The Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) process is a simple yet effective way to consistently analyze alternative solutions and make an evaluation of them. This is achieved through a few simple steps that are easy to follow for most projects. 

The DAR template and several example worksheets can be found on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FVNU_mszNMWW0ug7_GdY6c3_2Qo6zMFX

Evaluation Criteria

One of the first steps is to define the evaluation criteria or a list of consistent guides for evaluation. Each criterion has a weight of its importance this is to give the more important criteria the proper influence on the final evaluation. The criteria and their weights should be documented so as to remain constant and should be created before the evaluation of alternatives has begun. Criteria relate directly to documented items and should be unambiguous in their definition. There should not be an exorbitant amount of criteria the scope of the problem dictates the range of criteria, but in general, it should be a small enough list to be able to efficiently cover during evaluation.   

Identifying Alternatives

The next step after identifying the evaluation criteria is to identify the alternative solutions. This can be as easy as researching competitors or could be a different approach to a problem. Any alternative is valid, however, you may find yourself excluding some for further evaluation based on a preliminary search. After you find your alternatives you need to document them to make sure they do not change over the evaluation process. 

Evaluation Methods

The next step is to choose your evaluation methods. This should be consistent through all alternative solutions and should enable you to cover each evaluation criterion enough to give it a proper score. What the method is is dependent on the sort of solutions being tested. This could be researching studies, modeling, simulation, testing, or user surveys. The list of potential methods is large and in some cases, multiple methods will be used to cover the criteria.

Evaluate

This is the step where you use your evaluation methods and actually apply them to the alternative solutions and give a score for each evaluation criterion.

Select Solution

After the evaluation, you apply the weight to the scores and based on that make a decision as to the best solution. You must also evaluate and score your original solution as to properly assess if it is the solution you will be proceeding with.