Interaction Dictionary

After the scope of a performance alert has been assessed in the (collective) portfolio management, a System Development initiative may be started to address it. The alert should be sufficiently detailed and concrete to allow for a proper response.

An important task is to fix the decisional context for the work system for which the initiatives will have to be launched. This can be done by using the so-called decision objects, as listed below.

The main items influencing the decision-making are:

• The decision objective or set of objectives the decision has to meet. Objectives indicate which types of performances are targeted. These performances can be the production costs, the delivery lead-time, the level of quality, for example. Objectives are needed everywhere and every time a decision is made. Global objectives refer to the entire production system and, according to the principle of coordination, are consistently detailed to give local objectives to all (production) units,
• The decision variables are the items upon which a decision-maker can make decisions that al-low him or her to reach the objectives. The decision criteria guide the choice of the decision-making,
• Constraints are the limitations on possible values of variables. Decision constraints limit the freedom of a decision-maker to select any arbitrary value for its decision variables,
• A performance indicator is an aggregated piece of information allowing the comparison of the performance of the system to the system’s objectives. A performance indicator is defined by its name, a value domain or dimension and a procedure that describes how its value can be calculated. Performance indicators should be consistent with (performance) objectives because it is necessary to compare performances targeted (objectives) and performances reached (indicators). Performance indicators should also be consistent with decision variables because those variables will have an effect on the performance monitored (controlability). This consistency is ensured if the performance indicators allow verification of the achievement of the objective and are influenced by actions on decision variables.

An alert is handled by the creation of a new project or initiative, or by attaching the alert to the problem statement for an existing or planned project. The project to which the alert is allocated will source or create a solution for the alert (or a set of alerts), and it will install or deliver this solution in the worksystem or habitat Project Execution

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