Applying Decision Analysis Tools for Effective Decision Making - Assignment Report

This assignment involves applying an analytical tool to a practical decision scenario and assessing the strengths and limitations of the analysis. This assignment is designed to assess your ability to:

1. Apply decision analysis to a problem involving multiple objectives.
2. Evaluate the strengths and limitations of your analysis

Produce a report of a minimum of 2,500 words that addresses the following questions: 

1. Discuss the importance of decision making and the application of decision analysis.

2. Identify and outline a decision problem relating to your work or an external organisation, which involves multiple objectives. Typical examples might be choosing, a computer system, a raw materials supplier, a software package or a new service provider. Outlined decision problem should have a clear business case. Your decision problem must not be a replication of the examples in the core text book or the examples which have been used in lectures and tutorials.

3. Apply the simple multi-attribute rating technique(SMART) to the outlined decision problem. Each stage of the analysis should be clearly defined and presented.   

4. Discuss and detail the strengths and limitations of your analysis in the context of your decision problem

The assignment should be presented within a report structure. Each section of the report should be clearly structured and defined and an introduction or overview should be provided. Across the report you will also need to show evidence of assessing a range of resources, e.g. internet, journals, text books and company documents such as annual reports. A Harvard Referencing style should be followed.

Question 1 should be based on a critical review of relevant literature and discuss the importance of decision making and the application of decision analysis tools. Your answer may include the features of effective decision making or how decision analysis could be applied to support the performance of an organisation.

Within Question 2 you should select a clearly defined decision problem involving multiple objectives. This decision problem could relate to your work or a personal decision. However, the outlined decision problem should have a clear business context or application. Alternatively, the outlined decision problem could relate to a decision faced by an external organisation. The presented decision problem should be clearly presented and where appropriate supporting sources and references should be provided.

The decision problem should be of adequate detail in order to support the analysis. The decision problem should involve multiple objectives and it is suggested that the decision problem consist, as a minimum, of at least 5 options (alternatives) and 5 attributes. The context and features of the decision problem should then be discussed.

Following a discussion of the decision problem, a SMART decision analysis should be applied. Within your answer to Question 3 you are required to outline and discuss the various stages and outputs of the analysis. Do not undertake Sensitivity Analysis but rather discuss this aspect of the SMART technique in general.

Finally within Question 4 you should discuss, with the support of appropriate sources, the strengths and limitations of the analysis.

This coursework assesses the following learning outcomes

1. Develop an in-depth knowledge of management decision making theory
2. Critically evaluate models of management decision making
3. Gather and evaluate data to support analytical thinking and decision making in the organisation