Decision Models and Processes

Nowadays organizations are facing increasingly demanding challenges due to their positioning in a worldwide
market place, where the requirements on the overall planning, organizing, directing and controlling of all their
resources are imperative to achieve objectives and maintain a competitive position.
Decision making is a constant throughout this process, preceding the different actions in organizations. Thus,
the main objectives of this course focus on:
• importance of quantitative analysis in decision-making problems;
• creation of a conceptual support to identify and treat a diverse set of decision problems, using various
methods, techniques and procedures for decision support;
So, this course is intended to allow students to create a set of skills enabling them to identify and characterize
different decision problems and recognize possible models, processes and methodologies emerging from
decision theory, with and without active competitors.

Chapter 1 – Introductory Concepts
1.1 Decision Models and Processes – Concepts, description and background;
1.2 Introduction to the Issues and Decision Processes -Background and Motivation;
1.3 Representation of Problems – Models and Relations – General Concepts and Illustrations;
Chapter 2 – Decision Analysis
2.1 Decision Process and its stages – Requirements and Characterization;
2.2 Treatment of Decision Problems – proposed resolution techniques, their characteristics and limitations;
2.3 Decision on certainty , risk and uncertainty scenarios;
2.4 Integration of the subjectivity of the decision-maker: usefulness criteria;
2.5 Illustrative examples.
Chapter 3 – Introduction to Game Theory
3.1 Decision Making under an Active “Competitor” – Background;
3.2 Definition of “game” and related assumptions.
3.3 Stable Zero Sum Games – Characterization and Illustration;
3.3 Application Examples;
Chapter 4 – Study of other Approaches and Application Cases

NAO