Decision Framing and Project Management - Essay Example

The methods that the Society employs are expansive.  “Such methods include models for decision-making under conditions of uncertainty or multiple objectives; techniques of risk analysis and risk assessment; experimental and descriptive studies of decision-making behavior.”  They also include, “economic analysis of competitive and strategic decisions; techniques for facilitating decision-making by groups; and computer modeling software and expert systems for decision support (Decision Analysis Society, 2009, pg. 1).

            These products and services will help other decision-makers impact how decisions are framed.  This is evident in the type of consumers who use their products.  They include “practitioners, educators, and researchers with backgrounds in engineering, business, economics, statistics, psychology, and other social and applied sciences” (Decision Analysis Society, 2009, pg. 1).

            Making better decisions is a key component of running a successful business.  Sometimes businesses need help.  This is where agencies like this come in handy.

References

Decision Analysis Society (2009). DaWeb. Retrieved January 13, 2009, from http://decision-analysis.society.informs.org/

Individual Project

Ron’s decision frame looked similar to the following, although it did not consider all of the parts:

Figure 1: SDP Integrated Decision Frame

Source:  Strategic Business Partners, 2009, pg. 1

In his decision frame, he mainly considered the costs, benefits, and risks in the rational category and the rank, power status; individual/team self-interest; internal competition, turf wars; incentives, rewards, and sanctions in the politics column (Strategic Business Partners, 2009).

The factors that Ron did not consider—at least not to the degree that he considered the other factors were instinct and tuition, emotion, symbols, metaphor, and creativity from the non-rational column and values and beliefs, ideology and ethics, organization identity, and culture/shared myths from the culture category.  Any of these factors could have caused Ron to come to a different decision.  It appears, at an overall glance, that his main motivation was money:  How much is this going to cost me and what monetary gains will I get out of it in return?

“Decision framing is based chiefly on subjective expert judgment. Experts provide their own beliefs in the form of their answers, which can be biased. There are many forms of biases: cultural, organizational, motivational, cognitive, and others. Motivational and cognitive biases are most common in project management” (Intaver Institute, 2006, pg. 1)

It consists of the following parts:

• Identifying potential problems and opportunities
• Assessing the business situation
• Determining criteria for success
• Identifying any uncertainties
• Generating alternatives
  • Do nothing
  • Get a developer from another team to help out
  • Hire a contractor from outside

(Intaver Institute, 2006)