Patent ID: 6850891

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for developing a decision hierarchy for evaluating objective-related alternatives by converting raw data and judgments into value scores and priorities, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving data from a user describing relative levels of importance between pairs of objectives, wherein the data is in the form of pairwise comparisons indicating both direction and intensity, and can be made in either verbal, numerical or graphical modes; (b) storing said received data in a database in numeric ratio form; (c) calculating priorities for each cluster in the decision hierarchy by means of a principle right eigenvector as part of an analytic hierarchy process; (d) displaying said priorities to said user; (e) receiving rating scales from said user; (f) assessing said rating scales; (g) calculating alternative value scores; (h) calculating and displaying a prioritized and ranked list of global alternatives with associated value scores; (i) extracting a subset of the global alternatives as active alternatives, wherein all alternatives appear in a data grid but only a subset of alternatives appear in a model view of the decision hierarchy; and (j) performing using a computer a dynamic sensitivity analysis of the value scores by changing the priorities, wherein the dynamic sensitivity analysis is performed on the active alternatives.