The purpose of this phase is to design a practical process for carrying out the decision analysis. While the previous phases focus on understanding the decision problem and selecting an appropriate decision-analytical approach, this phase focuses on how the process will be organised and implemented in practice.
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Key questions to consider:
Including but not limited to:
- Which phases of the decision analysis process will be carried out?
- Which stakeholders should participate in each phase of the process?
- What information needs to be collected and when?
- What interaction methods will be used (e.g. workshops, interviews, surveys, expert panels)?
- What resources, competencies, and tools are needed?
- What is the schedule of the process?
- How will uncertainties, stakeholder preferences, and communication be handled?
- How will transparency, traceability, and quality assurance be ensured?
Competing objectives to balance
- Analytical rigor
- Intensity of stakeholder participation
- Transparency
- Availability of resources
- Timeliness
- Practical feasibility
There is no universally optimal process design. The most appropriate design depends on the characteristics of the decision problem, stakeholders, available resources, decision context, and intended use of the results.
Outcome of the phase: A documented plan for conducting the decision-analysis process, including the phases of the process, stakeholder involvement strategy and their roles, applied interaction methods, required data and expertise and schedule and resource allocation and quality assurance and communication procedures.
Follow up Questions for the AI
Ask the following questions to get more information from the AI:
- Can you describe typical ways of organising a decision-analysis process?
- What factors should be considered when designing a participatory decision-analysis process?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of different stakeholder interaction approaches?
- How can analytical rigor and stakeholder participation be balanced in decision-analysis projects?
- What are the key resource requirements in typical decision-analysis applications?
- How can transparency and traceability be ensured throughout the process?
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Benefits and Risks of Using AI
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Benefits (++)
- Identifying possible process designs and participation strategies.
- Comparing alternative stakeholder interaction approaches.
- Identifying potential resource requirements and bottlenecks.
- Supporting scheduling and workflow planning
- Generating checklists for quality assurance and transparency.
Benefit Scoring: ++ Medium
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Risks (!!)
- Oversimplification of complex organisational and social processes.
- Lack of understanding of local institutional and political context and promoting generic process designs that may not fit the specific case and stakeholder-specific needs and constraints.
- Excessive emphasis on efficiency at the expense of participation and legitimacy.
- Reduced critical evaluation of alternative process designs.
Risk Scoring: !! Medium
Questions to Better Understand the Benefits and Risks of AI
Questions to make use of the benefits
- See the follow-up questions above
- I have this decision problem: [description]. What kinds of decision-analysis process designs might be suitable for this case?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of different stakeholder participation approaches in this case?
- What information, expertise, and resources should be available at different stages of the process?
- Can you help develop a draft project plan for the decision-analysis process?
Questions to avoid the risks
- I have this problem: [description of the problem]. What are common risks in the implementation of decision-analysis processes and how can they be mitigated?
- What are the limitations of AI when supporting the design of decision-analysis processes?
- I have this suggestion for the process: [description of the process]. What contextual factors might make the suggested process design unsuitable?
- I have this suggestion for the process: [description of the process]. What assumptions are embedded in the proposed process design and what are the main risks, weaknesses, and potential failure points of it?
Questions NOT to ask
- What is the optimal decision-analysis process for my case: [description of the problem]?
These types of questions implicitly assume that there is a universally best process design and may encourage excessive reliance on AI.
Process design depends heavily on context, available resources, institutional constraints, stakeholder needs, and desired outcomes.