Logical Decisions - Classweb

Assessing Weights
The weights in a preference set define the relative importances of
the measures and goals in your analysis. Technically, they form
the scaling constants for the Multi-measure Utility Functions
(MUFs) that LDW uses to compute the utilities for the alternatives
on the goals.
The process for assessing weights in LDW consists of first
identifying the goals that will have their own MUFs, selecting an
assessment method and completing the assessment process for
each goal.
Selecting Goals With a MUF
LDW lets you select which goals in the analysis will have their
own utility function (MUF) and which will not. The only goal
required to have a MUF is the "Overall" goal. If the "Overall" goal
did not have a MUF it would not be possible to compute an
overall ranking of the alternatives.
If a goal does not have a MUF, LDW includes all of its members in
the assessments for the next higher level goal. In the extreme
case, only the "Overall" goal will have a MUF. Then, LDW will
include all of the measures in the analysis in a common pool
under the "Overall" goal when you assess weights.
At the other extreme, each goal will have its own utility function.
Then, only the measures and goals directly underneath each goal
will appear in the weight assessment for the goal.
This approach lets you "compartmentalize" and simplify the
weight assessments by reducing the number of members that
need to be considered at once. It also lets you use different
weight assessment methods for different goals, and to compute
interactions for different goals.
The measures in an LDW analysis always appear in exactly one
MUF.
Usually the MUF is a weighted average of the utilities of the
measures and sub-goals included in the MUF.
You can see LDW which goals will have their own MUF in the
properties dialog box for the active preference set. You can use
Section 7 -- Using LDW 2: Assessing 7-23