Patent Document ID: 20080040305
Application ID: 11861137
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A multiple criteria decision analysis method in which a plurality of L basic criteria of one or a plurality of entities are assessed so as to generate an assessment of the entities based on the criteria and in which the assessments of each entity on a plurality L of basic criteria expressed as {(H n , β n,l ), n=1,. .. , N} for l={1,. .. , L} are aggregated in order to generate an overall assessment for the entity on a general criterion, the method comprising the steps of: i) assigning weights W i (i=1,. .. , L) to each of the L basic criteria according to the relative importance of the basic criteria to the general criterion; ii) calculating by a computer a set of normalised weights ω i using the following equation: ω i = W i ∑ j = 1 L ⁢ ⁢ W j ⁢ ( i = 1 , … ⁢ ⁢ L ) ; iii) calculating by the computer weighted degrees of belief (basic probability mass) m n,i using the following equation: 
 m n,i =ω i β n,i , ( n= 1 ,. .. , N; i= 1 ,. .. L ), where β n,l is the degree to which the l th basic criterion is assessed to H n , H n is the n th grade for assessment of the general criterion, the general criteria being assessed into N grades, and m n,i represents the degree in which the l th basic criterion supports a hypothesis that the general criterion is assessed to the n th grade of H n ; iv) calculating by the computer a remaining probability mass m H,i using the following equation: m H , i = 1 - ∑ n = 1 N ⁢ ⁢ m n , i , ( i = 1 , … ⁢ , L ) ; v) generating the overall assessment for each entity on the general criterion; vi) displaying on a computer-generated graphical user interface comparative results of the overall assessment to thereby enhance entity evaluation; and vi) decomposing m H,i into m H,i and {tilde over (M)} H,i , wherein: m H , i = m _ H , i + m ~ H , i ; m _ H , i = 1 - ω i ; and m ~ H , i = ω i ⁡ ( 1 - ∑ n = 1 N ⁢ ⁢ β n , i ) ⁢ ⁢ for ⁢ ⁢ i = 1 , … ⁢ , L .