Comment by dwwoelfel
16 years ago
Use Poyla's methods of problem solving described in his book: How to Solve It (http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0691023565)
He deals specifically with mathematical problems, but the same ideas apply to computer science.
For an outline of the method see this Wikipedia article:
And if you're specifically trying to design an algorithm, you might look into "How to Solve It by Computer" by R.G. Dromey, which was inspired by the former:
http://www.amazon.com/Solve-Computer-Prentice-Hall-Internati...