Purpose:

Decision Analysis formally assess a problem and possible decision in order to determine the value of alternate outcomes under conditions of uncertainty.

Business Analysis Body of Knowledge^® (BABOK^®)

Decision Analysis is a systematic, quantitative, and visual approach to address and evaluate the important choices that the businesses face. This technique was founded in the year 1964 by Ronald A. Howard, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. It is used by the large and the small organizations, when making various types of decisions including management, operations, marketing, capital investments etc. The goal of decision analysis process is to provide the decision makers with alternate solutions when attempting to achieve the objective for the business. The decision trees and influenced diagrams are used for the visual representation that help in the decision analysis process. It also incorporates the aspects of psychology, management operations, and economics.

The decision analysis is the act of choosing a single course of action from several uncertain outcomes with different values. It examines and models the possible consequences of different decisions about a given problem. The decision analysis approach depends on the level of uncertainty, risk, quality of information, and the available evaluation criteria. The decision analysis requires an understanding of the values, goals, and objectives that are relevant to the decision problem, the nature of the decision made, the areas of uncertainty, and the consequences of each potential decision. The outcome value may take different forms depending on the domain, and it include financial value, scoring, and relative ranking approach. The decision analysis evaluate different outcome values under conditions of uncertainty and highly complex situation.

Some of the articles related to Decision Analysis techniques are as follows,

• Decision Analysis for Business Analysts - https://smartorg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Decision-Analysis-for-the-Professional.pdf
• Introduction to Decision Analysis - https://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/9327/9551671/Groebner8e_ch19.pdf
• An Overview of Decision Analysis - http://web.stanford.edu/class/cee115/wiki/uploads/Main/Schedule/OverviewDA.pdf
• Decision Analysis Learning - http://www.swlearning.com/quant/asw/sbe_8e/decision_analysis.pdf
• Handbook of Decision Analysis - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118515853
• Fundamentals of Decision Theory - https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse573/12sp/lectures/25-decisiontheory.pdf
• Effective Management of Decision Analysis - https://bookboon.com/en/effective-management-decision-making-ebook
• Decision Analysis Theory - https://www.civilserviceindia.com/subject/Management/notes/decision-theory.html
• Step-by-Step Explanation of Decision Analysis Process - https://www.brighthubpm.com/project-planning/118413-use-decision-analysis-as-a-tool-to-improve-the-quality-of-your-decisions/
• Business Analytic and Decision Making - https://www.cgma.org/Resources/DownloadableDocuments/business-analytics-briefing.pdf
• Decision Analysis for Effective Decision Making - https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/decision-analysis
• Support of Decision Analysis - http://kt.ijs.si/MarkoBohanec/MSPO/EN/DS_DecisionAnalysis.pdf
• Decision Analysis Process - http://intaver.com/Articles/Article_ProjectDecisionAnalysis.pdf
• Strategic Management of Decision Analysis - http://www.managementgeneral.ro/pdf/1_2014_10.pdf
• Decision Analysis Techniques - https://www.learningtree.com/courses/1255/introduction-to-decision-analysis/
• Decision Analysis Approaches - https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-decision-analysis-approach-to-decision-making-in-business.html
  

The decision analysis template consists of five most important things. They are, defining the problem statement, defining the alternative solutions, evaluating the alternative solutions, choosing a suitable solution, and implementing it. The decision analysis determine a logical approach to analyze the alternate solutions. An agreement of evaluation criteria is also determined at the beginning of the decision analysis. The decision analysis check whether each alternate meets the criterion that is evaluated, and then check the total number of criteria that matched the alternate solution.

The techniques used in the decision analysis process are,

• Force Field Analysis - This technique is used for making the decisions by analyzing the problem. We can make changes in the decision and communicate the reason for making changes with the team.
• Decision Tables - This table is used to analyze the problem. It express the fact that certain actions are to be performed only if certain conditions are satisfied. It allow us to analyze the processing rule during the discussion with the business experts.
• Decision Trees - It is a decision support tool that uses a tree like graph or model of decisions and their possible consequences including the outcomes, resource cost, and utility. It helps to identify a strategy most likely to reach a goal. It has three main factors, they are, decision nodes, chance nodes, and terminator node.
• Comparison Analysis - It helps you to work out on the importance of number of alternate solutions relative to one another. This makes it easier to pick the solution that is most effective to the given problem.
• Multi- Criteria decision Analysis - It is a operational research that evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in decision making. It is mainly concerned with structuring the problem with multiple criteria, and solving the problem by making the decision from multiple solutions.

Advantages of using the decision analysis technique,

• It provide the prescriptive approach for determining the alternate solutions.
• It helps the stakeholders with various alternate solutions based on the problem given.
• Better defined solutions lead to the preferred possible outcome of the problem.
• It formulates well informed solution by using decision analysis.

Some of the books for Decision Analysis techniques,

• Decision Analysis and Modelling: A Practical Introduction | Cliff Ragsdale| https://www.amazon.com/Spreadsheet-Modeling-Decision-Analysis-Introduction/dp/9353502225/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=decision+analysis+books+and+magazines&qid=1591863204&sr=8-1
• Business Analytic: Decision Making | S. Christian Albright | https://www.amazon.com/Business-Analytics-Analysis-Decision-Making/dp/8131526615/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=decision+analysis+books+and+magazines&qid=1591863344&sr=8-6
• A Practical Guide to Making Better Decision | John S. Hammond | https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Choices-Practical-Making-Decisions/dp/1633691047/ref=sr_1_24?dchild=1&keywords=decision+analysis+books+and+magazines&qid=1591863344&sr=8-24
• Elements of Critical Thinking: Effective Decision Analysis | Albert Rutherford | https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Critical-Thinking-Fundamental-Intelligent-ebook/dp/B07JWBKNVG/ref=sr_1_31?dchild=1&keywords=decision+analysis+books+and+magazines&qid=1591863344&sr=8-31
• An Analysis of Decision Making Under Risk | Daniel Kahneman | https://www.amazon.com/Prospect-Theory-Analysis-Decision-Making/dp/B00BGLSD4W/ref=sr_1_55?dchild=1&keywords=decision+analysis+books+and+magazines&qid=1591863627&sr=8-55
• Decision Making and Problem Solving | John Brockman | https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Science-Decision-Making-Problem-Solving-Prediction/dp/0062258540/ref=sr_1_56?dchild=1&keywords=decision+analysis+books+and+magazines&qid=1591863627&sr=8-56