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Introduction to Decision Patterns
Introduction to Decision Patterns By John Fitch
by John Fitch Email: jfitch@ppi-int.com
Copyright © 2021 by Project Performance International. All rights reserved.
Abstract Decision-making is one of four fundamental human thinking (aka analysis) processes. Decisions comprise the essential thinking content, the integrative mechanism of any design process, and as such effect the transformation of a problem definition into a solution. The author’s 35 years of experience in teaching and facilitating decision-making has led to the conclusion that there is a pattern of decisions behind every strategy, solution design or life. A wide variety of decision patterns have been created and refined through use in 150+ projects across 40+ organizations. Multiple generations of software tools have been created or adapted to deliver decision patterns to project teams. This paper summarizes the conceptual basis for decision patterns and how they were “discovered”, defines a decision-centric information model of the engineering process, explains key principles behind how decision patterns create value, shares how a pattern-based decision model fits into a broader engineering process and identifies a range of use cases in which decision patterns have been employed. Decision patterns examples will be shared to help the reader map this engineering construct to their experience. A more thorough coverage of the techniques, benefits and challenges of using decision patterns will be the subject of a follow-on article. Introduction First, I beg your indulgence as I tell the story of decision patterns from a first-person perspective. By using a story format, I hope that, you, the reader, can better appreciate the twists and turns, the serendipitous events and roadblocks that have shaped the evolution of my understanding of decision patterns. Perhaps you will see yourself in this story and thereby build a better bridge to the application of decision patterns to the engineering challenges that you face. Background My foray into the discipline known as systems engineering came through the side door of Systematic Thinking or Rational Process. About five years into my career (and 40 years ago) while working as a substation design engineer at an electric utility company, I attended a Problem-Solving & DecisionMaking workshop [1] during which the instructor asserted that the resolution of any organization’s or
December 2021
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