Bringing Decision Support to a Count

Currently, there are a variety of tools which exist to support decision making. Their existence highlights the desire to fully evaluate options and base choices on sound judgement. However, the choice of which of these tools to use is rarely based on any such evidence. Further, literature on individual psychological biases and group decision making suggest a number of reasons why decision makers may not make good quality decisions. This paper takes decision conferencing as a specific example in order to assess a decision support tool. It identifies a number of pertinent psychological and group effects. A general model is developed for assessing the quality of a decision and the expectations of the use of decision conferencing. The influences of the biasing effects are modelled within this framework. Methods for assessing their existence and impact are suggested. The need for evaluation of decision support methods using hard data, as opposed to subjective opinion, is emphasised.