# Tools for Management Analysis Course (Self-Paced)

Canonical URL: <https://www.graduateschool.edu/courses/tools-for-management-analysis-course-self-paced>

## Overview

Successful analysts utilize multiple tools and techniques. This course strengthens the analytical skills needed to support sound management decisions in federal organizations. Participants learn structured approaches to problem solving, decision-making, and critical thinking, with emphasis on comparing alternatives, prioritizing options, assessing risks, and evaluating the factors that influence whether a proposed course of action is likely to succeed.

Participants also learn how to analyze organizational problems, distinguish symptoms from root causes, and model programs and work processes using tools such as logic models, process maps, and flowcharts. In addition, the course covers how to select meaningful measures of organizational performance, define those measures clearly, and use them to support planning, monitor operations, and demonstrate results.

## What you'll learn

- Apply analytical methods that support management decision-making.
- Analyze organizational problems.
- Create models that describe programs and work processes.
- Select and define measures of organizational performance.

## Curriculum

#### Module 1: Decision-Making Support

- Apply ordinal ranking and weighted sum methods to prioritize decision alternatives.
- Use weighted sum of ratings to compare decision choices.
- Use decision trees to evaluate choices based on probabilities, costs, and expected values.
- Conduct force field analysis to assess supporting and opposing factors for a decision.

#### Module 2: Organizational Problem Analysis

- Differentiate between symptoms and root causes in problem situations.
- Use problem description frameworks to structure the analysis.
- Apply cause-and-effect (fishbone) diagrams to identify potential root causes.
- Conduct root cause analysis using the 5 Whys technique to uncover underlying issues.

#### Module 3: Program and Process Modeling

- Create program logic models to connect inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes.
- Develop top-down process maps for linear, low-variation workflows.
- Design process flowcharts to represent sequences, decision points, and alternative paths.

#### Module 4: Measuring Organizational Performance

- Identify and define performance measures linked to key success factors.
- Write operational definitions for consistent, reliable measurement.
- Develop composite indexes, such as weighted scores and objectives matrices, to track performance.
- Use performance data to inform planning, monitor progress, and document success.

## Pricing

**Tuition:** $1249