Problem Statement In Research – Importance, Format, Elements, Techniques and Procedure

Problem statement in research is basically two or more lines written and it consists of detail information about the issue. It is the statement in research that mainly highlights the negative aspect of situation.

For example, there has been great transformation in the procedure improvement unit in an organization because of which management in an organization is facing issue in tracking the present status of business activities. It is the factor which also has significant influence on the services provided to customers. In addition to this, there has been increase in number of employee absentees because of which other team in an enterprise is facing the issue in making the timely delivery of service to customers.

The objective of problem statement in research

The main objective of problem statement in research is to address the issue and provide detailed information about the same.

Importance of writing problem statement:

• Witting the problem statement is considered to be a crucial part of the research. It is the problem statement in research that will help you in developing an understanding of the signification of the issue.
• The problem statement in the research is valuable as it helps in demonstrating the usefulness and value of the investigation.
• It is the problem statement in research that will help you in designing the questions which you want to answer by conducting the investigation process.
• Writing the problem statement in research will help you in identifying the gap between present state issues and the desired state.
• Writing an effective problem statement is very crucial in order to capture the attention of the reader and developed interest related to the topic in them.
• The inclusion of all important elements in problem statements helps in minimizing the chances of project failure.

Techniques of writing problem statement

There are some tips and tricks which you can use for writing the problem in an effective manner these are:

• While writing the problem statement in research you are required to concentrate on the user.
• Instead of emphasizing on identifying the way to resolve the issue you should concentrate on the performance gap.
• The problem statement that you are writing should not be too narrow or broad. In addition to this, you need to provide a sufficient amount of information that is required for developing an understanding of specific issues.

Elements of the problem statement

            Three elements of the problem statement are:

a)Provide detail about the issue: It is considered to be as very much important element that is to be included in the problem statement. While writing the problem statements at the initial stage you are required to address the problem and need to provide complete detail about the same. At this phase, you are required to prove the significance of the problem.

b)Define Technique use for solving the issue: An effective problem statement consists of detail information about the methodology that you will you for resolving the specific issue.

c)Clearly define the scope and objectives: While writing problem statement you are required to define the purpose and scope of your research.

Format of writing problem statement

You should follow the proper format for writing Problem statement which include:

• Explain the situation: This is a situation where you are required to provide detailed information about the Status of the current situation. In addition, you also need to clearly define what changes or objectives you are willing to accomplish by employing a specific solution.

Example: Users, in order to have access to the applications, are required to sign on their laptops.

• State the problem faced in the investigation: At this phase after analyzing the problem statement, you required to highlight the actual issue related to the subject or problems in facilitating the investigation on specific issues.

Example: taking the above illustration, it is the reality that only three applications are generally utilized for completing work. The current state is that presently password is used for protecting every application, but the issue is that passwords also get expired after some time.

• Define Consequences of the Specific issue: It is a stage where you need to clearly highlight the result or consequences of the particular issue.

Example: Considering the above example, the consequences of the issue are that lot of time get wasted in logging into different applications. Increase in high-security risk and you have to enter username and password for logging into applications.

•  Present suggestion for solving the issue: This section where you need to suggest a little effective solution for resolving the problem. Before providing the suggestions you can seek advice or feedback from other stakeholders engage in an investigation.

For example; considering the above example, the proposed solution should be the installation of advantaged software. The other proposed solution could be a special type of training can be provided to users and they should be made aware of the security risk associated with the use of different application.

The procedure of writing problem statement

After successful identification of the issue, you are required to write the problem statement in three phases

step 1. Contextualizing the issue: At this stage of the writing problem statement, you are required to provide the description of the aspect of the problem with you is familiar.  It is a stage where you need to mainly emphasize on providing concrete description about situation or phenomenon. You should provide the detail about the people those who are most likely to be influenced by such issue.

For example, There has been a continuous decline in the financial performance of the company due to the wrong investment decision taken by management. It is the issue which has highly affected stakeholders of company such as employees, shareholder, investors, etc.  Due to the decrease in income firm is facing an issue in providing salaries on time to workers.

step 2. Demonstrating the importance of the issue: while writing a problem statement it is very crucial for you to determine the relevance of the investigation that you are performing. At this stage, it is very crucial for you to determine the issue which you have selected for performing investigation is feasible and researchable.

step 3. Establishment of aims and objectives: while establishing the aim and objectives, after writing the problem statement instead of concentrating on finding the conclusive solution for the issue you need to mainly focus on the identification of root cause of the issue. It is a stage where you are required to suggest the most effective techniques for resolving the problem.