PROMETHEE Days

Pune, December, 2024

Decision Aid

 

No funny pictures on this page

It is important. Please read carefully.

 

Decisions have to be made

Our life is made from decisions. Every day, every moment, we make decisions. For ourselves, for our family, for our company, for our country, for Earth. Simple decisions, tough decisions, strategic decisions, critical decisions... Sometimes good decisions, often bad decisions.

 

Decision making is difficult

It is difficult to make the best decision. Often it is even difficult to simply state what is a good decision.

 

Why?

Because decisions involve large amounts of data, conflicting objectives, multiple stakeholders with different priorities, unknown factors, uncertainty, lack of information.

 

What is decision aid?

Mathematics can be helpful when combined with expertise and computers. Mankind landed on the Moon thanks to mathematics. Today you can make better decisions thanks to multicriteria decision aid (MCDA).

 

What is MCDA?

MCDA stands for "multicriteria decision aid". Every word is important:

• multicriteria means that multiple, conflicting objectives are taken into account (e.g. economic, environmental and social objectives as in sustainable decisions).
• decision is what has to be made.
• aid means that models will never replace human beings: decision-makers are responsible for their decisions, they make decisions and they assume the consequences of their decisions. But they are in need of tools to help them better assess what is at stake, to better understand what is possible and what is not.

 

How?

Many MCDA models and methods are available to decision-makers. PROMETHEE-GAIA is one of the most widely used and scientifically recognized multicriteria decision aid methodology. It has generated a lot of developments and applications since Professor Jean-Pierre Brans set its bases in 1982. The PROMETHEE Bibliographic Database currently includes more than 590 PROMETHEE-related scientific references.

This site is devoted to the PROMETHEE-GAIA methodology. It provides you with information about the methodology and its software implementation Visual PROMETHEE. Check the resources available and don't hesitate to contact us. We are happy to answer questions, to provide advice and to assist you in using the PROMETHEE-GAIA methods.