  While influence diagrams have many advantages as a representation framework
for Bayesian decision problems, they have a serious drawback in handling
asymmetric decision problems. To be represented in an influence diagram, an
asymmetric decision problem must be symmetrized. A considerable amount of
unnecessary computation may be involved when a symmetrized influence diagram is
evaluated by conventional algorithms. In this paper we present an approach for
avoiding such unnecessary computation in influence diagram evaluation.
