Decision Matrix

Ranking: 1 is least desirable and 4 is most desirable. Score: Highest is best.

A Decision Matrix simplifies a large number of variables in decision making, thereby increasing the chances of reaching agreement among stakeholders.

• A Decision Matrix lists options from which a single item will be chosen (options A through D above).

• Stakeholders list the criteria important to determining the best choice for them (Criteria column).

• Each criteria is given a weight that adds up to 100% of the choice to be made (Weight column).

• All options are assigned a ranking or value for each criteria (Ranking column).

• Weighted Rank: Rankings are multiplied by the weight then divided by the number of options.

• Score: Weighted ranks are summed to give a score for each option.

Background for the above Decision Matrix: 

• The options are houses for sale, 

• The stakeholders are a husband and wife.  

• "Size" ranks the square footage (sf) for each house: Option A is 1100 sf, Option B is 1200 sf, Option C is 1300 sf, Option D is 1400 sf. 

• Option A has the worst floors, 

• Option B has the lowest price, 

• Option C has the best interior, and 

• Option D is closest to a desirable school.

After stakeholders agree on the ranking for each criteria, these become "facts" and the weighting of each criteria are the only variables that remain to be negotiated.

Let's pretend that the in the example above that the spouses agree on all of the option rankings. They also agree on most of the criteria weighting, however, one stakeholder thinks that three criteria weights should be different: cost 25%,  architecture 1%, and floors 1%.  If changing the criteria weights did not change the preferred option, the decision is made.

If changing the the criteria weights changes the preferred option, all that remains to reach a decision is to negotiate the weighting values. Changing the above criteria weights to cost 25%,  architecture 1%, and floors 1% results in option scores of A=41%, B=72%, C=66.5% and D=70.5%, and changes the preferred option to B. 

There are 10 criteria and 4 options in the decision matrix, which is 50 variables. The decision making becomes focused on the value of cost versus architecture and floors. The variables to be negotiated has been reduced from 50 to 3 (a 94% simplification).

An issue with a ranked decision matrix is that is does not account for wide variances in option assessment. Imagine that houses in the above Decision Matrix cost $300k, $400k, $500k and $600k. Changing the cost of the most expensive house to $900k would not alter the overall scores of the options, but would likely have a substantial influence on the decision making process. Another issue with rankings is that they are less revealing of subjective or opinion-based values. There can be other issues as well.

In more accurate Decision Matrixes, rankings are replaced by scaled values. Value determination and scaling is a complex consideration in a Decision Matrix, and has been omitted above to make the table easier to understand. In the above example, cost is an objective valuation for each option. The price of each option is gathered from outside sources, and can be considered "facts". Rather than ranking the cost of the houses, the actual prices can be entered as values in a scaled Decision Matrix. The values must be scaled to an equal range (usually 1-100)  to maintain the validity of the criteria weighting. All of the scales must be positive-going, which can be calculated with a minimum or maximum preference column for each criteria.

The spreadsheet SHT-240114-071857 Sneakers - Multi Attribute Utility Model.xlsx provides examples of using scaled values rather than rankings to determine a choice between four options. A calculator for each Decision Matrix is also included.  There are "Instructions for Use" and a "Bad Calculations" worksheet that demonstrates how to avoid errors in calculating objective option values.

The criteria "Interior" in the Decision Matrix above is subjective, based on the opinions of the person doing the evaluation. Subjectivity in valuation increases the likelihood of disagreement among stakeholders. The example spreadsheet uses Scale Sub-tables and "Evaluation Component Breakdown" tables to reduce subjectivity when assigning option values to non-objective criteria. 

This and other template spreadsheets are available on the Technical Writing Virtuoso Documents page.

Document Life Cycle

A document life cycle guides the evolution from TODs, assessments, instructions, procedures to policies. Templates for each type of document are available on technicalwritingvirtuuoso.com Documents page.

1 TOD

A Task Organization Document (TOD) is made to organize the creation of a new procedure or policy. A TOD begins with a status sheet that includes:

• Completion criteria to be confirmed with clients to define is required for the task to be done. 

• A status indicator for "not started", "ongoing", "slowed", "suspended" or "completed".

• A To Do checklist of immanent sub-tasks to be completed.

• A dated list of recently completed sub-tasks.

• Hyperlinks to related documents.

• Team member contacts.

• A start date, due date, and completed date.

• Initial research information.
  
  2 Assessment

Once the TOD contains enough information to draw conclusions and make recommendations, it becomes an Assessment document. An Assessment document gets a title block and a revision history table. The assessment is written on the pages following the status sheet. If the assessment is to be distributed, the TOD status sheet and assessment document can be separated. 

3 Instructions

When an assessment evolves into instructions, images and descriptions are added for each step needed to complete a task. documents are less formal than procedure documents. If a team of document editors decides to create an Instructions document from a TOD or Assessment, a template can be used:

4 Procedure

Procedures are more formal than instructions, and an approvals table is added after the revisions history. The review and approval tables are updated with reviewer initials and indications for acceptance or rejection.

5 Policy

When a reviewer approves the document and has the authority to request that multiple departments or contractors follow the procedure, the Policy name and date are added to the title block. Conclusions and recommendations are moved to the policy introduction. When policies are approved by email, the approval is saved as a PDF and stored with the source documents. A policy notification email is sent to team members by the approving authority.

Time Management

Instructions and templates can be used to shorten meetings and organize team tasks.

Meeting agenda/summary

A meeting agenda/summary is prepared advance of the meeting. A prioritized list of topics to be discussed and links to related documents are included in the agenda. Near the end of the meeting, tasks to be completed are reviewed, a time for the next meeting is determined, and an agenda for the next meeting is created.

Task Tracker template.

A task Tracker is a spreadsheet listing all of the tasks related to a project. Each task is a hyperlink to a task organization document. Columns for assignees,  start dates, due dates and completion dates are included. 

Document Management and Control

Document Management is used for content creation before a document is published.

Document Control is used for distribution of documents after publication.

Document management oversees files used for content creation including Word docs, spreadsheets, CAD files, images and flowcharts. These are collected into organized folders with controlled access for authoring team members only. Document management includes specification of a document naming convention and file storage structures. Document managers define revisions, approvals, and promulgation statement pages. When the final document containing elements from these source files is approved by experts, it is saved as an un-editable PDF file with a unique file ID, revision number and date. 

Document Control oversees published PDF files stored on a separate server with access permissions for a wide audience. Document Control includes administration of source document servers containing past revisions of content and templates, publication servers containing only the latest revisions of documents. and web sites.