decision calculus

decision calculus

[di′sizh·ən ′kal·kyə·ləs] (systems engineering) A guide to the process of decision-making, often outlined in the following steps: analysis of the decision area to discover applicable elements; location or creation of criteria for evaluation; appraisal of the known information pertinent to the applicable elements and correction for bias; isolation of the unknown factors; weighting of the pertinent elements, known and unknown, as to relative importance; and projection of the relative impacts on the objective, and synthesis into a course of action.