Can't See the Forest Because of the Decision Trees: A Critique of Decision Analysis in Survey Texts

Introductory survey texts in operations research and management science have one or two chapters on decision analysis. They vary little from text to text in the topics covered, focusing largely on the analytic aspects of decision analysis. Their authors ignore key elements of decision analysis and the barriers to its use. As a result, they provide little insight as to how decision analysis is used in the real world as part of an intuition-building process and as a communication tool. In a critical review of their presentations, I identify crucial missing or cursorily reviewed topics and emphasize the need for a structured approach that incorporates probabilistic concepts and trade-offs amongst objectives. I present an annotated list of references and a new outline for a six-hour overview of decision analysis (not including multiple objectives) as part of a semester-long OR/MS survey course.