Master the decision-making process: A successful team's comprehensive guide
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Think of the most successful teams you’ve worked with — what did they have in common? It’s likely they worked well together under a shared vision and team understanding. And they probably made good decisions, seemingly without effort. Effective decision-making is critical when it comes to team and project success. But it requires preparation, confidence, and the right tools.
Here at Atlassian, we use Confluence as a knowledge management tool to support our decision-making processes, from brainstorming to final decision documentation.
The importance of effective decision-making
From projects to planning, making effective decisions takes practice, and sets the foundation for your success. While small, quick decisions may allow some flexibility, big-impact decisions are harder to reverse — so being able to successfully weigh options, risks, and opportunities is a muscle that needs to be flexed and refined.
Regardless of which techniques you choose and how you represent your leadership style, it’s also important to gain buy-in from your whole team and make sure you’ve set up clear processes that you can replicate efficiently in the future.
Decision-making techniques, styles, and approaches
Knowing your decision-making style doesn’t preclude you from making informed decisions. While we all have a level of personal and professional intuition to trust, effective decision-making is backed up by analysis, research, and fact. A PwC survey of senior executives found that data-driven organizations are three times more likely to see improvements in decision-making than those who rely less on data.
There are countless decision-making models that drive informed choices, and finding the right technique comes down to your team makeup and your leadership style. Many teams prefer a SWOT analysis, which outlines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the decision to accurately gauge benefits and risks.
System flowchart
System flowcharts are like a roadmap of a system, showing all the stops (steps) along the way. They effectively illustrate how each part of the system interacts with one another. For example, you can use a system flowchart to demonstrate how orders get from customers to the delivery team in a pizza delivery business.
Workflow diagram
A workflow diagram is a flowchart displaying the order of steps required to complete a task or process. It's like a cookbook recipe, showing you each step in meal preparation.
Data flow diagram
A data flow diagram (DFD) shows how data moves through a system — where it comes from, where it goes, and how it gets stored. For example, consider a DFD that outlines how a company manages the process of hiring new employees and storing their information. This diagram serves as a valuable tool for project managers, enabling them to gain insights into the flow of data within the company database. It helps in monitoring and enhancing data handling practices for more efficient and effective management.
Decision flowchart
As its name suggests, a decision flowchart helps with decision-making. Like branches on a tree, a decision flowchart presents various options and the consequences of each choice. It aids in the decision-making process by beginning with an initial question. As you follow the flowchart, each answer leads to new questions, guiding you through the decision-making process until you reach a choice.
Swimlane flowchart
A swimlane flowchart visually represents the roles and responsibilities within a process. It divides the flowchart into lanes (similar to lanes in a swimming pool) with each lane assigned to a certain person or group. For instance, in a business context, these lanes could be “sales,” “marketing,” or “legal.”
Document flowchart
Document flowcharts are similar to data flow diagrams. They show how documents move through a system. Think of them as maps depicting the journey of a letter, starting from its arrival in the office and tracing its path until it reaches the right person.
Program flowchart
A program flowchart shows how a software program works. It instructs the computer on what tasks to do and in which order. For instance, a login program flowchart shows how a computer checks if a username and password are correct.
Process flowchart
Process flowcharts are the most common type of flowcharts. They display every action in a process from beginning to end. They are useful in fields such as manufacturing, where they clearly depict the product's entire production journey, starting from raw materials to the finished product.
Decision-making techniques, styles, and approaches
Knowing your decision-making style doesn’t preclude you from making informed decisions. While we all have a level of personal and professional intuition to trust, effective decision-making is backed up by analysis, research, and fact. A PwC survey of senior executives found that data-driven organizations are three times more likely to see improvements in decision-making than those who rely less on data.
There are countless decision-making models that drive informed choices, and finding the right technique comes down to your team makeup and your leadership style. Many teams prefer a SWOT analysis, which outlines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the decision to accurately gauge benefits and risks.
Steps you should take in the decision-making process
The first step you need to take when making a decision is identifying the problem your team needs to solve. Create a Confluence page where you can visualize the problem and who is responsible for overcoming it. Having the problem clearly spelled out will help ensure everyone understands what decision they need to make and why. What is the impact of the problem? What are your goals that will confirm your solution is a success?
Then, break down the issue. Gather information and data that defines what has caused the problem or is preventing a solution. This can include market research, company data, personal insights, and trending news. Build a table that outlines the risks and benefits of potential solutions to prepare your team ahead of time.
Encourage your team to review that outline and provide feedback early on, so they can identify any missing gaps or obstacles before you flesh out the problem. They may also be able to contribute to your research and provide further insights you didn’t consider.
Evaluate your team’s options and use a framework to make a decision. You may need a group effort or further evaluation, which is where your framework comes into play. You may find that the original framework you proposed — like a SWOT analysis – isn’t thorough enough for the solution you’ll need. Encourage your team to propose the right framework that will help with transparency in the decision and will also make their workload clear.
Once you’ve made the decision, work through project management tools like Trello or Jira Work Management to implement it, test it, and monitor it. Continue to document your progress along the way in Confluence so you can refer to it in the future to replicate or iterate your performance.
Steps you should take in the decision-making process
DACI: Use this framework to work with a team to come to group decisions together, identifying roles within the process including Driver, Approver, Contributors, and Informed individuals. Use data and background knowledge to help support the decision.
Problem framing: Work with your team to identify problem statements that outline one concise solution to the problem in a digestible and collaborative manner. This helps focus on understanding and defining the problem while you align your team on approach. Then you can assemble a select group of stakeholders to settle on the right decision.
Trade-offs: Sometimes making the right decision means making compromises. What will you trade-off for the benefit of the right decision? Work with your team to identify constraints, blockers, and priorities before you kick off the project so you come prepared with decisions before the obstacles happen.
OKRs: Make your decisions with an objective in mind. OKRs are designed for continuous growth and can function as a “north star” that keeps you on course as you make individual decisions during a project.
Decision-making in Confluence
Regardless of which model you pick, your team can work together to both build and document your decision-making framework within Confluence. We have templates for DACI, SWOT analysis, a design decision template, a voting table, and more
Decision-making in Confluence
Regardless of which model you pick, your team can work together to both build and document your decision-making framework within Confluence. We have templates for DACI, SWOT analysis, a design decision template, a voting table, and more
Decision-making in Confluence
Regardless of which model you pick, your team can work together to both build and document your decision-making framework within Confluence. We have templates for DACI, SWOT analysis, a design decision template, a voting table, and more
What are the best types of flowcharts to use?
The most effective flowchart depends on the specific process and its desired outcome. For example, a system flowchart is useful for displaying how different parts of a system interconnect.
In contrast, a data flow diagram is key to showing how data moves through a system. To choose the best flowchart, understand the diagram’s objective and decide which type aligns best with that purpose.
What tools should I use to create a flowchart?
Atlassian's Confluence whiteboards are a reliable way to make comprehensive and easy-to-understand flowcharts. They make it easy to visualize conversations and turn them into Jira tasks to start working on.
What are common use cases for flowcharts?
Flowcharts have many applications, including creating software, managing projects, fixing issues, and improving processes. In software development, programmers use flowcharts to plan and break down complicated methods.
Project managers use them in Agile methodology to see how the project's plan, dependencies, and roles fit together. Companies also use flowcharts to explain procedures and train employees.