This is the Decider users manual. It provides an explanation of what Decider does, how it does it, and how you can use it to track and codify decisions.
Decider DOES NOT limit what the user considers.
Decider DOES NOT limit how the user considers it.
Decider DOES provide a way to gather and present your Factors on a decision.
Decider is designed to help people or groups make better Decisions. It does this in several ways:
Decider provides a simple display of Factors about individual Yes/No Simple Decisions.
Factors are displayed in terms of how important the Factor is compared to the other Factors and the extent to which the Factor favors or opposes the individual Yes/No Simple Decision.
Each Factor includes a name and an explanation - provided by the user - and displayed while working on it.
The user moves the Factors around till they reflect the individual preferences of that user.
The "Center of Gravity" (COG) shows the aggregation of the Factors toward a Simple Decision.
The "Mean" (M) shows the average of the locations of the Factors.
Decider stores groups of Factors together as an individual Decisions
Each individual YES/NO Simple Decision has a name and a description, provided by the user.
The description of the Simple Decision is shown as Factors are put in context.
You can revisit Simple Decisions over time to update them to reflect changes in your Factors or the situation.
You can produce a report on a Decision including all of the details for a permanent record.
Decider helps facilitate groups of people making Decisions.
The facilitator works with the group to identify Decisions that are evaluated independently.
As people in the group come up with more factors to be considered, those factors are added as new Decisions.
Each person's view on each Decision is treated as an individual Factor within that Decision.
The thinking behind each person's view is recorded and their name associated with those views.
Each person decides where their Factor is placed within each Decision space.
The aggregate view of the participants is seen as the COG for each Decision.
Reports are generated for each decision.
By allowing people to visualize, track, and codify those their Factors surrounding a Decision, Decider helps to clarify thinking and track the many complex issues involved in an overall Decision clearly.
Decider uses a computer program to calculate a weight for each Factor you identify to it, based only on the location of that Factor in the overall picture of what is important and how it affects the decision. The weight of all Factors are then combined with their positions to generate a weighted center of gravity (the COG) that identifies where the overall decision lies as of any given time. As Factors change the decision can change as well. It's up to the user to use the tool to help them gather and consider their own Factors and weigh them. The presentation also helps to understand more clearly what Factors need to be better addressed in order to settle an unsettled decision.
Many high school students nearing graduate have to decide whether to try to go to college and, if they decide to go, to go to a Junior College first or a 4-year college directly, and if they get in, which college to go to. This is a complicated decision.
Decider helps make complicated decisions by forcing the user to turn them into simple decisions and put their Factors about the simple decisions together. In the example here, the first step is to identify individual simple YES/NO decisions. The first one that seems obvious is whether to go to college or not, regardless of what path and how far the student will eventually go. But perhaps there is a chance to go to college later instead of right away? Again, this is a complicated decision that has to be broken down into simple decisions first for Decider to help you.
Step 1: Identify a simple YES/NO decision to start with. Once you have your simple YES/NO decision in mind, use New -> Decision to create the new decision. Give it a short name (e.g., "College this fall?") and provide a short but sweet explanation (e.g., "Should I go to college this fall or not?").
Step 2: Start adding Factors about the decision. Lots of issues come up in making such a decision. As each issue comes to mind, add a Factor about that issue by using New -> Factor and giving a name and a more detailed explanation. For example, College is expensive and so I would add a Factor with a name like "The cost!" and put in an explanation something like "College is really expensive and I don't have a lot of money, but I might be able to get a grant or scholarship or load.". Immediately other Factors come to mind - so I would probably add new Factors for "Grant" and "Loan". As each Factor is added, move it up or down for more or less important and left or right depending on whether it is favorable or unfavorable for going to college this fall.
Step 3: Move Factors around till they seem right to you. Moving Factors around helps clarify things. If one thing seems more important than another, it should be closer to the top. If one thing favors the decisions more than another it should be further to the right. The details of each Factor is shown in the bottom area of the screen as it is moves, and if your Factors change in the details, click on the name of the Factor to change the details. Sometimes the name changes as you think about it more. No problem, change the name as well. This moving of Factors around and changing them is important to getting a better understanding of your decision.
Step 4: Some Factors end up very important but neither favorable or opposed. If something is important to you and does not favor or oppose the decision, it needs to be resolved further, unless the COG of the decision is so clearly favorable or unfavorable that no matter what you do to clarify that issue, the decision won't change. If nothing will change the decision, the decision is made and Decider has served its purpose. If there are important and unresolved issues, they need to be resolved in order to make your decision. So focus in on them and resolve them. As you resolve them, move them around and see how the decision changes.
Now that you have a notion of how to use Decider, it's time to try it out.
More advanced users of Decider can handle larger numbers of more complex decision by organizing them into Groups, creating and loading preset Decisions from libraries they define, and generating Group reports.
Groups: Every Group consists of a set of Decisions kept together under a Group name. This provides a simple way to organize sets of Decisions. For example, if you have a complex decision about a project you are thinking of starting, you might decide to put all of the Decisions related to that project together into a Group so that similar decisions about different projects don't become confusing. When you are within a particular Group, the Group name appears in the Notes section of the screen when working on a Decision. Names of Groups and comments about them can be edited as well.
Using Save As: That Save-As feature can save the Decision to a different Group, which is particularly handy for making your own library Group and copying from there to other Groups to repeat similar Decisions. Another are in which this is useful is in team processes where people work together to address a set of issues. Start by making a Decision called Team or something like that. Make one Factor for each team member, giving the Factor the member's name. Then, every time a new issue comes up, work on that Team Decision and immediately do a Save As giving it the name of the new Decision. Then move the Factors around to reflect the views of the team members (put it wherever they want it) and add comments to reflect the discussions by each member. When you make the final Decision, add it as a new Factor and place it appropriately on the screen.
Downloading libraries: Licensed users have access to on-line libraries of decision groups that are downloaded from a server. These decisions groups are stored on the Internet and downloaded by selecting the library name from a list of available libraries. They are placed in the current decision group as soon as they are downloaded. They can then be renamed, copies, or otherwise used as desired by the user.
Group Reports: Group reports provide a series of reports for each decision within the group and then a sorted roll-up report of the group as a whole in matrix report form. Details of reports are provided at the end of this manual.
Group Factors: Group factors are factors added to all elements of a group in a single operation. By adding a group factor, the same factor can be added to a whole group at once - with all instances placed in the bottom center of the display area. This makes it easier to make sure that a new factor thought of during group work is added across all decisions within the group.
Keyboard Short Cuts: As you get used to Decider, you can use keyboard short cuts to perform many menu actions. They keystrokes are all ALT-? where ? is the character representing the action to be taken. The menus include hints on what keystrokes to use to invoke them from the keyboard.
Normalizing: Several types of normalization are offered, all designed to spread out or consolidate groups of factors into even distributions. By setting real-time normalizing, you can turn the current decision into a zero-sum for changes in importance. In this mode, an increase in importance for one factor decreases the weights of other factors in proportion to keep the average importance the same. This is particularly useful when comparing options that are of similar importance. Sorted spreads are used to evenly spread factors over areas of the space without changing their ordering of importance or favorability or moving them out of a particular portion of the space. They can be applied to favorability or importance and can spread over the entire space, halves of the space, or thirds of the space with no movement crossing the center of the space, again in near-real-time (whenever you release the mouse). This last mode is particularly useful because it does not alter the tic-tac-toe results but provides clearer separation within the tic-tac-toe areas.
Sizes: By setting sizes and adjusting the screen size and shape you can easily display 6 or more options on the screen simultaneously. This is very helpful in presenting many options and selecting from them.
Anonymizing: The anonymizing function provides replacements for names to eliminate label biases in the presentation of a decision structure to eliminate cognitive errors associated with biases from "loaded" terms such as cost, liability, and so forth that would otherwise get undue weighting under examination even though they are already weighted by the placement in the screen. This is done by presenting the reverse of the last three characters of the name followed by the first character. This is best displayed at "Medium" size.
Locks: By using the horizontal and/or vertical locks, you can allow factors to be varied in only one dimension. This is helpful for cases where the importance or favorability is already known or set by mandate. It can also be used to lock a decision from accidental changes in locations. This can be done group-wide as well to lock in current favorability or importance values across the group. Locks can also be applied for individual decisions or groups for preventing factor deletion, adding, or editing. This is useful for having groups only place factors without altering the set of factors.
Presets: By using the horizontal and/or vertical locks, you can allow factors to be varied in only one dimension. This is helpful for cases where the importance or favorability is already known or set by mandate. It can also be used to lock a decision from accidental changes in locations. Using the group set functions, all of the factors with the same names as those in the current decision can be set to identical favorability or importance levels across the group. This is particularly useful after going through a set of decisions and determining that all of the factors are similar in some way, or in updating all of the factors in the group based on new information.
Votes: By using the built-in voting mechanism, all decisions within a group can be combined into a single "group decision", by averaging all weights on each common factor, combining all factors from all decisions into a larger combined decision, or combining the COGs from each decision into a single decision.
Decider presents with a window on the screen containing (1) a menu bar, (2) a display area, and (3) a comment area.
| The top menu with group selector and a set of menu selectors. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Decisions menu that is used to select a decision from the current group | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[The display area ... which includes:]
[The "M" indicates the "mean" location of the factors.] [The "COG" indicates the "center of gravity" of the factors.] [The "X" indicates the center of the screen.] [The "+" marks are divide the screen into 9ths (a tic-tac-toe board)] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The comment area... colored by the last item moused over... and including:
The group name, the decision name, and the decision comment Faithful: The current Factor name and comment |
To do anything useful other than display the manual you have to either select an existing decision, change decisions groups and choose a decision there, or create a new decision. Once a decision is in the display area, assuming there are Factors present, you will see a set of Factors like one of these (62 in Weight mode, MR in Region mode, X when Metrics are off):
| Normal mode | Target mode | |||||
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| Weight mode |
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| Region mode |
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| Metrics Off |
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To edit the contents of the text and related comments, or to delete the Factor click over the text box (target mode) or the metrics ares (normal mode).
To move the box around the screen, grab it by holding the mouse button down over the factor name (normal mode) or the metrics area (target mode) and move the mouse. As you move it the color will change. If metrics are enabled, the number/indicator may change as well.
The average of the Factors on the screen is shown by the box with the "M" in the middle (for Mean).
The weighted average of the Factors on the screen is shown by the orange box with "COG" and a bulls eye in the middle (for Center of Gravity).
The black "X" is the center of the display from a standpoint of the factors. area.
The black "+" marks divide the screen into 9 areas (adjusted for the sizes and shapes of the factors). In Metrics Region mode, the region of the screen ({Top, Middle, Bottom}x{Left, Middle, Right}) is designated:
| TL | TM | TR |
| ML | MM | MR |
| BL | BM | BR |
The functions provided by Decider are invoked with the mouse. Data is entered with the keyboard. This is done from two areas; the menu bar at the top, and the large display area in the middle of the window. These are the menu items:
| The Group Selector | New | File | Set | Report | Help | Quit |
The top menu bar selector: This selector bar lists available groups.
If there are stored Groups, they are available from this selection area. Click on the desired Group to update the Decisions list. If a current Decision is displayed, it will be saved when changing Groups
New: This selection is used to create a new Decision or Factor within the current Decision.
Factor will create a new Factor. After it is created, place it on the screen to reflect your current thinking.
Decision will clear the current Decision and create a new Decision. If a current Decision is displayed, it will be saved.
Group will create a new Group. After it is created, place it on the screen to reflect your current thinking.
Group Factor will create a new Group-wide Factor. After it is created, place it on the screen in each decision in the group as appropriate.
Library will download a library of decisions from the file server into the current group.
Window will open another Decicer window. Be careful - changes won't be reflected in other windows.
Keystrokes ALT-D, ALT-G, ALT-F, ALT-L will add a new Decision, Factor, Group Factor, or Library
File:
Group performs actions on decision Groups
Edit Group will edit the current Group name and comment.
Delete Group will delete the current Group and all of its Decisions.
Decision performs actions on individual Decisions
Edit Decision will edit the current Decision name and comment.
Delete Decision will delete the current Decision and all of its Factors.
Export Decision will export the current Decision to a user specified file.
Import Decision will import a Decision from a user specified file.
Fuse Decision fused factors from another Decision into the current decision.
Save will save the current Decision.
Save As will save a new copy of the current Decision under the name, within the Group, and with the comment you specify.
Restore History will restore the history of any or all Groups and Decisions.
Restore Whole History will restore the history of all Decisions, replacing the " History" Group.
Restore Group History will restore the history of all Decisions from this Group, replacing the " History" Group.
Restore Decision History will restore the history of this Decisions, replacing the " History" Group..
Keystrokes ALT-S and ALT-A will Save and Save-As respectively.
Set:
Normalize
Start/Stop RealTime continuously normalize all importance values to move the average value (the Mean, not the COG) to average importance.
Start/Stop Full Spread performs a sorted spread of factors across the space in the importance dimension after factor movement.
Start/Stop Half Spread performs a sorted spread of factors into halves of the space in the importance dimension after factor movement.
Start/Stop Thirds Spread performs a sorted spread of factors into thirds of the space in the importance dimension after factor movement.
Start/Stop Quarters Spread performs a sorted importance spread of factors into quarters of the space after factor movement.
Start/Stop Ninths Spread performs a sorted importance spread of factors into ninths of the space after factor movement.
Start/Stop RealTime continuously normalize all importance values to move the average value (the Mean, not the COG) to average importance.
Start/Stop Full Spread performs a sorted spread of factors across the space in the favorability dimension after factor movement.
Start/Stop Half Spread performs a sorted spread of factors into halves of the space in the favorability dimension after factor movement.
Start/Stop Thirds Spread performs a sorted spread of factors into thirds of the space in the favorability dimension after factor movement.
Start/Stop Quarters Spread performs a sorted favorability spread of factors into quarters of the space after factor movement.
Start/Stop Ninths Spread performs a sorted favorability spread of factors into ninths of the space after factor movement.
Presets sets favorability or importance for all factors or the whole group
Zero Importance sets importance to minimum for all factors in the current decision.
Low Importance sets importance to a low non-zero vale for all factors in the current decision.
Library Reset sets importance AND favorability to intial values used for libraries for the current decision.
Group set Importance sets importance of all factors in the group with the same names as the current decision to the same importance values as the current decision.
Full performs a sorted spread of factors across the space in the importance dimension.
Half Spread performs a sorted spread of factors into halves of the space in the importance dimension.
Thirds Spread performs a sorted spread of factors into thirds of the space in the importance dimension.
Quarters Spread performs a sorted importance spread of factors into quarters of the space.
Ninths Spread performs a sorted importance spread of factors into ninths of the space.
Center Favorability sets favorability to neutral for all factors in the current decision.
Library Reset sets importance AND favorability to intial values used for libraries for the current decision.
Group set Favorability sets favorability of all factors in the group with the same names as the current decision to the same favorability values as the current decision.
Full Spread performs a sorted spread of factors across the space in the favorability dimension.
Half Spread performs a sorted spread of factors into halves of the space in the favorability dimension.
Thirds Spread performs a sorted spread of factors into thirds of the space in the favorability dimension.
Quarters Spread performs a sorted favorability spread of factors into quarters of the space.
Ninths Spread performs a sorted favorability spread of factors into ninths of the space.
Locks will lock or unlock horizontal or vertical movement of factors for the current decision or the entire group.
Un/Lock Horizontal (favorability) will lock or unlock horizontal movement of factors within this decision.
Un/Lock Vertical (importance) will lock or unlock vertical movement of factors within this decision.
Un/Lock Delete will lock or unlock deletion of factors within this decision.
Un/Lock Add will lock or unlock adding of factors within this decision.
Un/Lock Edit will lock or unlock editing of factors within this decision.
Un/Lock Rename will lock or unlock renaming of factors within this decision.
Group set [Horizontal/Vertical/lock/delete/add/edit/rename/all] to current Sets the value of this (or all) lock(s) for the whole group to the current value for this decision.
Relabel will rotate through alternative top, bottom, left, and right labels for the screen.
Anonymize will set or unset anonymizing of factors on the screen.
Votes sets favorability or importance for all factors or the whole group into the current decision.
Combine group decisions Overwrites the current decision with the collection of all factors from all other decisions in the group.
Average group decisions Overwrites the current decision with the average locations of all factors of the same names in the group.
Combine group COGs Overwrites the current decision with one factor per decision located where that decision;s COG is located.
Box Size will set sizes of factors on the screen:
Fixed will use and store boxes whose sizes do not change as the screen is resized.
Relative will use and store relative boxes that resize as the screen is resized.
Size will set sizes from Small to Maximum.
Brightness will change the color brightness to Bright or Washed.
Markings will enable or disable COG, Mean, Center, and location markings.
ColorPoint will change the color scheme:
Stop Light Green (Go) is upper right, Red (Stop) is upper right, Yellow (Caution) is middle.
Fire and Ice Blue (Ice) is upper right, Red (Fire) is upper left, Pink is the middle.
Cool and Hot Blue (Cool) is upper left, Red (Hot) is upper right. Pink is the middle.
Borders will change the borders of factors:
None No border - colors go to the end of the factor.
Fancy Sort of like Bevel - but not.
Thin Set the border width (for lin and etch modes) to Thin
Normal Set the border width (for lin and etch modes) to Normal
Wide Set the border width (for lin and etch modes) to Wide
Huge Set the border width (for lin and etch modes) to Huge
Uber Set the border width (for lin and etch modes) to Uber large
Target Mode will set metrics (the numbers within the edit button).
On Turn on "Target mode" boxes.
Off Turn off "Target mode" boxes.
Metrics will set metrics (the numbers/region within the metrics area).
X X in the metrics region.
* * in the metrics region.
[] [] in the metrics region.
Empty Empty metrics region.
Weight Display the relative weight as the metric
Region Display the region of the screen as the metric
Notes will add or remove the Notes section from the bottom of the screen.
Font Size will change the sizes of factor fonts and/or match the menu font to the factor font.
Encryption Key will set the encryption key from now on ... please read details below.
Report:
Report will generate and display a report on the current Decision.
Written Report will generate and display a different report on the current Decision.
Group Report will generate and display a report for the current Group.
Written Group Report will generate and display a different report for the current Group.
Keystroke ALT-R will generate a decision report.
Help:
Tutorial provides a quick tutorial on getting your first decision going.
Quick Help provides a one-page help listing the available options.
Manual displays this manual.
Legal Stuff displays licensing, copyright, and patent information.
License displays licensee and license information.
Version displays version information.
Release Notes displays release notes.
Keystrokes ALT-T, ALT-H, ALT-M, and ALT-L will show the Tutorial, Help, Manual, and License respectively.
Quit: will save the current Decision and exit Decider.
| The Decision Selector ... set to the current Decision |
The second menu bar: This menu bar lists available decisions.
If you click on 000 - Select or "New" -> "Decision" it will clear the current decision and leave you with an empty display area. If a current Decision is displayed, it will be saved.
If there are stored Decisions, they are available from the selection area. Click on the desired Decision to bring it to the display area. If a current Decision is displayed, it will be saved.
The display area uses the mouse a bit differently:
Move the mouse over any displayed item: This will cause a description to be listed in the bottom area of the window (if Notes are enabled) and if you leave the mouse there momentarily, it will display a ToolTip indicating the details for that factor.
Hold the mouse down and drag a box: This will change the importance and favorability of the Factor.
Click on the box within of a Factor: This will allow you to edit the Factor name and description.
Reports consist of 9 component parts:
The filename of the stored report is printed out relative to the directory from which Decider was run.
The title of the decision is printed out.
The comment on the decision is printed out.
A sorted list of the factors (from most heavily weighted to least heavily weighted) is printed including the factor name, the comment, the weight with coloring, and the relative percentage of the total weight of the decision associated with that factor. The Mean and COG are included with no percentage of total weight. This is a "Neutral" presentation of the decision.
A Tic-Tac-Toe report provides the different factors sorted by weight and placed in a 3x3 matrix representing their locations in the decision space with backgrounds colored per the portion of the space represented.
A spreadsheet representation of the decision is provided for import to a spreadsheet program if desired.
A Matrix rating and analysis of the decision is provided to indicate risk, dominance, resolution, and completion of the decision as it stands now.
A favorable presentation sorted to put the decision in the most favorable light.
An oppositional presentation sorted to put the decision in the most oppositional light.
The Group report provides an individual report for each decision in the group and adds a sorted collected Matrix report of the group as a whole. This helps in multiple-option decisions where the options are represented by different decisions within the group; both in the case where only one option can be taken; and in the case where a set of strategies can be selected.
WARNING - Encryption is dangerous in that it trades off integrity, availability, and recoverability for secrecy and use control. Here's how it works:
When you set the encryption key, from that point forward, the decision storage area within the MyDecisions/Decider directory will ALWAYS encrypt anything stored there. That includes reports, decisions, groups, history entries, settings, and anything else that's kept there. That may lead to problems. In particular, and without limit:
Exceptions:
Use encryption at your own risk.