Sharing Web Information On Structuring Business Strategy Projects

I am currently working on a business strategy project in the wireless space. In solving a client’s problem, hypothesis formulation plays a key role in putting structure around one’s work. I’ve mentioned the (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) MECE framework before, as a somewhat lower-level philosophy for structuring the hypothesis.

At a higher-level, however, I think the following site does a good job of highlighting from a project management and client engagement perspective the importance of up-front hypothesis generation work. One snip that is very key is the following:

In an effort to bring an assignment in on budget, project managers often fail to structure the problem-solving process up front. Instead of framing hypotheses for the team to test, they launch the team straight into analysis. Junior consultants and researchers, armed with laptops and presentation software, industriously produce charts that display findings. And then, during the week before a presentation, the project manager struggles to pull together the communication, develop the messages, and order the data and insights into a compelling, coherent, fact-based argument that will move the client to action, or fully inform him of the progress to date.

Paradoxically, the manager often finds he has both too much and too little information. Too much in that large amounts of the data and analysis do not support the essential story line. Too little in that support for key arguments is missing.

Do folks have other good public sources of information on the Internet that they’ve seen with respect to hypothesis formulation, presentation, best practices, etc. that they’d like to share? If so, please feel free to do so here.