An unfamiliar analytics request often hides several different problems. Some have a known fix. Some need careful diagnosis. Some cannot be solved by analysis at all, because nobody knows yet what works. Using one method for all of them wastes time or causes harm. The Cynefin framework is a way to notice which kind of situation you are in before you choose a method.
What Cynefin distinguishes
Cynefin was created by Dave Snowden. It reached a wide management audience through A Leader's Framework for Decision Making by Snowden and Mary Boone in Harvard Business Review (November 2007). That article used the labels simple, complicated, complex, chaotic and disorder. The current Cynefin Domains page on The Cynefin Company's wiki uses clear, complicated, complex, chaos and a central domain of confusion. The Cynefin Company describes the framework as a way to make decisions in context through sense-making.
| Domain | Cause and effect | Fitting practice | Response pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | Self-evident to any reasonable person |
