Making decisions in an organization is partly an art but also a skill that can be perfected over time. A quick recap one of my previous posts, where I explored decision making in organizations and the conditions necessary for making sound decisions. These conditions were named as evidence, authority and process. From the executive to the components and to employees, this is something that an organization should be keen to enforce in its company-culture. PMI advocates for the use of Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to instill confidence in project management and help leaders make sound and wise decisions without compromising their integrity, PMBOK 4th Edition (2017). The complexity of decisions made in an organization scales with the management level in an organization. At the portfolio level, it is critical that the portfolio manager makes the right decisions when pairing projects to organizational strategies and choosing the right projects. As a project manager, it is also important that the right decisions are made in the management of projects. Employees should also make the right decisions when executing their job to safeguard the quality of the product or services they are working on.
To make a decision, one should evaluate on the nature and significance of the problem at hand. Programmed decisions are routnious in nature and are taken within the specified procedures. They are made with regard to
routine and recurring problems which require structured solutions. A manager is not expected to go through the problem solving procedures continously make programmed decisions. On the other hand non-programmed decisions are associated with unique problems that are non-repetitive. There are zero to very limited information and knowledge about such decisions. These kind of decisions are made under unfamiliar circumstances using new techniques. The standard and pre-determined procedures and rules are rendered ineffective because every decision will have to be taken separately. Such types of descions are meant for solving unstructured problems which keep on changing from time to time.
There are quite a number of tools and techniques that can be used in decision making that PMBOK suggests, which can come in handy. Some of the most effective and popular decision making tools include:
Cause and effect diagram: Also known as a fishbone diagram. It is very effective when the casue of a problem is to be found out In IT industry it focuses on the Big-5 M namely: Machine, Methods, Material (cosumables/information), Manpower and measurement.
Scatter diagram: This is a simple but also effective tool that is used at varying relations between 2 variables to support a decision. In case of investing how they relate, correlation may be deduced from such a graph.
Benefit/Cost ratio: An effective decision tool where finance is involved and there are alternatives. The benefits are calculated and divided with the costs. There is a coeffecient for each alternative and the one with the highest coeffecient is the best alternative. The problem associated with this tool however is that some benefits are not easily calculated such as customer satisfaction.
Histograms. These are used for showing a graphical representation of numerical data especially when there is need to view the number of defects per deliverable, a ranking of the cause of defects, the number of times each process is noncompliant or other representations of project or product defects
Some other effective tools include: weighted scoring models, Net Present Value, Opportunity Costs etc. As a project manager, the tool you choose and the method applied should be guided by code of ethics to improve transparency on the decisions made.
Project Management 