A Business Case Evaluation (BCE) is a decision-making tool that assists in making value-based funding decisions. Business cases are developed in the early capital and operating budget planning cycles as a standardized and systematic process to analyze the benefits and costs of various options to solve an identified problem or a cost-saving/revenue-generating idea. A big part of building better business cases is analyzing the system over the long term for monetary and non-monetary aspects. Building better business cases improves reliability and performance by formally documenting “needs” versus “wants.” Business cases serve as a powerful communication tool at all levels of an organization. [Read more…]
Articles tagged Decision making
Why Managing Dissenting Views is Critical for Good Group Decision Making
Majority voting and consensus decision making are two distinct approaches to making decisions in group environments, each with its own characteristics and implications. Consensus decision-making is an alternative to debate and passage of proposals that can be approved through a majority vote. It does not emphasize the goal of the full agreement but instead focuses on acceptance or “living with it.” Choosing the right method for the context, and more importantly, managing the dissenting view, is important in making good group decisions.
[Read more…]Why Fist to Five is a Powerful Decision-Making Technique
Fist to five voting is a simple and effective way to gather group feedback or to gauge consensus in a meeting or discussion. In this method, participants are asked to rate their level of support for an idea or proposal on a scale of 1 to 5, using their fingers. However, fist to five is a decision-making technique that should be described in the project charter and agreed upon by all participants. Ample time should be allowed between the initial poll and the final vote for negotiation and agreement to occur. [Read more…]
Why Environmental Decision Making Is Difficult (and what to do about it)
All decisions require an allocation of resources. In the case of environmental decisions, the way we spend our time, money, or behaviors changes the quality of life and the people around us. In addition to two precursors, there are seven reasons environmental decisions are difficult. Approaching the many parts of environmental decision making as a system produces five ways we can allocate resources in an effective manner. [Read more…]
Pugh Analysis and FMEA
“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are times when an FMEA facilitator has difficulty arriving at consensus with the FMEA team. This sometimes happens when there are two or more competing ideas or solutions and members of the team feel strongly about their personal idea or solution. One tool that can be used to solve this problem is called Pugh Analysis, a type of decision matrix.
Managing Up – Beyond the Analysis Numbers
Often when we request an analysis from an engineer we run with the results and don’t ask a lot of questions about the analysis itself. Having done a lot of analysis I am familiar with all the assumptions and estimations that go into making a calculation work. But that means that the results of the analysis are only relevant to those assumptions and estimations. The analyst may have to make the following “calls” without additional input or only a small fact-finding mission. [Read more…]
How to Make Smarter Decisions
Guest Post by Greg Hutchins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Did we get it all wrong? Wow! This could break our business model. Let me explain:
We developed Certified Enterprise Risk Manager® and all of our risk IP based on a simple fact. We live in VUCA time (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity). We based our business business model on providing:
- Risk-based, problem-solving.
- Risk-based, decision-making.™
So, what’s the problem? [Read more…]
Making Decisions That Work For You!
Guest Post by Ed Perkins (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
There is a lot of literature written on decision making, ‘how to’, best practices, process, factors and so to follow to make ‘good’ decisions. We have been exploring ‘risk based’ decision making in these blogs. We have looked at factors, process, frameworks, psychology and bias.
But we have not discussed perhaps the most important aspect of any decision – implementation or that double edged word ‘execution.’ (Of course this assumes that the decision maker wants something to actually happen as a result of the decision, but that is a topic for another day).
Let’s use the nicer word – Implementation – which implies there is a course of ACTION, with a timeframe for results to be produced or to occur. [Read more…]
Improve Decision Making with Statistics
We make decisions all the time. Often our decision making is with little more than a gut feeling.
When faced with a major decision we often look data to help us decide. Is the product reliable enough as designed? Which field returns indicate we should stop production?
Some decision may help us earn or lose thousands if not millions of dollars.
Deciding to delay a product launch by six months means we have no revenue for the duration. The delay may also permit us to address a design flaw that would cause half the products to fail within a few months.
The later may cause loss of market share, erosion of brand loyalty, not to mention the cost of warranty claims. [Read more…]