D&A for Decision Superiority

Most D&A journeys begin by focusing on a stack of technology. It is critically impor-tant to have the right assets, but a productive D&A layer does not just come about by acquiring the right resources.

In contrast to technology-centric D&A, decision-centric D&A takes a strategic per-spective and moves top-down - from the needs of decision makers down to the world of data & technology.

Decision making is more complex than ever before

Today’s business environment is more volatile than ever before. The increasing number of input variables & their relationships make decision processes more complex than ever before.

Ambiguity, uncertainty, and frequently changing conditions require comprehensive risk assessment and adjusting existing strategies before making decisions.

Today's decisions must take into account more laws, regulations and industry stan-dards than ever before, while stakeholders expect ever more comprehensive justifi-cation for decisions.?

This makes implementing D&A as a strategic decision-centric business capability challenging and completely different from developing use case specific D&A solu-tions.

In this article, we present the layered OODA 4.0 architecture for next-generation decision-centric D&A at a glance. Send us a short message, if you want to learn more.

Recap: What is OODA 4.0?

OODA 4.0 is comprehensive framework for transforming corporate D&A into a stra-tegic business capability for superior decision support in volatile and complex busi-ness environments. It places decision-centric D&A on 3 pillars:

1. An outstanding agile & responsive decision process that was originally used to enable military pilots to master air combat.
2. A unified D&A process based on the harmonization of data governance, data management and data science processes.
3. A scalable meta technology stack to support the production and near real-time delivery of D&A product portfolios, even across company boundaries.

The technology stack is called "meta" because it is designed to integrate and aug-ment existing OT and IT data infrastructures. It is based on the “connect every-thing” paradigm and made to implement D&A platforms as networks of business twins - digital representations of customers, products, supply chains and alike.

Layered D&A Architecture

OODA 4.0 organizes decision-centric D&A in a comprehensive 5-layer archi-tecture, top down from decision making to the world of data.

Decision Layer

The decision layer contains the key principles to turn today’s D&A initiatives into competitive decision-centric D&A. One of the key principles is that of “targeted insights” - the integration into the OODA (Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act) Loop.

Integration into the OODA Loop

OODA 4.0 integrates D&A into the OODA Loop, a first class agile, collaborative & responsive decision cycle.

Originally used to enable military pilots to master fast-paced situations in air com-bat, the Loop is now being adopted by many companies to better organize their de-cision making.

The OODA Loop is the basis for harmonizing decision-making processes across business units and stakeholders. For OODA 4.0, the Loop serves as a guide to align D&A product portfolios with decision makers’ needs.

Business entities rather than business units

Mastering the complexity of today’s business environments, companies need a new approach to shape and harmonize their information spaces.?

Specialization & standardization are the key factors to gain a deep understanding of the business and avoid the risk that arises from decisions based only on a gen-eral, roughly granular view of the things.

OODA 4.0 shifts the D&A focus from individual business unit specific use cases to standardized business information entities, i.e., digital representations of customers, products, supply chains and alike.

Business is viewed as a dynamic network of interacting harmonized business in-formation entities, and decision making is centered around the dynamic situation of these entities.

Experience Layer

The experience layer defines how D&A product portfolios are delivered to decision makers:?

Comprehensive operational picture

OODA 4.0 defines 4 interaction channels how to access D&A portfolios, namely Observe, Orientate, Decide and Act channels aligned with the phases of the OODA Loop.

The aim is to provide a comprehensive near real-time picture of the dynamic, pre-dicted, and simulated situation of key business information entities.

Explainable, memorable & understandable stories

We do not view insights as an end in themselves: The last mile to the decision maker determines whether computed insights are ignored or discarded. Decision makers are constantly flooded with a mix of relevant and irrelevant information.?

For us, insight storytelling is an important tool for augmenting computed insights with human-relevant properties: Explainable, memorable, and understandable.

Performance Layer

OODA 4.0 focuses on the definition and management of entity specific and deci-sion-centric D&A portfolios. Data interoperability & sovereignty (ownership, privacy etc.) are key properties that are implemented as configurable product sharing & usage policies.

Portfolio management with a unified D&A process

The performance layer contains the D&A portfolio and the unified data govern-ance, management & science processes for building and managing them.

Key subprocesses are e.g., semantic harmonization and contextualization (see Context Layer below) to build a single source of semantic truth, and systematically find and absorb relevant contextual data about business information entities.

Five functional fields

OODA 4.0 organizes the performance layer of decision-centric D&A in 5 entity-specific functional areas: Semantics, Context, Flows, Portfolio and Exchange.

Asset Layer

The asset layer contains the assets of the OODA 4.0 “meta” stack that are needed to implement a scalable but tailored D&A platform for the production & delivery of decision-centric D&A portfolios.

Six technical asset types

Our “meta” stack is organized in 6 asset types, namely Sensors, Broker, Graph, Flows, Models and Services and supports the full range from descriptive to pre-scriptive analytics, and simulation.?

Network of business twins

These assets are designed to integrate and augment existing OT and IT data infrastructures and implement decision-centric D&A platforms as networks of digital business twins, i.e., customer, product, supply chain and alike twins.

Context Layer

“You never understand the purchase of ice-cream and soft drinks without knowing the weather conditions.”

Focus on the data you need, not the ones you have

Data forms the basis for decision-centric D&A, and the context layer contains the data you need for informed decisions rather than the ones you have.?

Network-centric information space

The decision-centric information space is a network of key business information entities. Each entity-specific context is a living object that constantly absorbs entity-related data to deepen understanding.

PESTEL system?

OODA 4.0 leverages the PESTEL system to ensure a comprehensive and syste-matic approach to find and absorb relevant contextual data about business infor-mation entities.

Interested to learn more about decision-centric D&A with OODA 4.0? Send us a short message, and we will share more information with you.