This is a shortened version of my thoughts on 3-D thinking. Working on a long version with equations, but needed to write this.

What is 3-D thinking? I haven’t been able to find a definitive definition, but a lot of things that refer to it, so I’m going to take a crack at defining what it means.

When we think about solving problems, normally we only think about ourselves as it relates to the issue at hand. However, when we design software applications to meet specific business needs, thinking of multiple connection points 2 or more levels deep with temporal constraints and sensitivity can produce a higher ROI. Because we should be thinking about ROI in everything we do as an IT Professional.

Example, take a project with the goal to streamline and automate a specific manufacturing process for a consumable product. We get our requirements from the client in the form of input data and print it. Normally, we’d see this as an easy data input application, however, were else could this data be utilized?

Since it is a consumable and perishable product, we combine marketing and sales information with the history of this data. By doing this we can determine the quality of our manufacturing process to include what went into the product. Heck, you could take it even further and factor in weather, current events, and even sports to a lesser degree, into the equation which will derive measurable metrics to improve ROI.

How many companies would do back flips for this kind of information. Forecasting to the extreme!!!!

3-D thinking can be simple or as complex as it needs to be. Don’t over-engineer, but think of connection points. That’s what 3-D thinking is all about, connection points. Everything you write has some kind of impact, whether you see it or not, to something else. But understanding there is connection points is only half of it, you have to communicate with these points, or people. Don’t silo yourself, it doesn’t do any good and you’d make a better impression to others by opening lines of communications.

Communication is the catalyst to great ideas, because every idea has a timeframe, don’t wait.