Project pattern: A methodology for determining relevance in complex decision-making

Abstract

Numerical planning techniques are rapidly gaining in popularity, urged on by the tremendously increasing complexity of modern decision-making at high government and industrial levels. One of the most promising methodologies, originally intended as an advanced development planning aid, has been developed by Honeywell, Inc. Project PATTERN (Planning Assistance Through Technical Evaluation of Relevance Numbers), staffed from several company divisions by experts representing the corporate technical knowledge, produced a two-volume “scenario” which provides the descriptive material on which value judgments are made and a comprehensive “relevance tree” which records the collective value judgments of the company's representatives on thousands of individual decisions and shows how present-day technology deficiencies are ultimately related to our national objectives of military and scientific preeminence. The “relevance tree,” along with the assigned numerical values on the relevance of each of its elements, has been programmed on computers at several of the company's plants throughout the country to aid in local advanced development program decision-making within the charter of each plant. Provision is made for continually revising the judgments and updating the technology tree.