Decision Making Models

DECISION MAKING MODELS

Decision Making Models

Throughout my career and in life, I have used many different methods of decision-making models. In this paper I will outline one of my most recent issues involving heavy decision making which at this time is still open. In my current role and business area we have found that a rational approach is efficient, we’ve also found that involvement of all key stakeholders in this approach is most ideal.

Recently, a group of internal ethical hackers reviewed one of the websites my business area owns and flagged some issues. When the Internal Ethical Hack Group finds issues, they mandate that all issues should be fixed within a given amount of time based on the sensitivity of the issue. The website is outdated and there is a possibility that the relationship may change between the retirement business area and the vendor that uses the website. Historically, the retirement business has been given a set amount of dollars to make enhancements to its technology. The vendor contractual obligation did not call for any enhancements, therefore the retirement business chose to keep the website the way it has functioned for years.

As a result, the retirement business model would rather spend money on enhancements if we can quantify a return on investment. Even though the retirement business was flagged with critical issues, they decided internally to accept the risk and develop a plan outlining all the different options available to all parties.

As a working-group, a meeting was called with all identified stakeholders. An agenda was established to communicate the state of the current issue. The working group’s task was to brainstorm collaboratively on mitigating the issue. This is an example of a rational approach decision-making model. This model typically states upfront what the issue was, generates all possible solutions, selects the best one and the agrees to make plans to implement that solution and outline it in our Risk Acceptance Documentation.

Although there were many approaches to take, such as making the decision individually, it’s been found that in situations like this one,