NoDropouts.org just reported on Greater Southern Tier Board of Cooperative Education Services’ roll-out of CohortTracker™. In their article, they note that: Of course, once schools leaders have a better idea of who is most at risk, there is simply no substitute for good, old-fashioned compassion—and good, old-fashioned elbow grease. Indeed. Technology is only ever … [Read more...]
CohortTracker™—early warning system for identifying failing students
January 19, 2012 By
The Greater Southern Tier Board of Cooperative Education Services (GST BOCES) has released CohortTracker™ to fourteen school districts within its region. CohortTracker™, developed by Decision Mechanics and Prism Decision Systems, is an early warning system for identifying students who may be in danger of failing to graduate. Students' progress is assessed using an algorithm that … [Read more...]
When spreadsheets go bad
December 5, 2011 By
In the late '90s, I had a colleague who was fond of saying, "When an operations analyst encounters a problem, he opens a spreadsheet. Now he has two problems..." Indeed. If you are responsible for a project that has a spreadsheet as a deliverable, go and suspend it now. Yes, now. Go on. When you return I'll explain why you had to do it. Done? OK, I'll continue. First, let … [Read more...]
Budget Playground—an interactive budget-planning iPad app
August 8, 2011 By
Decision Mechanics, in partnership with Prism Decision Systems, recently developed "Budget Playground"—a school district budget planning iPad app. The app was created as part of a program funded by Cornell University's New York State Center for Rural Schools. Budget Playground allows school district planning staff to forecast budgets up to ten years into the future and interactively modify … [Read more...]
International Executive Seminar in Political Management and Governance
July 29, 2011 By
Andrew Tait presented at the International Executive Seminar in Political Management and Governance hosted by George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. The theme of the conference was "governing in turbulent times". Andrew's talk covered stakeholder management (including Confrontation Analysis) and the development of political strategy. The conference … [Read more...]
Averages lead to less than average decisions
June 5, 2011 By
Districts where residents have the highest average educational achievement tend to be the smaller ones. Staying true to the tradition of blogging, we're stating this without having conducted any research whatsoever. Still, we're confident in the assertion. Oh, and did we mention that districts where residents have the lowest average educational achievement tend to be the smaller ones. Yep. … [Read more...]
Crowdsourcing big data
May 29, 2011 By
Big data is big news. Companies like Amazon, Google and major supermarkets are delivering new services and competitive advantage through analysing their massive datasets. The Economist reports that 30% of Amazon's sales are through its "you may also like" recommendations. Organizations everywhere want to make similar use of their own data. Articles and conferences on "predictive … [Read more...]
Drop-out “early warning” system to promote on-time graduation
January 23, 2011 By
Decision Mechanics have been working with Prism Decision Systems, LLC to design an early warning system for identifying high-school students who are at risk of dropping out. The project was undertaken to demonstrate how an agile development approach could—in a matter of weeks, not years—deliver focused, actionable, real-time information to educational decision-makers at all levels. … [Read more...]
Decision Mechanics develop Resilient Leader web application for Sunray7
December 8, 2010 By
Leadership development consultancy Sunray7 recently retained Decision Mechanics to develop a web application based on their well-regarded "Resilient Leader" assessment and development approach. Sunray7 have helped a range of leading multinational companies develop their future leaders. Their clients include: Barclays British Telecom Orange the UK's Ministry of Defence Decision … [Read more...]
Analyze it like Beckham
June 16, 2010 By
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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [Read more...]