worksheet
On the worksheet, fill out the details about the problem you are trying to solve and highlight the differences between the various elements of what is and what is not the issue you are facing. Based on the differences between these two columns, try to identify the potential causes for these differences. Based on this analysis, try to shortlist the most critical potential causes.
Verify
If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below.
The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green-colored checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark, and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
1
Item:
The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
2
Status:
The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
3
Overall Status:
The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay.
Outputs
Click on Compute Outputs to generate the outputs from this analysis. A sample screenshot of the worksheet is shown below.
If the analysis computation is successful, the following message is displayed.
Examples
The following examples can be found in the software's Examples folder.
Select a problem (such as a computer making a loud noise during operation) and create an Is-Is Not Analysis (Is vs. Is Not Analysis v1.xlsx).