What to Do Next in the Decision Making Process

Arthur C. Clark, the author of 2001, A Space Odyssey, once said, "The only hard decision in life is what to do next." In decision-making, this means more than choosing the best alternative. Sometimes what-to-do-next is decided by what is easiest to do or what is dictated from above and is not directed at activities that will lead to the most robust decision.

In the Accord software suite, what-to-do-next is a value that is actually calculated. An Expert System uses a method called the Value of Information along with consensus (another calculated value) and other statistics to determine which of the following is best next course of action on a specific issue:

• Work to gain consensus on a specific alternative/criteria evaluation
• Perform more evaluation on a specific alternative/criteria pair to reduce uncertainty
• Refine a specific criteria
• Develop new alternatives as the current options are not sufficiently differentiated
• Choose a specific alternative as it is best and additional evaluation is not likely to change that finding, and document the deliberation and decision

The Value of Information analysis is unique to systems that use Bayesian decision analysis as does Accord. It is a central part of deciding what-to-do-next.

Learn More

• Accord™ Quick Tour
• Accord FAQ
• Underlying Technology
• Why Robust Decisions
• Webinar Signup

Recent Blog Posts

• Psychology Research Misses the Reasons for Decisio...
• Decision making maturity
• Choosing the best hypotheses
• Event Risk vs Decision Risk
• Evidence Based Decisions
• What is decision making, anyway!
• Most estimates suck
• Decision Anchoring
• Cognitive problems in making decisions
• Bayesian Brain and Bayesian Teams

»  view all posts