VOI analysis best practices

Define the decision before the calculation

• State the alternatives, decision-maker perspective, outcome units, willingness-to-pay thresholds, population, time horizon, and discounting.
• Model decision-relevant uncertainty and preserve correlations between sampled parameters.
• Treat parameter distributions and structural assumptions as evidence that requires domain review, not merely convenient inputs.

Use the stable contracts

Prefer the canonical schema objects and Rust-backed stable methods. Validate shapes, finite values, strategy ordering, units, seeds, and provenance at the boundary. Do not rely on an optional accelerator or experimental method to define stable semantics.

Demonstrate numerical adequacy

• Check Monte Carlo convergence and repeat stochastic analyses with declared seeds where reproducibility is expected.
• Compare representative cases with the language-neutral fixtures and a hand-calculated or independently implemented reference.
• Exercise edge and invalid cases, including one strategy, ties, missing or non-finite values, rank deficiency, and large finite magnitudes.
• Report sensitivity to sample size, model assumptions, threshold choice, and approximation settings.

Preserve decision context and provenance

Record the source data, transformations, software version, Rust build identity, method settings, random seeds, currency year, outcome units, and limitations. Separate per-person from population values and avoid implying external validation, registry approval, or hardware performance that has not occurred.

Communicate the result

Present EVPI, EVPPI, EVSI, ENBS, CEAF, dominance, and frontier results with the decision they inform. Include uncertainty, diagnostics, assumptions, and the cost and feasibility of acquiring information. Plotting and reports should consume returned result objects rather than recompute numerical policy.

Operational checks

For release or regulated workflows, use a clean environment, locked inputs, the full quality/security matrix, an SBOM, provenance attestations, checksums, and signed immutable tags. See the quality and security harness and v1 release readiness guide.