Decision Making Software
Intro
There are several decision making software programs available, some are for personal use but most are for business use. Using computers enables the decision maker to analyze a lot of data very quickly. This means they can also make bigger mistakes much faster!
What I mean is that the computer will only do as it is told. The user inputs the data, and the quality of this data will determine the quality of the results. Remember, even with software decision making, you are still making the decision...
In this article, decision making software is limited to programs that are advertisd to help make decisions. It does not include decision support software or decision tree software.
The pros and cons
The obvious benefits include the ability to manipulate large amounts of data very quickly. Many of the programmes will also allow you to present the information and the results in many formats, which can be useful if you need to convince others of your decision.
The downside, of course, is garbage in, garbage out. The final decision will only be as good as the information that's been put into the system. And when there are humans involved, a decision will not be completely objective. Human bias, preference, judgment and opinion can never be completely removed.
These programs are rational models. Unless it is a program that rolls dice or tosses a coin! And rational decision making is not how humans make decisions naturally.
A factor that often determines if software is available to individuals or companies is the price, and some of these are quite expensive. But first...
A free one!
Choose it! is free decision making software online. You start off by asking open-ended questions (ie, not questions with yes no answers) and then entering the alternatives available. These are then ranked in order of importance and the highest 'wins'.
It can be utilized for relatively simple decisions as well as for complex ones. It has even been used for predicting sports results!
It's free, so
have a go yourself...
QFD capture
This matrix based decision making software can be used by individuals for general decision making or by organisations for more complex project planning and development.
Again, it uses a rational model and generates decision matrices where options are compared and contrasted. Information about what's important, how to accomplish the outcome, and trade-offs can be input. There are various ways available to present the information and to save projects for future use.
There is a free demo available of this decision making software and a good online example that can also be downloaded and printed out. Cost of 1 licence - Basic $400, Standard $800 (Nov 06)
Logical Decisions for Windows
This software decision making program uses decision analysis to break complex situations into their component parts for easier manageability. These parts can then be recombined logically. This is another way of saying that each alternative is assessed on its pros and cons.
This software also uses decision matrices and its demo walk through does not go into quite the amount of detail as others. Cost of 1 licence - $494 (Nov 06)
Decision explorer
This is produced by Banxia Software and was designed by a university department and is quite technical. It is cognitive mapping software and these cognitive maps were designed for structuring and analysing qualitative information.
Each aspect of the decision, or ' concept', is entered as a short phrase. The causal mapping technique allows the viewer to see cause and effect relationships between the various concepts. And this program can handle well over 2000 concepts, making it a consideration in very complex situations.
This is aimed more at business and academic folks, and can be used to structure complex problems for analysis or in project management. There is a free demo download, quite a good tutorial and a fairly comprehensive PDF introduction. Cost of 1 licence - £395 (Nov 06)
Spreadsheets
Any spreadsheet program can also be used as decision making software. They allow for the rapid sorting and analysis of information and can be useful for correlating large amounts of data. They can also easily be utilised for generating decision matrix diagrams.
Apart from the spreadsheets, these programs are for PC's. I read about a Mac program some time ago but the reviews were so poor I have not gone back to find it again!
Highest Common Factor
This is just a sample of the decision making software available. The one thing they all have in common is you!
Remember that YOU are making the decision, so you may as well learn how to make good ones...!
If you wish, you can continue your search here...
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the actual search results. Those are not from this site, but may be of interest, because Google targets the ads to your particular search. |
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