Develop Possible Solutions and Create an Action Plan

In the case of simple problems, your plan could literally spell itself out, but for more complex problems where the stakes are high, it pays to take some time and lay out your plan. This way, you can look at all the consequences created by the different solutions and work out which parties this might affect. For a large organization, this can be a critical step to ensure that all the necessary parties have approved the plan before executing. It's also an exercise in good communication if the problem requires more than one party to execute. Documenting complex action plans in a typed form will help reduce the probability of miscommunication or misunderstood steps, which can result in disaster. Remember, even something as subtle as the order of your firewall rules can cause sweeping changes to all your other rules and might lock you out of the very systems you are trying to fix. Planning pays off in the end.