Cooperative negotiation in value-driven engineering and systems design: a technical note

The traditional practice of value-driven engineering and systems design is mainly based on net present values (NPVs). It is essentially enacted as a budgetary technique that neglects the future risk and strategic flexibility of a design project. Incorporating real options theory in value-driven decision models can improve the inability of NPV analysis in dealing with the upside potential of managerial flexibility and operational uncertainty over the design project life. This paper examines the critical issues and research opportunities for establishing a theoretical foundation of value-driven multiplayer game decision making in large complex engineering and systems design projects. This paper envisions a research framework for value-driven cooperative negotiation by synthesising the mathematical foundations of utility theory, real options theory and game theory into a coherent framework of design decision analysis. Fundamental issues and research directions are discussed to develop a variety of new methods for enhancing the formulation of value models for value-driven design with decision support to achieving equilibrium solutions with optimal value allocation among multiple decision agents involved in engineering and systems design.