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Decision analysis (DA) is the discipline comprising the philosophy, theory, methodology, and professional practice necessary to address important decisions in a formal manner. Decision analysis includes many procedures, methods, and tools for identifying, clearly representing, and formally assessing the important aspects of a decision situation, for computing the recommended course of action by applying the maximum expected utility action axiom to a well-formed representation of the decision, and for translating the formal representation of a decision and its corresponding recommendation into insight for the decision-maker and other decision participants.

The term decision analysis was coined in 1964 by Ronald A. Howard, who since then, as a professor at Stanford University, has been instrumental in developing much of the practice and professional application of DA.

The Decision Analytic Methods are used to control environmental hazards.

[edit] Bibliography

• Clemen, Robert, Making Hard Decisions: An Introduction to Decision Analysis, 2^nd edition (1996), Belmont CA: Duxbury Press, 1996.
• Goodwin, P., and G. Wright, Decision Analysis for Management Judgment, 3^rd edition (2004). Wiley, Chichester. ISBN 0-470-86108-8
• Holtzman, Samuel, Intelligent Decision Systems (1989), Addison-Wesley.
• Howard, R.A., and J.E. Matheson (editors), Readings on the Principles and Applications of Decision Analysis, 2 volumes (1984), Menlo Park CA: Strategic Decisions Group.
• Raiffa, Howard, Decision Analysis: Introductory Readings on Choices Under Uncertainty (1997). McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-052579-X
• Smith, J.Q., Decision Analysis: A Bayesian Approach (1988), Chapman and Hall. ISBN 0-412-27520-1
• Matheson, David, and Matheson, Jim, The Smart Organization: Creating Value through Strategic R&D (1998). Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 0-87584-765-X
• Hammond, J.S. and Keeney, R.L. and Raiffa, H., Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions (1999). Harvard Business School Press
• Keeney, R.L.,Value-focused thinking -- A Path to Creative Decisionmaking (1992). Harvard University Press

[edit] See also

• Decision analysis cycle
• Decision model
• Decision theory
• Decision support
• Influence diagram
• Maximum expected utility
• Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Decision Analysis. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.