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Although their exact use in any situation may vary, certain
stages of thinking and analysis are central to structured
decision making. These stages are often introduced as a series
of steps, worked through in a largely linear way but with
iteration throughout.
Step 1: Clarify the Decision Context
The first step in good decision making involves defining what
question or problem is being addressed and why, identifying who
needs to involved and how, establishing scope and bounds for the
decision, and clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the
decision team.
More... Step 2: Define
Objectives and Evaluation Criteria
The core of SDM is a set of well defined objectives and
evaluation criteria. Together they define "what
matters" about the decision, drive the search for creative
alternatives, and become the framework for comparing
alternatives.
More... Step 3:
Develop Alternatives
A range of creative policy or management alternatives
designed to address the objectives is developed. Alternatives
should reflect substantially different approaches to the problem
or different priorities across objectives, and should present
decision makers with real options and choices.
More... Step 4: Estimate
Consequences
Step 4 is an analytical exercise in
which the performance of each alternative is estimated in terms
of the evaluation criteria developed in Step 2. Care must be taken to determine the
focal areas of uncertainty and to ensure that these are
represented properly in the analysis.
More... Step 5: Evaluate
Trade-Offs and Select
SDM is not a black box, and group discussion should always
play a central role in evaluating preferences for alternatives.
However, in many cases, preference assessment techniques (such
as swing weighting) may be used to help people understand their
preferred alternatives.
More... Step 6: Implement
and Monitor
The last step in the decision process then is to identify
mechanisms for on-going monitoring to ensure accountability with
respect to on-ground results, research to improve the
information base for future decisions, and a review mechanism so
that new information can be incorporated into future decisions.
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These steps provide a framework for decision making