The application of logical decision trees to the decision-making process in ill-structured problems

Abstract

Decision-making is a process which has accompanied the human being since time immemorial and in various areas of their activity. It should result in making a choice that meets the expectations (conditions) of the decision maker to the greatest extent. Decisions can be made on the basis of information which is not always complete and reliable. Sometimes it may happen that it is incomplete and reliable or complete but unreliable. Then, it concerns ill-structured problems. The purpose of this article is to verify whether ill-structured problems can be solved/supported in a way based on an operating algorithm. In the article, a case study with complete but unreliable information as well as with complete and reliable information was used. Logical decision trees were employed in the study. The result of the study allowed for, among others, establishing that the analysis of an ill-structured problem using logical decision trees consists in performing steps which follow one another in a logical sequence creating thus a sequence of operations, and therefore an operating algorithm, which confirms that solving ill-structured problems can be supported/implemented using an algorithm.