# Presentation: 213586

## Introduction to Expert Choice

- Office of Quality Management
- Office of Research Services
- National Institutes of Health

- September 20th, 2005

## For more information on the Expert Choice Software:

- http://www.expertchoice.com
**Or Contact:**
- Josh Rose
- rosej@mail.nih.gov
- (301) 402-3441
**Acknowledgements**
- This presentation was developed by the Office of Quality Management with content provided
- by Expert Choice, Inc.  Arlington, VA where noted.

## Course Goals

- Understand basic decision making theory
- Provide a structured approach for decision making
- Provide an introduction into Expert Choice software and
-  hardware tool.
- Have class participate in building a decision model in
-  Expert Choice

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## The Challenge

**Decision****Failure**

- Provided by Expert Choice

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## The Four Scales of Measurement 

**Nominal Number**

**Ordinal Number**

**1st**

**2nd**

**3rd**

**Interval Number**

**Ratio Number**

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## Basic Components of a Sound Decision

- _Define Problem or Goal:_ What are you trying to accomplish?
- Ex: Provide a secure campus, purchase a new IT system, select the best vendor,
-       choose the best procedure, choose a building location.
- _Define Criteria:_ How will you judge the alternatives?
- Ex: Cost, reliability, flexibility, safety, customer satisfaction, time to implement.
- _Identify Alternatives:_ What are the options?
- Ex: Software X, Y or Z, procedure I, II, or III, Vendor X, Y , or Z
- _Identify Constraints:_ What options are unfeasible?
- Ex: Can’t spend over $X, has to be implements next month, laws/regulations
- _Choose Alternative/s: _ Which options are best?
- Ex: Purchase software x, implement procedure II, select vendor Z.

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## For Discussion:

- Goal: Choosing a mode of transportation
- for commuting to work
- What needs to be defined in the above goal?
- What criteria would you use to judge alternatives?
- What are some possible alternatives?
- What are some possible constraints?

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## What is Collaboration and Consensus in 

- Decision Making?

- _Collaboration:_
- Two or more individuals or organizations working
-  together toward a common goal
- Usually required for most important and complex
-  decisions
- _Consensus:_
- A decision that is acceptable to all members of the group
- Not necessarily complete agreement

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## Why is Collaboration and Consensus Important

- for a Decision?

- Distributes the effort and responsibility of the decision
-  around.
- On complex decisions no one person has all the required
-  information to make an informed decision
- Draws from a larger pool of knowledge and perspectives
- Generally group decisions are superior to individual
-  decisions
- Creates buy-in and ownership for the decision and thus
-  greatly increases the chance of success

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## What is Expert Choice?

- A collaborative decision support software and hardware system that facilitates group decisions that are more efficient, analytical, and justifiable.
- Allows real-time interaction of management teams to achieve consensus on decisions.
- Structures decisions using the **Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)**.

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**Notes:**
Select the most important objectives from your PMP in the Learning and Growth perspective that you want to focus on in the main presentation.  Then copy that row from your PMP and insert it on this slide. Refer to page 4 of this presentation in the notes for directions on how to insert Excel charts into PowerPoint.  Your PM consultant or OQM staff can also assist you if you have difficulty.   This slide shows an example from the OQM template, and you will want to replace this slide with your own.

## What is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)? 

- Developed in the 1970s by Dr. Thomas L. Satty to provide a
-  systematic approach to setting priorities and decision making in a
-  complex environment.
- Was designed to reflect the way people actually think.
- Allows quantitative and qualitative aspects of the decision to be
-  considered.
- Reduces the complex decisions into a series of one-on-one comparisons that are later synthesized to provide accurate results.
- Uses a ratio scale for weighting criteria and scoring alternatives which adds precision to the measurement.

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## What Expert Choice Provides:

- Structure for the entire decision making process
- A tool that facilitates collaboration between multiple stakeholders
- Analytical decision making
- Improved communication
- Usually a faster decision
- Documentation of the decision making process
- A consensus decision
- Ultimately better and more justifiable decisions

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**Notes:**
Select the most important objectives from your PMP in the Learning and Growth perspective that you want to focus on in the main presentation.  Then copy that row from your PMP and insert it on this slide. Refer to page 4 of this presentation in the notes for directions on how to insert Excel charts into PowerPoint.  Your PM consultant or OQM staff can also assist you if you have difficulty.   This slide shows an example from the OQM template, and you will want to replace this slide with your own.

## Who uses Expert Choice?

- _Commercial_
- 4,000 Corporations
- 25% of Fortune 500

- _Government_
- More than 27 Federal Agencies
- More than $120 Billion Allocated Annually

- _Academic_
- 100+ Universities
- 60 MBA Programs
- 1,000+ Articles

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## Primary Application Areas

**Strategic Planning**

**Resource Allocation/Capital Budgeting**

**QFD/Six Sigma/Balanced Scorecard/KM**

**Risk Assessment**

**Source/Vendor/Product Selection**

**Project Portfolio Management**

- Provided by Expert Choice

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**Notes:**
Select the most important objectives from your PMP in the Learning and Growth perspective that you want to focus on in the main presentation.  Then copy that row from your PMP and insert it on this slide. Refer to page 4 of this presentation in the notes for directions on how to insert Excel charts into PowerPoint.  Your PM consultant or OQM staff can also assist you if you have difficulty.   This slide shows an example from the OQM template, and you will want to replace this slide with your own.

## Group Exercise

- Goal: Choose a destination for a one week vacation
- Define/Clarify goal..........................................5 Minutes
- Define and structure criteria...........................15 Minutes
- 5 Minute Break
- Weight Criteria.............................................20 Minutes
- Identify Alternatives.......................................15 Minutes
- Vote & rank alternatives.................................15 Minutes
- Id constraints & perform sensitivity analysis........10 minutes

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## Conclusion

- Facilitation with Expert choice is available to
- ORS and ORF service groups
- Areas for consideration: vendor selection,
- moderate to large capital purchases, criteria
- development, procedure development, or  any
- complex decision.
- If you have a project that could use Expert Choice,
- contact the Office of Quality Management

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