“…Problem formulation is considered a portal into complex system understanding and is instrumental in the eventual development of solutions that might bring about positive change (Dery, 1984;Lynn, 1980;Warfield, 1976). The differing terminology associated with problem formulation phase include: formulating the mess (Ackoff, 1974(Ackoff, , 1978Majone and Quade, 1980;Mason and Mitroff, 1981;Mitroff and Emshoff, 1979), problem articulation (Wellington, 1887), problem bounding (Checkland, 1993), problem context (Crownover, 2005;Jackson, 1991Jackson, , 2003, problem definition (Dery, 1984;Blanchard and Fabrycky, 2006;Gibson et al, 2007;Warfield, 1976), problem framing (Fairhurst and Sarr, 1996;Keating et al, 2003), problem identification (Majone and Quade, 1980), problem setting (Majone and Quade, 1980;Miser and Quade, 1988) and problem situation (Miser and Quade, 1988). These different terms all reflect different ways in which problem formulation has been described.…”