---
title: "Multi-criteria decision analysis"
source: "https://systems-analysis.info/eng/Multi-criteria_decision_analysis"
wiki: "systems-analysis.info/eng"
article: "Multi-criteria_decision_analysis"
language: "en"
categories:
  - "Category:Decision theory"
  - "Category:Decision-making"
  - "Category:English"
  - "Category:Science"
  - "Category:Systems analysis"
revision_id: 262
wiki_created_at: 2026-09-06T22:19:42Z
wiki_modified_at: 2026-09-06T22:19:42Z
downloaded_at: 2026-09-07T22:22:17Z
---

# Multi-criteria decision analysis

**Multi-criteria decision analysis** (MCDA) is a collection of methods and procedures for selecting, comparing, and evaluating alternatives when decisions must be made based on several, often competing, criteria. This approach reflects the complexity of real-world problems where it is impossible to reduce the choice to a single performance indicator.

## Essence and Goals

Multi-criteria situations arise when various aspects of a solution's quality (e.g., cost, reliability, efficiency, sustainability) are significant to the decision-maker (DM) and require simultaneous consideration. The main goal of multi-criteria analysis is to find solutions that best satisfy all criteria or represent an optimal compromise among them.

## Advantages and Limitations

Advantages of the multi-criteria approach:

- Consideration of various aspects of the problem situation;
- More flexible expression of the decision-maker's preferences;
- Increased transparency in the decision-making process;
- Ability to consider the interests of various stakeholders.

Limitations and challenges:

- Difficulty in formalizing preferences and criteria weights;
- Potential conflicts between criteria;
- Incomparability of some alternatives;
- Dependence of results on subjective assessments and scale structures.

## Basic Principles

1.  **Decomposition of overall quality into specific criteria**: allows for a more accurate reflection of the preference structure and the situation being analyzed.
2.  **Formation of a set of efficient (Pareto-optimal) solutions**: used when it is not possible to aggregate all criteria in a single way.
3.  **Compensation and weighting coefficients**: assigned by the decision-maker or calculated according to formal rules, reflecting the relative importance of the criteria.
4.  **Aggregation of criteria**: transforming a multi-criteria problem into an equivalent single-criterion one using an aggregating function.
5.  **Visualization methods**: used to display achievable combinations of criteria values and facilitate choice.

## Classification of Methods

Multi-criteria analysis methods are divided into several groups depending on the type of information and the form of preferences:

- Methods based on quantitative indicators with numerical utility values;
- Methods that convert qualitative assessments into numerical ones;
- Comparison methods without calculating a numerical value;
- Verbal analysis methods using linguistic judgments.

## Examples of Methods

- Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP);
- Outranking methods (ELECTRE, PROMETHEE);
- Methods with additive or multiplicative aggregation;
- Human-machine iterative methods;
- Methods based on choice functions.

## External links

- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-criteria_decision_analysis" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Multiple-criteria decision analysis — Wikipedia</a>

## See also

- [Decision-making matrix model](https://systems-analysis.info/eng/Decision-making_matrix_model "Decision-making matrix model")
- [Problem in the context of systems analysis](https://systems-analysis.info/eng/Problem_in_the_context_of_systems_analysis "Problem in the context of systems analysis")
- [Choice (decision-making)](https://systems-analysis.info/eng/Choice_(decision-making) "Choice (decision-making)")
- [Decision-making](https://systems-analysis.info/eng/Decision-making "Decision-making")
- [Decision criteria](https://systems-analysis.info/eng/Decision_criteria "Decision criteria")