The Decision Model

In the current fast-paced and constantly changing business environment, it is more important than ever for organizations to be agile, monitor business performance, and meet with increasingly stringent compliance requirements. Written by pioneering consultants and bestselling authors with track records of international success, The Decision Model: A Business Logic Framework Linking Business and Technology provides a platform for rethinking how to view, design, execute, and govern business logic. The book explains how to implement the Decision Model, a stable, rigorous model of core business logic that informs current and emerging technology. The authors supply a strong theoretical foundation, while succinctly defining the path needed to incorporate agile and iterative techniques for developing a model that will be the cornerstone for continual growth. Because the book introduces a new model with tentacles in many disciplines, it is divided into three sections: Section 1: A Complete overview of the Decision Model and its place in the business and technology world Section 2: A Detailed treatment of the foundation of the Decision Model and a formal definition of the Model Section 3: Specialized topics of interest on the Decision Model, including both business and technical issues The Decision Model provides a framework for organizing business rules into well-formed decision-based structures that are predictable, stable, maintainable, and normalized. More than this, the Decision Model directly correlates business logic to the business drivers behind it, allowing it to be used as a lever for meeting changing business objectives and marketplace demands. This book not only defines the Decision Model and but also demonstrates how it can be used to organize decision structures for maximum stability, agility, and technology independence and provide input into automation design.

Most of us face the same questions every day: What do I want? How can I get it? How can I live more happily and work more efficiently? This updated edition of the international bestseller distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used on MBA courses, and elsewhere, that will help you tackle these important questions - from the well known (the Eisenhower matrix for time management) to the less familiar but equally useful (the Swiss Cheese model). It will even show you how to remember everything you'll have learned by the end of it. Stylish and compact, this little book is a powerful asset. Whether you need to plot a presentation, assess someone's business idea or get to know yourself better, this unique guide will help you simplify any problem and take steps towards the right decision.

Providing a comprehensive overview of various methods and applications in decision engineering, this book presents chapters written by a range experts in the field. It presents conceptual aspects of decision support applications in various areas including finance, vendor selection, construction, process management, water management and energy, agribusiness , production scheduling and control, and waste management. In addition to this, a special focus is given to methods of multi-criteria decision analysis. Decision making in organizations is a recurrent theme and is essential for business continuity. Managers from various fields including public, private, industrial, trading or service sectors are required to make decisions. Consequently managers need the support of these structured methods in order to engage in effective decision making. This book provides a valuable resource for graduate students, professors and researchers of decision analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis and group decision analysis. It is also intended for production engineers, civil engineers and engineering consultants.

Most of us face the same questions every day: What do I want? And how can I get it? How can I live more happily and work more efficiently? This updated edition of the international bestseller distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used on MBA courses, and elsewhere, that will help you tackle these important questions - from the well known (the Eisenhower matrix for time management) to the less familiar but equally useful (the Swiss Cheese model). It will even show you how to remember everything you will have learned by the end of it. Stylish and compact, this little black book is a powerful asset. Whether you need to plot a presentation, assess someone's business idea or get to know yourself better, this unique guide will help you simplify any problem and take steps towards the right decision.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to provide guidance for determining when incorporating a decision-analytic model alongside a systemic review would be of added value for decision making purposes. The purpose of systematic reviews is to synthesize the current scientific literature on a particular topic in the form of evidence reports and technology assessments to assist public and private organizations in developing strategies that improve the quality of health care and decision making. However, there is often not enough evidence to fully address the questions that are relevant for decision makers. Decision models may provide added value alongside systematic reviews by adding a formal structure, which can be informed by the evidence. METHODS: Our framework is informed by two sets of interviews and a focus group discussion; literature reviews to summarize best modeling practices and to profile the modeling literature; and an exploration of the feasibility of developing a database of published models. We interviewed Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) members, some of whom have successfully incorporated models in EPC reports, to document lessons learned from those experiences. We also interviewed members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and cancer modelers who were involved in the recent efforts to use modeling with a systematic review to update USPSTF cancer screening guidelines, to evaluate the process of conducting a simultaneous systematic review and modeling exercise, and to evaluate stakeholder-perceived needs and whether needs were met. We reviewed and summarized the literature on best practices for modeling. This was supplemented by a focus group discussion with modeling experts to elicit, characterize, and precisely qualify best practices in decision and simulation modeling. These included: model formulation and characterization, model development and construction, handling and presentation of modeling assumptions, definition and presentation of parameters, outcomes to incorporate into the model, model analysis, model testing, validation, and implementation (including results presentation and communication). We developed a profile of the current modeling literature by conducting a systematic review of the medical literature and the grey literature to document publications that used a decision model and for what purpose (e.g., disease of interest, interventions evaluated). We also developed a prototype database to serve as a preliminary step in developing a resource that could be used to determine if, and how many, models exist on a particular disease of interest. RESULTS: The resulting report consists of six chapters. Decision and Simulation Modeling Alongside Systematic Reviews provides an overview of models and describes the differences and synergies between systematic reviews and decision analysis. In Overview of Decision Models Used in Research, we provide a "scan" of the medical literature over the past 5 years in terms of the use of models in studies that compare intervention strategies using multiple sources of data. Use of Modeling in Systematic Reviews: The EPC Perspective documents the extent to which EPCs have incorporated models into data and presents results from key informant interviews with EPC members. We present a framework for deciding when a decision model can inform decisionmaking alongside a systematic review in Suggested Framework for Deciding When a Modeling Effort Should Be Added to a Systematic Review. Potential Modeling Resources explores several possible approaches to use when undertaking a modeling effort and discusses some of the challenges. Lastly, Best Practices for Decision and Simulation Modeling reviews the literature on best practices for modeling, supplemented by a focus group discussion with modeling experts, and lessons learned about the process of conducting a modeling exercise alongside a systematic review using recent experience with the USPSTF. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest a process for deciding when conducting a decision analysis in conjunction with a systematic review would be of value to decision makers.

This volume, developed in honor of Dr. Dundar F. Kocaoglu, aims to demonstrate the applications of the Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM) in different sectors and its capacity in decision analysis. It is comprised of essays from noted scholars, academics and researchers of engineering and technology management around the world. This book is organized into five parts: Technology Policy Planning, Strategic Technology Planning, Technology Assessment, Application Extensions, and Methodology Extensions. Dr. Dundar F. Kocaoglu is one of the pioneers of multiple decision models using hierarchies, and creator of the HDM in decision analysis. HDM is a mission-oriented method for evaluation and/or selection among alternatives. A wide range of alternatives can be considered, including but not limited to, different technologies, projects, markets, jobs, products, cities to live in, houses to buy, apartments to rent, and schools to attend. Dr. Kocaoglu’s approach has been adopted for decision problems in many industrial sectors, including electronics research and development, education, government planning, agriculture, energy, technology transfer, semiconductor manufacturing, and has influenced policy locally, nationally, and internationally. Moreover, his students developed advanced tools and software applications to further improve and enhance the robustness of the HDM approach. Dr. Kocaoglu has made many contributions to the field of Engineering and Technology Management. During his tenure at Portland State University, he founded the Engineering and Technology Management program, where he served as Program Director and later, Department Chair. He also started the Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), which organizes an annual conference in international locations such as Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Thailand, and Japan. His teaching has won awards and resulted in a strong sense of student loyalty among his students even decades later. Through his academic work and research, Dr. Kocaoglu has strongly supported researchers of engineering management and has provided tremendous service to the field. This volume recognizes and celebrates Dr. Kocaoglu’s profound contributions to the field, and will serve as a resource for generations of researchers, practitioners and students.

Organizations make thousands of automated, operational decisions every week-from pricing of products to determining which customers get automatic approval, to customizing website navigation. How well they make these decisions drives their profitability, makes or breaks their reputation and powers customer satisfaction.