Decision Due Diligence: Overview
About D3D | No comments | February 24th, 2009
Decision Due Diligence is the core process of Decision 3D. I have described it at a high level on this website and in my Slideshare presentation. In this post I want to begin a deeper dive into what it looks like in practice. This post will be an overview of the process and subsequent posts will provide more detail of the separate process phases.
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Objective
The purpose of Decision Due Diligence is to allow an organization to gain a better understanding of the factors that are inhibiting information flow and to develop steps to minimize those factors. The hope is that with freer information flow within an organization, decision makers will be more effective at gathering the information they need and therefore be able to make better decisions.
What It Is
Decision Due Diligence (DDD) is not a platform for performance or some kind of general tool that everyone benchmarks against. It is a focused point solution. You use DDD to address a specific operating problem, at a specific point in time, looking for specific, quantifiable improvements in your operations. Once the process is complete, you hope to have three persistent outcomes.
- Improved results
- A new understanding, by participants in the process, of how information flow can be optimized, hopefully leading to fewer information flow restrictions in the future
- The ability to repeat the process elsewhere in the organization to address other operating problems
How It Works
Decision Due Diligence is a multi-stage process. The stages are:
- Assessment
- Analysis
- Model Development
- Idealized Design
- Planning
- Implementation
Assessment
- define the problem,
- identify desired outcomes,
- create initial list of stakeholders
Stakeholders in this case means any entity that influences or is influenced by the decisions core to the situation.
Analysis
- gather stakeholder input about connections
- extend stakeholder list as necessary
- compile stakeholder input about connections
- assign initial values to connections, “Priority”, “Alignment”, “Synchronization”
Connections are the links or relationships between any given pair of stakeholders.
Model Development
- create collaborative workspace showing aggregated Analysis
- invite commentary and feedback from stakeholders regarding aggregated Analysis
- identify key connections (between stakeholders)
Idealized Design
- organize focal event, preferably live, face-to-face and facilitated
- design ideal scenario
- compare to analysis/model results
- identify pragmatic steps to get from “here to there”
- form implementation team
Planning
- convene implementation team
- establish governance, including stakeholder access and feedback to proceedings
- develop project plan for implementation
- define success metrics
Implementation
- implement plan
- monitor and report metrics
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OK there it is. Maybe a bit wonkish, but I want to have this all spelled out so it can be referenced as necessary. I will be adding posts shortly, providing more detail about how each of the six phases will look in practice.