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Engineering Commons

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Portland State University

Series

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

2009

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Heuristics In Decision Making, Fatima M. Albar, Antonie J. Jetter Jan 2009

Heuristics In Decision Making, Fatima M. Albar, Antonie J. Jetter

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Heuristics are simple rules of thumbs for problem solving that follow a logic that is quite different from consequential logic. They have long been regarded, as an inferior technique for decision making that is the source of irrational decision behavior. Recently, decision making researchers have demonstrated that some heuristics are highly efficient and can compete with complex decision models in some application domains. This paper explores the different streams of research, summarizes the state of the art decision making model, and discusses its implications for complex decisions in engineering and technology management.


Theoretical Framework For Managing The Front End Of Innovation Under Uncertainty, Antonie J. Jetter, Richard Sperry Jan 2009

Theoretical Framework For Managing The Front End Of Innovation Under Uncertainty, Antonie J. Jetter, Richard Sperry

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

A growing body of research suggests that the fuzzy front-end of product development should not be managed with a one-size-fits-all standard process. Instead, projects with different market and technical uncertainties should be managed with one of five different processes (linear, recursive, evolving, selectionism, trial-and-error). Based on a review of the literature, the paper develops a theoretical framework for front-end management which provides the foundation for ongoing empirical research.