Decision Driven® Information Architecture

Many of my previous posts have described the relationships among various types of knowledge: decisions, criteria, alternatives, requirements, risks, plans, etc.  There’s method (actually science) to my madness; here’s the Decision Driven® Information Architecture that I believe illustrates how decisions glue together all other types of future-creating knowledge.

If you unbundle this information architecture and represent [...]

Situation patterns

Your job will typically fit into one of 3 patterns (roles, functions):

Create: Innovate and define strategy, capabilities and solutions.
Implement: Translate strategy, capabilities and solutions into reality.
Operate: Manage, deliver, perform or support the stuff conceived and deployed by the other 2 functions.

These roles reflect different situation patterns that call for different thinking tools and knowledge flows.  If you [...]

Failure to leverage decision patterns

“Manage Decisions across Domains” is the fifth process within my Decision Driven® methods engine.  That’s really consultant/nerd-speak for “Use decision patterns, dummy!” and “Never make a decision from scratch!”   Decisions patterns are a precious form of intellectual property, but are often overlooked because decision management is not seen as a vital business process or core competency.
Here [...]

Failure to manage decisions over time

Every decision has a time-context (planning horizon) that’s important to understand.  Even though decisions are fundamental questions/issues that demand an answer/solution (and in a sense, last forever), their alternatives (answers, solutions) have a limited “good-for” period in which they create value in the real world.  Alternatives become obsolete or a competitive liability; they must be [...]

Failure to manage decision consequences

Everyone believes that decisions have consequences, but many fail to proactively manage them.  You can make a great decision, select a great alternative and still fail during execution.  Here are a few examples of common “failure to follow-through” decision faults:

Next phase requirements inconsistent with upstream decision results (derived requirements lost, not traced to downstream baseline)
MUST limits [...]

Common decision analysis errors

Yesterday I highlighted some common mistakes associated with failure to proactively identify and plan your decisions before diving into decision analysis.  Even if you have correctly focused on a high-priority, well-framed decision (successfully answered the “What do we need to decide?” and “How will we decide it?” questions), you can still screw up the Make [...]

Decision faults: failure to proactively plan your decisions

In my October 10, 2008 post, I introduced my belief that all faults are decision faults.  Over the years, I’ve seen quite a variety of bad decision practices that lead to failure.  Here are some decision faults that I lump under the general category of failure to proactively plan your decisions:

Failure to decide in a [...]

Capability roadmaps

I know this is counter-intuitive, but NOW is the time think strategically – NOW is the time to build a set of capability roadmaps for your organization!  This month’s global financial meltdown makes you want to shrink your planning horizon down to days and weeks, but that’s precisely when a long-term strategic roadmap has the greatest payback.   You [...]

Decision patterns are catching on!

What do vehix.com and I have in common?  We both believe that you should never make a decision from scratch! 
I’ve seen the most recent vehix.com TV ad 50+ times in the past month, at least 10 times during each football game I’ve watched.  They catch your attention by asserting that buying a car is an [...]

All faults are decision faults

Continuous process improvement methods use problem analysis (root cause analysis) to identify and confirm the cause-effect relationships that lead to defects.  You cannot take effective corrective action until you understand the root cause of a process defect.
Your current process or situation is largely the result of the decisions of the past.  In a sense, all faults (process [...]