Decision Making Process

by Shiela
(Legazpi City)

Are logic, experience, ethical concerns and legal ramifications more important than scientific inquiry in making decisions?

Answer

What factor is most important in making a decision? The implication is that if we find the most important factor we can ignore all the rest in our decision making process. We can't rely on scientific inquiry alone, because we may will trample on human values. We can't rely on ethics alone because without considering economics, decisions are almost always poor. Using a Decision Matrix can help merge all important factors. The example that can be changed to your own circumstances illustrates this.

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Decision Making Data

by Virna
(Mt. Sinai, NY)

I have an assignment with no costs related to the problem. A new product coming out that has a median mileage of 36,500 and a deviation of 5000. How do I start creating a model when there are no costs?

a bit confused...

V

Answer:

You need to do some research! If there is a new product coming out, there must be an old product. You need to find out the details of the old product. Here are some questions to ask:
1. Can you construct a life cycle series of cash flows for the old and new product?
2. Since you have the statistical parameters of mean and standard deviation, would this be a good candidate for a Monte Carlo simulation?
3. Do you know the people who initiated the project? If so go and interview them with your questions.
4. Are there industry standard costs for your project?


This is the kind of real world situation that you will find yourself in repeatedly as an engineer or business analyst. You just need to beat the bushes to find the data that you need to make your analysis.

Decision Making Processes

Which step is most important in the decision making process?

Answer

Understand The Problem - The most vital step in the decision making process is to identify the problem. Until you clearly comprehend the problem or decision to be made, you should not continue. If your statement of the decision to be made is incorrectly or unclearly defined then your decisions will be wrong because you will be answering the wrong question.