Thomas L. Saaty was a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he taught in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. He is the inventor, architect, and primary theoretician of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a decision-making framework used for large-scale, multiparty, multi-criteria decision analysis, and of the Analytic Network Process (ANP), its generalization to decisions with dependence and feedback. Later on, he generalized the mathematics of the ANP to the Neural Network Process (NNP) with application to neural firing and synthesis but none of them gain such popularity as AHP.
Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) or multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a sub-discipline of operations research that explicitly evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in decision making. It is also known as multiple attribute utility theory, multiple attribute value theory, multiple attribute preference theory, and multi-objective decision analysis.
In the theory of decision making, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), also analytical hierarchy process, is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions, based on mathematics and psychology. It was developed by Thomas L. Saaty in the 1970s; Saaty partnered with Ernest Forman to develop Expert Choice software in 1983, and AHP has been extensively studied and refined since then. It represents an accurate approach to quantifying the weights of decision criteria. Individual experts’ experiences are utilized to estimate the relative magnitudes of factors through pair-wise comparisons. Each of the respondents compares the relative importance of each pair of items using a specially designed questionnaire. The relative importance of the criteria can be determined with the help of the AHP by comparing the criteria and, if applicable, the sub-criteria in pairs by experts or decision-makers. On this basis, the best alternative can be found.
Pairwise comparison generally is any process of comparing entities in pairs to judge which of each entity is preferred, or has a greater amount of some quantitative property, or whether or not the two entities are identical. The method of pairwise comparison is used in the scientific study of preferences, attitudes, voting systems, social choice, public choice, requirements engineering and multiagent AI systems. In psychology literature, it is often referred to as paired comparison.
Requirement prioritization is used in the Software product management for determining which candidate requirements of a software product should be included in a certain release. Requirements are also prioritized to minimize risk during development so that the most important or high risk requirements are implemented first. Several methods for assessing a prioritization of software requirements exist.
The analytic network process (ANP) is a more general form of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) used in multi-criteria decision analysis.
The International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (ISAHP) is a biennial conference on multi-criteria decision analysis, particularly the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and its extension the analytic network process (ANP), both developed by Thomas L. Saaty, and the combination of these with other methods. It brings together researchers, teachers and users of AHP and ANP to share their research and practical experience in making decisions incorporating these two processes.
Decision-making software is software for computer applications that help individuals and organisations make choices and take decisions, typically by ranking, prioritizing or choosing from a number of options.
This is a worked-through example showing the use of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in a practical decision situation.
The Brown–Gibson model is one of the many techniques for multi-attribute decision making. The method was developed in 1972 by P. Brown and D. Gibson. This is one of the few models which integrates both objective and subjective factors in decision making.
The decision-making paradox is a phenomenon related to decision-making and the quest for determining reliable decision-making methods. It was first described by Triantaphyllou, and has been recognized in the related literature as a fundamental paradox in multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) and decision analysis since then.
In decision-making, a rank reversal is a change in the rank ordering of the preferability of alternative possible decisions when, for example, the method of choosing changes or the set of other available alternatives changes. The issue of rank reversals lies at the heart of many debates in decision-making and multi-criteria decision-making, in particular.
This is a worked-through example showing the use of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in a practical decision situation.
Logical Decisions is decision-making software that is based on multi-criteria decision making.
Expert Choice is decision-making software that is based on multi-criteria decision making.
Decision Lens is online decision-making software that is based on multi-criteria decision making.
PriEsT is an acronym for 'Priority Estimation Tool' which is an open-source decision-making software that implements the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method - a comprehensive framework for decision problems. PriEsT can assist decision makers in prioritizing the options available in a given scenario.
DEX is a qualitative multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method for decision making and is implemented in DEX software. This method was developed by a research team led by Bohanec, Bratko, and Rajkovič. The method supports decision makers in making complex decisions based on multiple, possibly conflicting, attributes. In DEX, all attributes are qualitative and can take values represented by words, such as “low” or “excellent”. Attributes are generally organized in a hierarchy. The evaluation of decision alternatives is carried out by utility functions, which are represented in the form of decision rules. All attributes are assumed to be discrete. Additionally, they can be preferentially ordered, so that a higher ordinal value represents a better preference.
Super Decisions is decision-making software which works based on two multi-criteria decision making methods.
Ernest Forman is an American scholar and academic. He is a Professor of Decision Sciences at the George Washington University's School of Business. He is a co-founder, along with Thomas Saaty, of Expert Choice and developed the first commercial implementation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process.
