The list of possible changes needs to be filtered to set priorities.

The Investigation Catalyst Diamond tools provide for the analysis and evaluation of intended changes, using either default criteria or user specified criteria. This involves the review of the changed operation for the introduction of new problems or inefficiencies, and the assessment of each of the changes that survive this review.

These steps are described in detail in the Evaluation section of the Recommendations Tutorial. With these tools, analysts can produce a ranked list of candidate changes for improving operations.

The first analysis step is to examine the changes to determine if they introduce any new risks to the operation, by examining the new interactions. Be particularly diligent when dealing with overlapping actions, as show in the Overlap View. Define and document any you find. Then do the options assessment and tradeoff documentation.

Briefly, using Investigation Catalyst Diamond Options and Tradeoff panels, the steps are

1. predict and document how each change would improve subsequent work flows, and if possible, how much of an improvement the change is estimated to produce;
   
   
2. develop the full range of considerations favoring and opposing (pros and cons of) implementation of each alternative, assigning a weight to each consideration; and
   
   
3. rank the balanced (net) weight of the pros and cons for each change, to support the selection decision.

To filter the changes introduced in replacement systems, do a Hazard Analysis to analyze the options and tradeoffs.

While these analyses may seem tedious, it is much less expensive to find unexpected anomalies on paper before changes are made than retrofitting them after they are implemented.

Build skills by practicing analyses with the Diamond panels.