During a workshop, it is useful to ask participants to come up with ideas which are listed for later evaluation. What is this technique called?

Brainstorming is a fundamental group creativity technique used to generate a large number of ideas for the solution to a problem. The core principle, as described in the question, is to encourage participants to contribute ideas spontaneously without immediate criticism or evaluation. All ideas are captured and listed, with the analysis and evaluation phase deferred until after the idea generation session is complete. This separation of idea generation from evaluation is a key characteristic of brainstorming, designed to foster a more open and creative environment.

A. Round Robin: This is a specific facilitation method to ensure equal participation, where each person contributes in turn. It can be used during brainstorming but is not the name of the overall technique itself.

C. Mind Mapping: This is a diagramming technique used to visually organize information and ideas around a central concept. While it is an excellent tool for capturing and structuring the output of a brainstorming session, it is not the act of generating the ideas.

D. Mess Finding: This is an initial step in some creative problem-solving models, focused on identifying a broad, ill-defined area of challenge (a "mess") before defining a specific problem to be solved. It precedes the idea generation phase.

1. International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). (2015). A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide)

Version 3.0. Section 10.8.1

"Brainstorming: Purpose

" states

"The goal of brainstorming is to produce a broad or diverse set of options... Participants are encouraged to be creative

to build on the ideas of others

and to withhold judgment or criticism of the ideas that are generated."

2. Coulin

C. (2016). A Situational Approach to Requirements Engineering Processes: A Goal-Based Perspective. Springer. In Chapter 3

Section 3.2.2 "Elicitation Techniques

" brainstorming is described as a technique for generating ideas in a group setting where "criticism is ruled out" and "evaluation is postponed." (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23436-9)

3. University of Washington

Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. (n.d.). Design Methods: Brainstorming. Courseware. The description outlines the process: "Brainstorming is a method for generating a large quantity of ideas in a short amount of time... Defer judgment. Don't criticize any ideas. All ideas are welcome." This aligns with the scenario of listing ideas for later evaluation.