Third, we describe the Web site and future directions. Qualitative Decision Making We view decision making as a qualitative process. There are many quantitative decision analysis techniques which are widely used, however, we submit that those techniques involve implicit qualitative processes. In applying quantitative methods, the decision maker must both formulate the problem and interpret the results, which require qualitative reasoning. Our model of decision making comprises the following elements.
Agents have a large number of goals which vary in importance.
Due to resource limitations, the agent is not able to achieve all her goals. In general, the agent will try to achieve the more important goals. Decision making requires an understanding of the relative importance of different goals. In business domains, goals may include increasing market share or decreasing overhead. Agents are not alone in the world.