"A very rich book sprinkled with real-life examples as well as battle-tested advice.” —Pierre Haren, VP ILOG, IBM "James does a thorough job of explaining Decision Management Systems as enablers of a formidable business transformation.” —Deepak Advani, Vice President, Business Analytics Products and SPSS, IBM Build Systems That Work Actively to Help You Maximize Growth and Profits Most companies rely on operational systems that are largely passive. But what if you could make your systems active participants in optimizing your business? What if your systems could act intelligently on their own? Learn, not just report? Empower users to take action instead of simply escalating their problems? Evolve without massive IT investments? Decision Management Systems can do all that and more. In this book, the field’s leading expert demonstrates how to use them to drive unprecedented levels of business value. James Taylor shows how to integrate operational and analytic technologies to create systems that are more agile, more analytic, and more adaptive. Through actual case studies, you’ll learn how to combine technologies such as predictive analytics, optimization, and business rules—improving customer service, reducing fraud, managing risk, increasing agility, and driving growth. Both a practical how-to guide and a framework for planning, Decision Management Systems focuses on mainstream business challenges. Coverage includes Understanding how Decision Management Systems can transform your business Planning your systems “with the decision in mind” Identifying, modeling, and prioritizing the decisions you need to optimize Designing and implementing robust decision services Monitoring your ongoing decision-making and learning how to improve it Proven enablers of effective Decision Management Systems: people, process, and technology Identifying and overcoming obstacles that can derail your Decision Management Systems initiative

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Deepak Advani     xv Foreword by Pierre Haren     xviii Preface     xix Acknowledgments     xxiii Part I The Case for Decision Management Systems     1 Chapter 1 Decision Management Systems Are Different     3 Agile     4 Analytic     8 Adaptive     15 Chapter 2 Your Business Is Your Systems     19 Changing Expectations     20 Changing Scale     23 Changing Interactions     25 Chapter 3 Decision Management Systems Transform Organizations     29 A Market of One     30 Always On     33 Breaking the Ratios     36 Crushing Fraud     39 Maximizing Assets     41 Maximizing Revenue     44 Making Smart People Smarter     45 Conclusion     46 Chapter 4 Principles of Decision Management Systems     47 Principle #1: Begin with the Decision in Mind     48 Principle #2: Be Transparent and Agile     57 Principle #3: Be Predictive, Not Reactive     60 Principle #4: Test, Learn, and Continuously Improve     63 Summary     67 Part II Building Decision Management Systems     69 Chapter 5 Discover and Model Decisions     71 Characteristics of Suitable Decisions     72 A Decision Taxonomy     81 Finding Decisions     87 Documenting Decisions     99 Prioritizing Decisions     111 Chapter 6 Design and Implement Decision Services     115 Build Decision Services     116 Integrate Decision Services     147 Best Practices for Decision Services Construction     152 Chapter 7 Monitor and Improve Decisions     157 What Is Decision Analysis?     158 Monitor Decisions     159 Determine the Appropriate Response     167 Develop New Decision-Making Approaches     176 Confirm the Impact Is as Expected     184 Deploy the Change     187 Part III Enablers for Decision Management Systems     189 Chapter 8 People Enablers     191 The Three-Legged Stool     191 A Decision Management Center of Excellence     196 Organizational Change     206 Chapter 9 Process Enablers     211 Managing a Decision Inventory     211 Adapting the Software Development Lifecycle     215 Decision Service Integration Patterns     221 A Culture of Experimentation     222 Moving to Fact-Based Decisioning     228 The OODA Loop     232 Chapter 10 Technology Enablers     235 Business Rules Management Systems     235 Predictive Analytics Workbenches     238 Optimization Systems     243 Pre-Configured Decision Management Systems     244 Data Infrastructure     247 A Service-Oriented Platform     255 Epilogue     263 Bibliography     267 Index     273