Decision Context Structuring : An Introductory Guide for Selecting MCDM

In decision analysis, decision context contains decision domain and decision situation. Decision domain refers to general aspects and decision situation to the unique aspects. True decision (not good decision) is a decision that be made based on facts and this requires decision context that is well recognized and structured. If the decision-making method is chosen in accordance with the decision context’s shape and structure, a suitable decision will be attained. In this paper, the decision context is structured by identifying and classifying its constituent factors. With the aim of structuring decision context, 47 factors in term of 6 major categories that are “alternatives”, “threshold values”, “indices”, “Criteria”, “partial preference structure” and “total preference structure” were recognized. Some of these were identified from other researches and some of them were introduced into decision literature in a new form by this study. These factors were named CFDC (Constituent Factors of Decision Context). Any combination of these factors creates a special decision context and any decision context requires a special decision-making model that must be developed. Based on the developed framework, some of the multi-criteria decision-making methods were examined and also for a given decision situation that is “project selection in public sector of Iran in the year 2011”, the decision context has been analyzed. By comparing these two kind of results, it is understood that how much similarity every method has with our given decision context