The success of Decision Analysis as support for problems with a single predominant objective opened the road to more ambitious decision problems with Multicriteria and Group Decisions (these two use similar techniques). The natural evolution of Decision Analysis is the MAUT (Multi-Attribute Utility Theory). Its theoretical rigor makes it difficult to be used by non-specifically trained analysts. As a consequence, appeared the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) extremely easy to use. The criticism on the AHP came from the European school with several methods known under the name MCDA (Multicriteria Decision Aid).
decision support; multicriteria; multi-attribute; conflicting objectives