A decision-analytic tool for assessing decision making: a life-cycle management approach

Nowadays, managers have to take increasingly complex decisions. This is due to several factors, including aggressive market competition, information overload and a trend of moving operations abroad. In their effort to overcome ill-defined problems, managers often use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as decision support systems (DSSs) and intelligent systems to identify patterns and make predictions. Such technologies can potentially improve the quality of the decisions taken. This paper presents a decision-analytic tool that assesses decision-making processes within decision life cycles. The setting is the telecom industry, but the tool can be applied to a variety of sectors such as banking and consultancy. The results of comparative and subjective evaluations are presented to highlight the benefits and limitations of the system.