Joe Harless
 
 

1973

 Front-End Analysis, 13 smart questions
  Harless explains that the purpose of conducting a front-end analysis is to ask a series of ‘smart questions’ in order to prevent spending money on unnecessary activities. “FEA is problem solving. It does involve decision making. It can be expressed in terms of a series of questions” (Harless, 1973, p. 231).
The major smart questions are:
1. Do we have a problem?
2. Do we have a performance problem?
3. How will we know when the problem is solved?
4. What is the performance problem?
5. Should we allocate resources to solve it?
6. What are the possible causes of the problem?
7. What evidence bears on each possibility?
8. What is the probable cause?
9. What general solution type is indicated?
10. What are the alternate subclasses of solution?
11. What are the costs, effects, and development times of each solution?
12. What are the constraints?
13. What are the overall goals?
  Harless was the first to use the term Front End Analysis and also said that Front-end analysis is all about money and about how to spend money in ways that will be most beneficial to the organization and the performers in that organization (Chyung, 2007).
 
Sources
  • Chyung, S.Y. (2007). Foundations of Instructional and Performance Technology. Massachusetts: HRD press.
  • Harless, J. (1973). An analysis of front-end analysis. Improving Human Performance: A Research Quarterly, 4, 229-244.