Basics on Problem Solving & Investigations
There’s a nice article at SpiderLabs (Sniper Forensics – Part 1: A Brief History Lesson) which summarizes three interesting thesis and adopts them to modern problem solving and investigations (e.g. forensics).
Occam’s Razor / Lex Parsimoniae
(by William of Occam / Ockham)
When selecting hypothesis, the one that makes the fewest number of new assumptions is more likely to be correct.
Modern variant: KISS – keep it simple stupid!
Locard’s Exchange Principle / Locard’s Theory
(by Dr. Edmond Locard)
The perpetrator will leave residual traces of every action behind. You simply have to know what they are and where to look.
The Alexiou Principle
(by Mike Alexiou)
- What questions are you looking to answer?
- What data do you need to answer the question?
- How do you extract and analyze the data?
- What does the data tell you?
This can break down investigations down into smaller and more manageable fragments.