Proceedings

DECISIONS DRIVE SUCCESS
Dragos STOICA 1 & Pavel NASTASE
Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania
ABSTRACT
Organizations are forced to be overly dependent on past experience due to the lack of usable
information, or the inability to quickly and effectively analyse unstructured data. Significant
amounts of data are ignored, mismanaged or underutilized - one in three business leaders
report making critical decisions with incomplete or untrustworthy information (Merv Adrian,
2010). This is no longer acceptable. With the growing velocity, volume and variety of complex
data, organizations will have to rethink and reshape the way they work. The data has to be
changed into information that yields fast and conclude answers, thus allowing the decision
factors to make choices that lead to the improving of the performance inside the company.
Due to a lack of timely and accurate information, project and process management within the
software and systems development and delivery lifecycle often rely more on guesswork than
good insights. At the same time, marketplace and budgetary pressures force teams to
continually make faster progress with fewer resources. To optimize business results and
competitiveness, organizations need to give decision makers and teams the ability to make
informed decisions based on real-time information. This paper explores how an inability to
quickly access and analyze data within the development lifecycle limits the effectiveness of
project teams and explains how organizations can create transparency across the processes
that support effective software delivery. Also the paper shows the benefits of capturing the
right data and delivering it to the right people at the right time. Business Analytics with
Business Intelligence are the key factors which contributes to making successful business
decisions and supporting.
KEYWORDS: Decision making, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence,
DECISION MAKING - INTRODUCTION
Organizations operating in today’s global economy are faced with unprecedented
competitive and regulatory pressures and a heightened level of uncertainty. Driven by
geopolitical trends and financial scandals, national and international regulatory
agencies have performed rules with far-reaching impact on the daily operations of
organizations in all industries. By most accounts, the uncertainty is more profound
than in the past decades, and is likely elevated by the amount of data and information
available to decision makers nowadays. Hence, there is a trend towards continuously
shrinking decision cycles where improved, faster, more accurate, insightful and
flexible decision making commands a premium and serves as basis for competitive
advantage. However, significant shortcomings persist in the ability of organizations to
address the decision-making needs of its employees.
1 Correspondence address: Dragoş STOICA, IBM Romania, Ph. D Student at Bucharest Academy of
Economic Studies, Romania; email: dragoshstoica@yahoo.com
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