Getting started with decision discovery

Getting Started with

Decision Discovery

James Taylor CEO

©2014 Decision Management Solutions

Your Presenters

James Taylor

I’m a passionate believer in the power of Decision Management to deliver simpler, smarter and more agile processes. I write, speak, consult and work on Decision Management and Decision Modeling.

Juergen Pitschke

I‘m a coach, consultant, speaker, writer, …

Engineer Helping customers to apply Decision Management successfully

Agenda

Identify Decisions

Scope Decisions

Decompose Decisions

Decision Context

Automating Decisions

Manual Decisions

Next Steps



3 steps to decision management

Identify and model

the decisions that

are most important

to your operational

processes

Design and build

independent

decision services

using business rules

and advanced

analytics

Create a “closed

loop” between

operations and

analytics to

measure results and

drive improvement


Why Identify and Model Decisions?

Simplify processes

Effectively deploy

business rules

Flexibly define

automation boundaries

Effectively deploy

predictive analytics

Different Types of Decisions

Decision Points

Do we need a Business Process Model?

1. How do you identify decisions?

© BCS - Dr. Juergen Pitschke 2003 - 2014 5

Strategic Decisions

Tactical Decisions

Operational Decisions

Different Kinds of Decisions

©2014 Decision Management Solutions 6

©2014 Decision Management Solutions 7

Many Ways To Discover Decisions

Business Events Legacy Systems

Business Processes

Business Intelligence

Brainstorm KPIs

Micro and hidden

Decisions


Processes Can Hide Decisions


Simplify By Making Decisions Explicit

A business

process cannot

progress any

further unless

they are made

A particular

event has

occurred and

must be

handled

A person must

choose

between a

number of

options


Decisions Are Made Because

10

2. How do we scope the decisions we identify?

Scope a Decision


• What is the question to answer?

• E.g. • Is this student eligible for an award?

• Is this student eligible for this specific award?

• Which product should we offer to this customer?

• What are the possible answers?

• Specify the possible answers • Single value

• Value Range

• List of Values

Scope a Decision


• What is the object of the decision?

• E.g. • What is an ”award“?

• What does “Which product should we offer to this customer?” mean? – Only a product type? A specific product for a specific price?

Decision Scope and Process


• Process and Decision scope are mutually dependent.

What information contributes to the decision?

Where does the knowledge come from?

What about information from other decisions?

Reuse and the decision network

3. How do you decompose Decisions?


Decision

Input Data

Dependent

Decisions

Authority


Decisions Require Information

“Determine Parts Availability” requires BOM and Inventory information

“Validate Tax Return” requires Return and Citizen information

“Refer claim for fraud” requires Claim and Provider information


Decisions Require Knowledge

“Reorder parts” requires supplier capabilities, shortage risks

“Validate Tax Return” requires Tax Regulations

“Refer claim for fraud” requires likelihood of fraud


Decisions Require Decisions

These decisions must be made first Is this a good time to make an offer?

Which product should the offer be for?

How valuable an offer?



4. What’s the context for a decision?

Decision Context


• What is the business value of the decision? • Frequency

• Financial Value

• Risk

• …

• Business Motivation • What is the motivation for the decision activity?

• Analytical vs. Predictive

• How can we measure decisions?

Decision Context


• Where is the decision used? • Impact Analysis

• Who is involved? • RACI Charts for Decisions

• Meta information for Project Management, Operations, …

Specifying decision logic with various metaphors: Decision Tables, Natural Language and everything between

Decision Tables: The devil is in the detail

Linking models to implementation

5. How do you prepare Decisions for automation?


Define Automation Boundaries


Specify Logic with Decision Tables

Most common rule format

A set of rules in a tabular layout

Look up tables, comparing attribute values

Various formats

Applicant Risk

U

Applicant Age

Medical History Applicant Risk Rating

1 > 60

good Medium

2 bad High

3 [25..60] - Medium

4 < 25

good Low

5 bad Medium

Special Discount

Type of Order Web -

Customer Location US -

Type of Customer Wholesaler Retailer -

Special Discount % 10 5 0

F 1 2 3

Credit Limit Assignment

Credit Limit

Income

< $40,000 >= $40,000

Card Type

Standard $1,000 $2,000

Gold $1,500 $2,500



Variety of Implementation Formats

Rule Flow or Decision Flow

Rule Sheet or Decision Table Decision Tree

Decision Table

Link To Automation


6. What other uses are there besides automation?

Describing Manual Decisions




• Model ≠ Model Output • What deliverables do we expect from our Decision

Modeling project? SOPs, Checklists, Work Orders, Guidelines, Documentation, …

• How do we create such deliverables?



• What does the business user understand? • Decision Tables or Natural Language

• Other metaphors

• What problems does the Decision Analyst face? • Analyzing a Decision Table versus Analyzing Natural

Language

• How can we formalize ”gut feeling“?



Analyze Decision Tables

Source: DMN Specification (bmi-13-08-01)

Transform into Desired Output

Next Steps

Succeed with Decisions


3 steps to decision management

Identify and model

the decisions that

are most important

to your operational

processes

Design and build

independent

decision services

using business rules

and advanced

analytics

Create a “closed

loop” between

operations and

analytics to

measure results and

drive improvement


Learn More about Decision Discovery

Training and Workshops

Live, online training

Free Resources & Tutorials

decisionmanagementsolutions.com

[email protected]

BPM in Practice 2014, October 10, Hamburg

Pre-Conference Workshop “Decision Management”, October 9

www.bpmpractice.de

www.enterprise-design.eu

[email protected]

http://decisionmanagementsolutions.com/services/decision-modeling

http://www.enterprise-design.eu/en/


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.bpmpractice.de/

http://www.enterprise-design.eu/








Technology

Getting started with decision discovery