Practical variations
• In the Full Analytical Criteria Method, the allocation of weighting and scoring numbers is done through comparing each item against all others by using a standard scoring scheme. This requires a matrix to be calculated for both (a) allocating weights for criteria against the objective, as in step 5, and (b) comparing the list of items againsteach criterion, as in step 8. Thus, with three criteria, four matrices must be used (one for weighting the criteria and one for scoring each list against the criteria). The detail in this method makes it useful for critical applications, but it is probably too time-consuming for most normal situations.
The process is described below (and illustrated in Fig. 1):
a. Draw a square matrix, with items both in rows down the left and also in columns along the top.
2. In each square, compare the row item against the column item, using the following scoring scheme:
10 = Row item is much more important than column item
5 = Row item is more important than column item
1 = Row item is equally important to column item
0.2 = Row item is less important than column item
0.1 = Row item is much less important than column item
Squares may be done in diagonally opposite pairs, as if A versus B scores 5 then B versus A must score 0.2. Note that as with other scoring schemes, use of real data will give much better results than subjective guesses.
c. Add up the numbers in each row and convert to a percentage by dividing each one by the total of all row totals.
This final figure is now used for the weight (when comparing criteria against the basic objective) or score (when comparing all items against one criterion).