With the 2010 (football/soccer) World Cup well underway, it's only a matter of time before some teams will have to face the heartbreak of leaving the competition due to a missed penalty. In the "knockout" stages of a football competition each match must produce a winner. If the teams have scored equal number of goals (after additional playing time), the game will be decided on "penalties". A penalty … [Read more...]
Frontier Analyst PowerTrain released
April 25, 2010 By
Decision Mechanics have been working with Banxia Software to develop Frontier Analyst PowerTrain. Frontier Analyst PowerTrain is a data envelopment analysis solution engine that can be deployed as a web service. It is designed for those who wish to utilize efficiency analysis capabilities as part of a larger web/intranet/mobile application. The engine is designed to be deployed on application … [Read more...]
Decision Mechanics participate in Aid Information Challenge “hackday”
April 12, 2010 By
Last week, Decision Mechanics participated in a "hackday" run by Aid Information Challenge. A hackday is formed from the following ingredients: problem owners; data analysts and visualizers; software developers; and coffee, pizza, doughnuts and beer. Partipants volunteer a day of their time to come together at a common location—in this case it was the Guardian newspaper offices in … [Read more...]
98% of all statistics are false
March 26, 2010 By
Science News published a great article on the use and abuse of statistics this week. "Odds Are, It's Wrong", by Tom Siegfried, highlights some of the problems associated with testing hypotheses using statistical methods. These problems are well known within the statistics community, with "hundreds" of papers having been written on the subject. As Siegfried pithily observes, "if you believe what … [Read more...]
Does my organization exist without an iPhone app?
March 21, 2010 By
With industry panels claiming that unless companies have an iPhone app they "don't exist" it's hardly surprising that senior managers are asking the question, "Does my organization need an iPhone app?" Information is increasingly accessed via smartphones. That's in no doubt. But does this mean that you need to rush out and build a smartphone version of your corporate accounting … [Read more...]
1st International Workshop on Complexity and Real World Applications—first call for interest
January 11, 2010 By
Title: 1st International Workshop on Complexity and Real World Applications: Using the Tools and Concepts from the Complexity Sciences to Support Real World Decision-making Activities Date: July 21–23, 2010 Location: Southampton, England Hosted by: ISCE Publishing (US) and Decision Mechanics (UK) Contact: Kurt Richardson, ISCE Publishing (kurt@isce.edu) Alice Munro, the Canadian … [Read more...]
Making better decisions by “Getting Things Done”
January 8, 2010 By
Important decisions require concentrated attention. One obstacle to effective decision-making is the inability of decision-makers to carve out the time required to give the decision due consideration. It is far too easy to get caught up in the day-to-day minutiae of running your organization (and life). If you are constantly distracted by your "to do" list, you will never find the time for the … [Read more...]
Decision-making versus decision-aiding
December 9, 2009 By
The very idea of using software to assist decision-making often prompts a negative, knee-jerk reaction. Surely decision-making is a creative endeavor requiring judgement and insight? How can we replace experienced leaders with technology? First, it is important to recognize that assisting decision-makers does not equate to replacing them. Have you closed your finance department since you purchased … [Read more...]
