Resolving organizational inefficiencies through crowdsourcing

As organizations grow in size and complexity, it is only natural that inefficiencies exist. One of the challenges faced by organizations is the information needed to identify, characterize, and resolve these inefficiencies is located in different stovepipes and may be biased based on a variety of factors. Both crowdsourcing and human computation research and design thinking practices have developed ways to overcome these challenges and solve complex problems by leveraging the knowledge, skills, and experiences of contributors. Sonalysts proposes to leverage existing methods and technologies to develop the Visual Argumentation for Resolving Inefficiencies (VARI) platform, which will apply these algorithms and computational processes to design thinking methods. The VARI algorithm and platform will enable the rapid enumeration, characterization, and resolution of organizational inefficiencies by optimizing communication between contributors. VARI will use a novel visual argumentation method in tandem with state-of-the-art crowdsourcing and decision-making algorithms to enable contributors and decision makers to readily understand how different inefficiencies affect different aspects of the organization. Phase I will result in a demonstration of the feasibility of VARI, a proof-of-concept of the software, and a robust test and evaluation plan that will be used in the Phase II effort.