Analytic network process
The analytic network process (ANP) is a more general form of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) used in multi-criteria decision analysis.
AHP structures a decision problem into a hierarchy with a goal, decision criteria, and alternatives, while the ANP structures it as a network. Both then use a system of pairwise comparisons to measure the weights of the components of the structure, and finally to rank the alternatives in the decision.
In the AHP, each element in the hierarchy is considered to be independent of all the others—the decision criteria are considered as independent of one another, and the alternatives are considered as independent of the decision criteria. But in many real-world cases, there is interdependence among the items and the alternatives. ANP does not require independence among elements, so it can be used as an effective tool in these cases.
There are numerous practical uses of ANP, many of them involving complex decisions about benefits (B), opportunities (O), costs (C) and risks (R). About a hundred such uses are illustrated and discussed in The Encyclicon, a dictionary of decisions with dependence and feedback.[1]
ANP articles appear in academic journals dealing with the decision sciences, and several books have been written on the subject.[2][3][4][5] Academics and practitioners meet biennally at the International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (ISAHP), which, despite its name, devotes considerable attention to the ANP.
See also
- Analytic Hierarchy Process
- Decision making
- Decision making software
- Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
- Thomas L. Saaty
- Pairwise comparison
- Preference
- L. L. Thurstone
- Law of comparative judgment
References
- ^ Saaty, Thomas L. (2005). The Encyclicon: A Dictionary of Decisions with Dependence and Feedback Based on the Analytic Network Process. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: RWS Publications. ISBN 1-888603-05-4.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Saaty, Thomas L. (1996). Decision Making with Dependence and Feedback: The Analytic Network Process. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: RWS Publications. ISBN 0-9620317-9-8.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Saaty, Thomas L. (2005). Theory and Applications of the Analytic Network Process: Decision Making with Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: RWS Publications. ISBN 1-888603-06-2.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Saaty, Thomas L. (2006). Decision Making with the Analytic Network Process: Economic, Political, Social and Technological Applications with Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-33859-4.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Saaty, Thomas L. (2009). The Encyclicon, Volume 2: A Dictionary of Complex Decisions using the Analytic Network Process. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: RWS Publications. ISBN 1-888603-09-7.
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- 2008 (forthcoming) The Encyclicon, Volume 2: A Dictionary of Complex Decisions using the Analytic Network Process, with Brady Cillo, ISBN 1-888603-09-7, RWS