DDBA 8560 Week 10 Decision Monitoring Plan Example

Seminar in Healthcare Managerial Decision Making Walden University Free custom sample in 24 to 48h

This DDBA 8560 Week 10 decision monitoring plan example is designed against escalation, the tendency Staw documented for a choice's author to pour more into it as it falters. Walden DDBA 8560 asks students to monitor whether a decision was right, not only whether it is being carried out, and the plan for Brookfield's evening MRI hours names one signal, weekly evening fill, tied to the 62 percent switching value. A control chart applies Deming's distinction between common-cause and special-cause variation, as Benneyan and colleagues describe for health care. The stopping rule, fixed in advance, ends evening hours if fill averages below 55 percent for eight weeks after a twelve-week grace period. The chair of ambulatory operations holds it, and a premortem draws on Mitchell, Russo and Pennington in this DBA plan.

CourseDDBA 8560 Seminar in Healthcare Managerial Decision Making
WeekWeek 10
Paper typeMonitoring plan
LengthAbout 520 words, 4 pages
FormatAPA 7 student paper
SchoolWalden University
ProgramDoctor of Business Administration (DBA)
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for DDBA 8560 Week 10

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One Signal, a Stopping Rule Set in Advance and Someone Else Holding It: A Monitoring Plan Designed Against Escalation of Commitment to Brookfield's Evening MRI Hours

Student Name

Walden University

DDBA 8560: Seminar in Healthcare Managerial Decision Making

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingThe title lists the plan's three features and the bias they guard against, so the reader sees why each is there.
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One Signal, a Stopping Rule Set in Advance and Someone Else Holding It: A Monitoring Plan Designed Against Escalation of Commitment to Brookfield's Evening MRI Hours

What the Evidence Could Show

Once evening hours begin, data could show one of three things. The decision could be wrong: evening demand is too low for the option to beat its rivals. Execution could be lagging: demand exists, but staffing gaps or late reads prevent slots from being used. Or nothing has changed beyond ordinary variation. A monitoring plan that tracks scans performed, overtime and patient comments describes the operation well but cannot tell the first from the second. This plan chooses one signal for the first.

What this page is doingThe plan distinguishes three readings of the data before choosing a signal, since only one of them tests the decision.
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The Signal

The signal is evening slots filled per session, as a percentage of available slots, measured weekly. It ties directly to the switching value the risk brief found: below about 62 percent fill, no-show reduction scores higher than evening hours. Brookfield's Saturday sessions took about two quarters to rise above that level, so early weeks below it are expected.

Reading the Signal

Weekly fill will vary for reasons unrelated to the decision, such as holidays and weather. Deming (1986) urged managers to separate the routine wobble every stable process shows from signals that the process itself has shifted, which he labeled common and special causes, and warned that reacting to common-cause variation makes performance worse. Benneyan et al. (2003) described how control charts can apply that distinction in health care. The plan uses a control chart for weekly fill, with limits calculated from the first eight weeks of data once they exist. Until then, limits are placeholders.

The Stopping Rule

Once twelve weeks of operation have passed, if evening fill stays under 55 percent on average across any run of eight weeks, evening hours will end at the next scheduling cycle. The threshold sits below the switching value to allow for estimation error; the twelve-week grace period reflects the Saturday experience. A fill rate between 55 and 62 percent triggers a review of the option against no-show reduction, not an automatic stop.

What this page is doingThe rule is fixed now, before any data exist, so it cannot be bent to fit results later.
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Who Holds the Rule

Staw (1976) gave business students a failing investment to fund and found that those who had chosen it themselves put more money into it than those who inherited it, a pattern later named escalation of commitment. The imaging manager who recommended evening hours is therefore not the right person to judge whether to stop them. The stopping rule is held by the chair of the hospital's ambulatory operations committee, who had no part in the recommendation, and the weekly chart goes to the chair directly from the scheduling office.

A Premortem

Before the first session, the decision group will spend one meeting imagining that evening hours have failed a year from now and listing why. Mitchell et al. (1989) found that imagining an event as having already happened, prospective hindsight, increased the number of reasons people could generate for it. The list will be kept with the plan and checked at the twelve-week point.

Limits

One signal cannot capture every way the decision might be wrong, such as harm to daytime staffing.

References

Benneyan, J. C., Lloyd, R. C., & Plsek, P. E. (2003). Statistical process control as a tool for research and healthcare improvement. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 12(6), 458-464. https://doi.org/10.1136/qhc.12.6.458

Deming, W. E. (1986). Out of the crisis. MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study.

Mitchell, D. J., Russo, J. E., & Pennington, N. (1989). Back to the future: Temporal perspective in the explanation of events. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 2(1), 25-38. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.3960020103

Staw, B. M. (1976). Knee-deep in the big muddy: A study of escalating commitment to a chosen course of action. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16(1), 27-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90005-2

Reading the DDBA 8560 Week 10 instructions

Week 10 asks for a monitoring plan that could show your decision was wrong. Distinguish what the data could reveal: a wrong decision, lagging execution or ordinary variation. Choose one signal that tests the decision itself and tie it to your earlier switching value. Explain how you will read the signal without reacting to noise. Fix a stopping rule now, with a threshold and a duration. Assign authority to invoke it to someone other than the person who recommended the decision, explaining why. Add a premortem or similar exercise and state the plan's limits. Keep the plan to three or four pages, with one mocked-up chart showing how the signal will be read.

How this DDBA 8560 Week 10 example is built

The sample explains why tracking scans, overtime and comments would describe the operation without testing the choice. The signal section sets weekly evening fill against the switching value and expects early weeks below it, as the Saturday sessions showed. The chart section uses control limits from the first eight weeks of data. The stopping rule sets 55 percent for eight weeks after week twelve, with a review between 55 and 62 percent. The authority section gives the rule to the ambulatory operations chair, with the chart sent directly from scheduling. A premortem meeting lists reasons for failure before the first session. Limits concede that one signal cannot catch every way the decision might go wrong, such as strain on daytime staffing.

DDBA 8560 Week 10 rubric: what earns full marks

Graders look first for whether the signal tests the decision or only the activity. A plan tracking scans performed, staff overtime and patient comments monitors the operation thoroughly and says nothing about whether the choice was sound. The link to the switching value is where the seminar sequence pays off. The stopping rule is rewarded for concreteness, a threshold plus a duration, and discounted when phrased as a review to be held at some point. Separating the rule's owner from the decision's author carries doctoral credit when tied to escalation research. A premortem or similar exercise, reported with its purpose, earns credit when it feeds back into the review point.

DDBA 8560 Week 10 help from the desk

Ask what result would make you wish you had chosen differently, then measure that. One signal is easier to act on than a dashboard. Use control chart logic so ordinary week-to-week swings do not trigger alarms. Write the stopping rule as a number and a period, and allow a grace period based on evidence. Choose a rule holder who had no part in the recommendation and who has authority to act. Run a premortem with the decision group and keep its list. Admit what one signal cannot catch. Placeholder control limits are fine before data exist, as long as you say how real limits will be set.

Get a DDBA 8560 Week 10 example written to your instructions

Include the switching value or key estimate from your Week 6 brief with the Week 10 prompt and grading rubric, and a monitoring plan tied to it returns inside 24 to 48 hours, free the first time. Control limits stay as placeholders unless your section supplies data to compute them.

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DDBA 8560 Week 10 questions, answered

Where can I find a free DDBA 8560 Week 10 sample paper?

The monitoring plan for the evening sessions, signal through premortem, is posted on this page for free.

What signal does the DDBA 8560 Week 10 plan track?

Weekly evening slots filled as a share of available slots.

What is the stopping rule?

End evening hours if fill averages below 55 percent for eight straight weeks after the first twelve.

Who holds the stopping rule?

The chair of the ambulatory operations committee, who had no part in the recommendation.

Why not let the manager decide?

People responsible for a choice tend to escalate commitment to it as it fails.