MEA (Means-Ends Analysis) is a problem solving strategy first introduced in GPS (General Problem Solver)[Newell & Simon, 1963]. The search process over the problem space is combines aspects of both forward and backward reasoning in that both the condition and action portions of rules are looked at when considering which rule to apply. The rule that reduces the most amount of distance is choosen to apply.
The MAX architecture comes with a simple MEA planner that decides which lframes to apply.
Go to a discussion of this property for multiple architectures.