Decision-Maker Modeling for Decision Support Application

Product development decisions represent challenging processes with various stakeholders from different disciplines and with different perspectives involved. Decisions can be highly complex due to the high amount of influencing factors that have to be considered simultaneously. Among other methods and tools, decision support systems (DSS) were developed to support decision-makers in handling complex decisions. One main disadvantage of DSS is the little adaptation to and integration of decision-maker needs and characteristics. Thus, current trends focus on the development of human- and decision-maker-centered DSS. This paper aims in providing a multilevel stepwise procedure for the modeling of decision-makers in order to enable a more effective decision support. The decision-maker modeling procedure is based on findings from literature research and results from research projects performed in cooperation with industry partners. The procedure serves as a guideline for generating diverse decision-maker models for different applications and for integrating human cognitive thinking procedures within the design and functionality of decision support methodologies and systems. The procedure represents an important design element of the human-centered decision support methodology currently being developed at the Institute of Product Development of the Technische Universität München (Germany).