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Decision models are tools that are used to aid decision making and consist of three things: Data, Uncontrollable Variables, and Decision Variables. Data is considered objective information that is relatively constant, like the time to deliver materials, some costs, the volume of the production capability of a factory are some examples. Uncontrollable Variables could include the weather, competitor: decision making, consumer tastes in products and services. Decision Variables are those things over which a business can make decisions. Examples could include pricing of goods sold, staff pay, adding to or removing of a product or service, and marketing campaign. In the U.S. Army we use what's called "Decision Support Tools (or templates) when conducting large scale operations. These tools take input (data) from different domains within the military (Intelligence, Logistics, Mission Command) and put down key points within a plan as decision points. Add in the unpredictable (what will the enemy do?), and then layout potential points in either time and space where commanders can influence (decision variables) the battlefield. Those decisions can look like should we reinforce a position, withdraw, do we use deception to alter the decision cycle of others. These tools are models that focus in key inputs and critical times in order to inform leaders and set them up to make the best possible use of the available information in order to make timely decisions. I would say that in the business world another such tool is called the Balanced Score Card, created by Robert Kaplan and David Norton of Hatvard Business School (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). This tool provides period reviews of key business metrics from various perspectives (customer, financial, operational) and can assist leaders in deciding what is working and what is not and make decisions to make course corrections.