objective specification decision-theoretic analysis objective PERSON: Bill Hogan The best action to take is typically defined as the one that maximizes expected utility. decision analysis objective decision-theoretic analysis objective PERSON: Bill Hogan An objective specification which what includes a description of two or more alternative actions to take in a particular situation and a metric that enables comparisons of the two actions. The objective specified is achieved in a planned process which includes a data transformation, the output of which is an identification of the 'best' choice according to the metric.