Behavioral Science—Finding an Adequate Measure of OR/MS Effectiveness

These comments about OR/MS effectiveness can be summarized in a few brief points. First, it is quite appropriate to view an OR/MS project as a change process. The ultimate purpose of this process is to help someone (a manager) do his job better. Second, satisfying this purpose does not necessarily require that the manager use the model developed during the project. Hence, model use is, at best, only a partial measure of effectiveness. Third, we can develop a behavioral measure of OR/MS effectiveness if we explicitly address the issue of goals at the start of the project.