The elicitation of business planning knowledge

The development of a methodology for the elicitation of strategic decision making knowledge used in business planning, is discussed. The work concerns the phase of the business planning cycle which involves the evaluation of strategies and uses simulation as a means of evaluating strategies. A vital consideration in the application of simulation is the validity of the underlying models which represent the complex nature of both the organisation and the strategic problem. It is the aim of the project to develop an elicitation methodology which enables the creation of accurate company and decision models which reflect the way decision makers take decisions. The elicited knowledge will allow the business executive to understand more fully the decision making process and be used as input into a decision support tool for evaluating strategies