1. DAR in the Real World
War Stories and Practical Help
Steven Thomas
March, 2008

2. Outline
• Overview of DAR Process Area and core principles
• When to use DAR – Can, Should and Should Not
• If DAR is so simple, why is it so Hard?
• War Stories - Resistance to DAR
• Fast Consensus-oriented decision process based on wide-
band Delphi
• Summary
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3. DAR Overview
• Purpose of Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) (from CMMI
V1.2) is to:
Analyze possible decisions
Using a formal evaluation process that
Evaluates identified alternatives
Against established criteria.
• Like other support process areas (MA, CM, …) Don’t think
of DAR as a separate process. Think of it as a procedure
which is used in executing other processes.
• DAR is one of the easiest CMMI Process Areas to
understand, document and train people to use
• The challenges are determining when to apply this
procedure and how to overcome the natural resistance.
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4. DAR – Planning and Doing
• Planning to use a formal evaluation procedure (DAR)
During Project planning, identify and plan which decisions or types
of decisions need a formal evaluation process and will use the DAR
procedure and which do not need this.
Establish guidelines (organizational and/or project) for when
unplanned decisions should also use a formal evaluation process
• Using the DAR procedure
Identify and document the “issue” including identifying owner and
stakeholders
Identify the selection criteria and the evaluation method (SP1.2,
1.4)
Identify and document the alternative solutions (SP1.3)
Evaluate alternative solutions against the selection criteria (SP1.5)
Select the desired alternative and document the decision (SP1.6)
Communicate the decision to the relevant stakeholders
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5. DAR – Scalability
• Any DAR procedure should be scalable. The effort and
rigor invested should make sense for the type of decision.
A formal evaluation of alternatives can be done in a few
hours or it can take months… “It Depends”, “You Decide”.
Involve only top criteria or look at all criteria
Evaluation can be quantitative or qualitative
Evaluation can be by subjective opinion, consensus or modeling and
analysis
Combining different people’s analysis can be done formally,
mathematically or informally
Documentation can be a few slides or a full report
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6. When to use DAR – First know WHY
• Starting point: Know WHY you want to use a formal
decision / evaluation procedure. Some reasons include:
So the project plans each decision including the schedule and effort
So there is a clear method for how to decide each issue
So decisions are made based on agreed upon business and technical
criteria
So Decisions are made once and made correctly
So all decisions and their rationales are recorded
So decisions are communicated to all relevant stakeholders
So decisions are not undermined
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7. When to use DAR – You SHOULD use DAR:
• An organization or project SHOULD use a DAR procedure
for major technical decisions and for some tactical
organizational decisions. (These are the places in the CMMI V1.2
model which reference DAR.)
Technical Decisions Organizational Decisions
• Architectural Decisions • Process Improvement Proposals
• Design Decisions • Selecting approaches for
• Interface Design Decisions training or developing
organizational expertise
• Source Selection Decisions
• Selecting work tools for the
• Tool Selection Decisions
standard work environment
• Make/Source/Buy Decisions
• Product Integration Sequence
Decisions
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8. When to use DAR – You CAN use DAR:
• In addition to the above, an organization or project CAN
use a DAR procedure for any decision that involves multiple
alternatives which can be
evaluated against multiple Process Decisions
criteria. • Process Design Decisions
• Manufacturing Process Design
Product Decisions • Work environment or tool
• Product Feature Selection change or replacement Decisions
• Product Release Contents and
Schedules Project Decisions
• Product Roadmap Decisions • Life cycle model selection
• Process Tailoring Decisions
Business Decisions • Risk Mgmt Mitigation Decisions
• Product Trial Selection • Project Management Corrective
• Proposal Generation Action re-planning Decisions
• Outsourcing Decisions • Testing Strategy Decisions
• Project Selection • Deployment Strategy Decisions
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9. When to use DAR – You SHOULD NOT use DAR:
• There are some decisions for which the organization
COULD use DAR (they involve multiple solutions evaluated
by criteria) but generally SHOULD NOT use DAR (at least in
the conventional way)
General Decisions Business Decisions
• Decisions with only 1 viable • Personnel Decisions (Hiring /
alternative Force Reduction, Promotions,
• Go/No go Checkpoint Decisions Raises, etc.)
• Business Strategy Decisions
• Decisions driven by a formula which are based on belief as
rather than by criteria (e.g. much or more than analysis
some process tailoring decisions)
• Organizational structure
Decisions
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10. WHEN should Your Organization Implement DAR?
• DAR procedures CAN probably benefit any class of decision,
but if they will benefit your organization depends on:
The leadership style of the organization
The past organizational culture for making this type of decision
What value does the organization want from a DAR procedure
• Other Decision methods can be just as effective and more
efficient
Leadership / Decision Styles
• Select types of decision where • Strong Leader driven
the value of DAR is clear • Intuition / Expertise driven
• Network or Consensus driven
• Data Driven
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11. If DAR is so SIMPLE, then why is it so HARD?
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12. DAR is Threatening
• Organizationally
How an organization makes Decisions is at the soul of how the
organization operates.
DAR means moving toward a data-driven, engineering analysis culture
• Individually
Decision owners are challenged in how they make their decision
Owners must involve relevant stakeholders and consider all criteria
A “Process” questions their ability to make good decisions
• To Peers (In Network or Consensus cultures)
It empowers decision owners
• Threats felt at all levels (engineering, project management,
organization management, executives)
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13. Overcoming Resistance – Preparing for Resistance
• The manager and peers of the decision owner must be
persuaded first
• Understand what the previous decision making model was
• Pick the DAR benefits (slide 6) that will most help this
situation
• It is not necessary to move to a data-driven, engineering
analysis orientation for all types of decisions
• The predominant decision culture will remain until/unless
the executive team changes.
• The resistance scenario involves the decision owner, the
type of decision and the evaluation methodology
• Need to plan the consequences of not following the DAR
procedure
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14. Resistance Techniques (1)
• We have no major decisions on this project, so no DAR
decisions are planned.
• Suggestion: Re-examine the areas where DAR SHOULD be applied
and then reconsider the project plan
• The boss (or somebody else) already made the decision, we
just have to document it
• Suggestion: Follow the “decision” upstream to make that type of
decision correctly next time
• Warning: Beware of the “Hot Potato” game where everyone believes
that someone else is really making the decision
• We can’t decide that without checking with the boss
• Suggestion: Clear communication is needed to set expectations and
empowerment
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15. Resistance Techniques (2)
• Just make the decision, “easier to get forgiveness …”
• Suggestion: Are the value justifications for using DAR correct and
well-understood?
• Suggestion: Check if the non-compliance consequences are
sufficient
• “There is really only 1 alternative to consider”
• Suggestion: Helps to have an independent person check this (Project
Mgr or PPQA)
• “The answer is obvious”
• Suggestion: If the task of implementing the decision is transitioned
to a new team, will they think the decision was obvious?
• We discuss pros and cons and reach a consensus decision
• Suggestion: Pros and Cons are usually the decision criteria, capture
them, but conduct a formal evaluation
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16. Resistance Techniques (3)
• Process is for the engineering staff, not for management
• Suggestion: Examine if the organization is ready to use DAR for
these decision types. If so it will be driven from above.
• “We don’t look at multiple alternative, we just confirm
that the selected / identified alternative is acceptable”
• Suggestion: Streamline the entire decision process.
• “The loudest, last voice wins”
• Suggestion: Either use a strong facilitator or use a method which
eliminates complete sharing of information (see example later)
• We can’t document how we decided this… (security,
privacy or legal concerns)
• Suggestion: A secure repository for these decision types may help
• Suggestion: Re-examine the expected benefits of documenting the
decision
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17. Fast Wide-Band Delphi tool for Consensus - Overview
• This decision making methodology brings together a group
of people knowledgeable on the decision issue and reaches
a consensus decision with minimal time, effort and
discussion.
• Preparation – Identify the following as usual:
Decision Description
Alternative Solutions
Decision Criteria
• Decision Method
Based on the Wide-Band Delphi estimating methodology
Uses multiple rounds of voting to establish consensus ratings
Limits discussion to only what is necessary to get consensus
A moderator is recommended to manage the votes.
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18. Fast Wide-Band Delphi tool for Consensus - Principles
• Diversity of Opinion – Team should represent multiple functional
areas
• Minimal Sharing – The team does a first round of voting without
discussion. Later voting rounds use minimal feedback and sharing
• Independence & Anonymity – Each team member votes
independently and should not be influenced by how others vote
• Consensus – For each evaluation score, the team must reach
consensus. The tool helps evaluate the level of consensus.
• Feedback – If the team does not have consensus, 2 verbal
presentations are made for why the score should be higher and lower
(1 of each)
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19. Fast Wide-Band Delphi Decision Tool Snapshot
Alternative 3 - Consensus
The shoebox Score
# Criteria Weight Alternative 1 Alternative 2 alternative
1 Height 3 4.0 8.3 7.3 3
2 Weight 5 5.3 7.0 6.3 3
3 Cost 10 9.5 5.3 6.3 0
4 Life Expectancy 6 3.8 8.0 9.0 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
TOTAL Weighted SCORE 156 160 170
Consensus Techniques
• Standard Deviation of scores
• Difference between High/Low scores
• Comparison of Ranking
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20. Summary - Hoped for Take-aways
• Understand why you face opposition in implementing DAR –
It is not you, it is a simple process – but it affects the soul
of how the organization operates
• Tips for developing a Strategy for which decisions to
include in a formal decision process framework
• Game plan for overcoming the natural resistance to using a
formal evaluation technique for making decisions
• Techniques for overcoming people’s resistance to following
a formal decision process
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21. Contact Info & Biography
• Steve Thomas
Alcatel-Lucent
stevethomas@alcatel-lucent.com
• Mr. Thomas is an authorized Intro to CMMI Instructor and
an authorized SCAMPI B/C Team Leader. He has over 25
years experience in software development, project
management and quality management. He has a BS in
Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University and an
MS in Computer Science from The Ohio State University.
• Mr. Thomas is the creator and owner of the “DAR” process
for a business division of Alcatel-Lucent with over 3,000
R&D staff distributed around the globe
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