Case-based Decision Class Analysis for Building a Decision Model: Onion

The decision modeling process requires much time and effort, and the resulting model, such as an influence diagram is applicable to only one specific problem. Existing studies reusing prior knowledge have some drawbacks, such as knowledge representation or lack of case problems. The basic idea of case-based reasoning is that humans reuse the problem solving experience to solve current problems. We suggest a case-based decision analysis (CB-DCA) methodology for building a decision model with influence diagrams. CB-DCA is composed of a case retrieval procedure and an adaptation procedure. Two measures are suggested for the retrieval procedure, one is a fitting ratio and the other is a garbage ratio. The adaptation procedure is based on decision-analytic knowledge and decision participants’ domain specific knowledge. To implement CB-DCA, a prototype system named ONION is also developed. Evaluation results showed that ONION provides decision makers with an effective and efficient way for modeling decision problems with influence diagrams.