The allocation of time spent in different stages of problem solving: problem finding and the development of engineering expertise

Context: Four major steps of problem solving include understanding the problem, planning the solution/s, implementation and evaluation. Despite a significant body of research on engineering problem solving, it is unclear how the problem solving steps occur in practice and whether there are any differences in the approaches of engineers with varying industry experience. Purpose: The research questions investigated were: a) Based on the first 3 stages of problem solving process: i) Understanding the problem, ii) Planning, and iii) Implementation, what proportion of time is devoted by engineering practitioners to each step? and b) Does the time devoted to the different stages of problem solving change over the years in profession? Approach: A survey method was undertaken and 215 engineers with varied industry experiences as well as fields were involved in the study. The responses were then categorised based on different levels of industry experience from novice to experts. The data were analysed statistically with SPSS software. Results: It was found that differences exist between the responses of the different groups of engineers. It was observed that there is a link between industry experience and the time spent at different stages of problem solving, especially in Stage 1 (Understanding the problem). Conclusions: A number of key findings are presented in this study. It was found that industry exposure is crucial for the acquisition of skills that are important for proper problem understanding. The study also provides the evidence that around 10 years of industry experience really formed engineering expertise. These findings have implication to the future development of educational strategies, including in the choices of the type of heuristics that may assist young engineers in developing their problem analysis skills more effectively.