A Participatory Approach for Analyzing and

Modeling Decision Processes:

A Case Study on Cultivation Planning

Presented by:-

Adarsh Kumar 2020IMG-004 Submitted to :-

Gourav Waskle 2020IMG-024
Dr. Vinay Singh
Harsh Yadav 2020IMG-026
Sourabh Singh Jindal 2020IMG-062
 Table of Contents
• Objectives
• Why we need DSS for Cultivation Planning
• Introduction
• Background Information
• Participatory Analysis and Design (PD)
• CUTA
• Types of card
• Approach and Interview Technique
• The Interview Team
• Résumé of the Participatory Interview Technique
• Future Scope
• Conclusion

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 Objectives
• Collect, systemize, and group all relevant information
and data contributing to decision-making in cultivation
planning.
• Utilize participatory analysis and design methods to
involve stakeholders in the software development
process, fostering mutual learning and trust.
• Develop an intelligent DSS for cultivation planning
that incorporates expert knowledge and expertise from
farmers.

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Why we need DSS for
Cultivation Planning
• Due to the high number of parameters involved, it is difficult
for farmers to make an adequate decision without the help of
a software solution.
• Parameters involved are: soil condition, water supply,
selection of fertilizers, and current market situation etc.
• Expert knowledge and expertise from farmers can be
collected and analyzed into an intelligent DSS to assist
farmers in making optimal decision.

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 Introduction
• Most decision analytic research does not focus on
initial steps of modeling, but rather concentrates on
evaluation and choice.

• We focus mainly on methods for collecting knowledge

and data together with the farmer and for formalizing
this data and knowledge to build a suitable DSS.

• Participatory Analysis and Design (PD) promises to be

very fruitful to master the above mentioned challenges.

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 Application Domain - Cultivation Planning.
01. Major Challenges

Background
• Communicaiton gap between farmers and
developers.
• Bulding trust among farmers about DSS

Information • Establishing of structured and well documented

software engineering process.

Decision Science - Deals with multi-criteria

02. decision making
the alternatives are the different kinds of crop that
could be grown up at the farmer’s fields.

Requirements Engineering
03. Participatory Analysis and Design (PD),
Collaborative Users Task Analysis (CUTA) are
used to explore, analyze and document the
requirements

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Participatory Analysis and
Design (PD)
• PD promotes democratic participation of various stakeholders,
including software engineers, end users.
• PD facilitates mutual learning among stakeholders, fostering
collaboration and understanding.
• By exploring expert knowledge and involving farmers and other
stakeholders, PD helps in understanding the problem domain.
• Involving farmers and stakeholders in the DSS development process
fosters trust and increases the overall acceptance of the system.

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CUTA
• CUTA stands for Collaborative Users’ Task Analysis
• CUTA is a card game that comes under the different
practices of PD.
• CUTA card is a simple card that includes different Activities
with a short sentence.
• CUTA helps to discuss, analyze and document processes or
workflows on the Farmers’ level.
• CUTA allows to reflect concrete people’s work.
• Additional information about the duration and frequency of
the described action is written in two seperate text fields.

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 • By arranging the cards horizontally or
vertically on a table an ordered flow of
actions or concrete workflow can be
obtained.

• CUTA card does not require any

specific skills and therefore can be done
by the farmer himself.

Fig. A CUTA Decision Card

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 Types of Cards

Activity Card Decision Card

This card describes different tasks or This card focus on the decisions farmers
actions involved in crop planning. have to make during planning

Criteria Card Alternative Card

This card help farmers list out the This card lists different options or
important factors they consider when choices farmers have for their crops.
making decisions.

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Approach and
Interview
Technique
• Interviews conducted with farmers to analyze
cultivation planning decisions.
• Three-member team: interviewer, card writer,
observer.
• Challenges in preventing farmers from delving
into excessive detail.
• Two-session interview approach.

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The Interview
Team
• The Interviewer: This person talks to the farmer
and guides the conversation.

• The Card Writer: They note down important points

on the CUTA cards.

• The Observer: They watch and take note of what's

happening during the interview.

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 First Session Results
• Initial session aimed at understanding decision process characteristics.
• Introduction of extended CUTA cards.
• Challenges with farmer's familiarity and unstructured thinking.
• Creation of initial decision flow and identification of key criteria and alternatives.

Second Session Results

• Concentrated on the CUTA cards to review and organize the interview effectively.
• The chronological sorting of CUTA cards aimed to refine the decision-making process,
specifically focusing on crop planning.
• The use of CUTA Criteria and Alternative Cards helped the farmer in categorizing and ranking
options, enhancing understanding and decision-making.

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 Résumé of the Participatory Interview Technique

Farmers and interviewers found the CUTA The cards visually represent the
cards helpful in structuring thoughts and decision-making process, allowing the
reflecting agricultural work during interview to stay on track without
interviews. interruptions

CUTA cards facilitate the documentation

Using domain-specific terms on the cards
and structuring of decision processes,
helps build trust between farmers and
which can later be formalized for DSS
interviewers, ensuring mutual
development
understanding

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 FUTURE SCOPE
Current State and Need for Improvement
⚬ The CUTA-based approach offers a
semi-formal description of decision
processes.
⚬ It provides a user-friendly view but
lacks formal documentation required
for consistent DSS implementation.
Workflow Modeling and Transformation
• Business workflows, often modeled with EPCs,
contain embedded decisions.
• A structured CUTA version allows automatic
transformation of CUTA workflows into EPCs.
• Mechanisms translate CUTA elements into
equivalent EPC (Event-Driven Process Chain)
elements.
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 Automated Transformation and Formalization

. • Future research aims for automatic transformation of CUTA workflows.

• Suitable transformation rules, based on grammatical analysis of CUTA text, need
development.
• Formalization of Criteria and Alternative Cards is crucial, especially for multi-criteria
decisions.

Extension and Adaptability

• Different decision types may require varied formalized representations.

Future
• The approach plans to support the selection of suitable decision algorithms.
• The decision process is divided into two steps: modeling workflows and modeling decisions. scope
Participatory Approach and Adaptability
• The participatory approach allows for analyzing and modeling decision processes.
• It's flexible and applicable beyond specific domains, enabling general decision-making
procedures to be captured, analyzed, and modeled.

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CONCLUSION
1. Creating a Better Interview Technique
⚬ We made a new interview method using a card game
called CUTA.
⚬ This method helps us understand and model Decision
Support Systems (DSS) better.
2. Understanding Business Processes
⚬ We worked with farmers to figure out how their
businesses run.
⚬ The CUTA cards helped us organize these processes well.
3. Looking Closer at Decision Making
⚬ We talked with farmers to understand how they make
decisions.
⚬ We asked them about their reasons, criteria, and other
important info.

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4. Using Cards to Collect Info
⚬ We introduced special cards to gather all the needed decision-
making details.
⚬ Farmers sorted and grouped this information, laying the
groundwork for building DSS.
5. Getting Everyone Involved
⚬ When farmers are part of the process, they're more likely to
accept and trust the DSS.
⚬ Their feedback showed that our approach works for
understanding things like crop planning.
6. Turning Farmer Know-How into Tech
⚬ We took what farmers know and turned it into models for the
DSS.
⚬ This ensures the DSS reflects their real-world decisions
accurately.
7. Making It Work Everywhere
⚬ Our interview technique can be adapted for different fields with
some adjustments.
⚬ We're making specialized models to make the DSS development
even better. 17
Thank you!
For Your Kind Attention

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