As with everything else in life, it seems, there are considered to be ten steps to better decision making. (These will be familiar to project managers throughout the world but may not be so obvious to everybody else.)

The computer program is set up to help carry out these ten steps in a simple, straight forward and highly visual manner by using one screen for each step. If the following is not clear, the examples certainly will be.

1. Define the ‘Scenario’  (Screen 1)
2. List the ‘Necessary’ factors that affect the decision making. (Screen 2)
3. List the ‘Potential Solutions’ that meet the ‘Necessary’ criteria. (Screen 3) - Discard all potential solutions that do not meet the ‘Necessary’ criteria.¹
4. List the ‘Desirable’ factors (Screen 4)
5. Weight the ‘Desirable’ factors against each other. How important are they? (Screen 5)
6. List the ‘Undesirable’ factors (Screen 6)
7. Weight the ‘Undesirable’ factors against each other. How serious are they? (Screen 7)
8. For each ‘Desirable Factor’, score the ‘potential solutions’ against each other (multiple Screen 8s as tabs)
9. For each ‘Undesirable Factor’, score the ‘potential solutions’ against each other (multiple Screen 9s as tabs)
10. Show the ‘Final Result’ as the relative positions of the potential solutions. (Screen 10)^2.

Produce a report.

^1. It is theoretically possible to leave potential solutions that do not meet the ‘necessary’ criteria in the program but this is not recommended and defeats part of the objective of the program which is to teach good decision making techniques.

^2. In working through the program it is possible to return to any step and alter it e.g. an extra solution could be added at (2) or factors can be altered many times to demonstrate their effect.