AHP - Analytic Hierarchy Process

Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) consists of a group of methods/procedures designed to solve problems with multiple conflicting criteria (Pirdashti et al., 2011), and can be divided in two main categories (Hwang and Yoon 1981; Malczewski, 1999): multi-objective decision-making (MO) and multi-attribute decision-making (MA). In the first, the decision space is continuous, while in the latter it is discrete.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a MA method appropriate when the decision problem is complex and ill-structured. The decision problem is broken down into its smaller parts, by organizing the decision factors (objectives, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives) in a hierarchical structure. The AHP was developed by Thomas L. Saaty (Saaty, 1977; 1980), and its extensive use is due to its properties, such as the use of the subjective aspects associated with the analysis of a complex problem, the possibility of integrating subjective and objective data, and the combination of individual and group priorities and/or preferences (Singh, 2016).

Criteria and alternatives are compared pairwise, using a scale of absolute numbers (known as the Saaty scale) which captures individual preferences with respect to quantitative and qualitative attributes. The scale varies from 1 (when the two alternatives/criteria are equally important) to 9 (when the first alternative/criterion is extremely important in respect to the second.

Insights

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_hierarchy_process

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