Decision Making with the Analytic Network Process (eBook)

This note from Prof. Vargas regarding a competitive title by Prof. Saaty with an almost identical title (THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF THE ANALYTIC NETWORK PROCESS: Decision Making with Benefits, Opportunities, Costs, and Risks. RWS Publications, 2005): 

'The other book is theoretical with passing mention of examples to show how the subject is used. In our book (the one you have) the applications are different and given in full detail relevance and originality. They have never appeared in print as they are here and most users would prefer them to the theoretical book. In addition chapter 1 summarizes the theory given in four chapters on the book showing the important parts without going into too much detail. I would rather read this book than the other one definitely and this could not have been done so elegantly had not the other been written before. Therefore this book has the cream of the ideas and the best published applications so far.' 

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The Analytic Network Process (ANP) developed by Thomas Saaty in his work on multicriteria decision making applies network structures with dependence and feedback to complex decision making. This book is a selection of applications of ANP to economic, social and political decisions, and also to technological design. The chapters comprise contributions of scholars, consultants and people concerned about the outcome of certain important decisions who applied the Analytic Network Process to determine the best outcome for each decision from among several potential outcomes. The ANP is a methodological tool used to organize knowledge and thinking, elicit judgments registered in both in memory and in feelings, quantify the judgments and derive priorities from them, and finally synthesize these diverse priorities into a single mathematically and logically justifiable overall outcome. In deriving this outcome, the ANP also allows for the representation of diverse opinions in the midst of discussion and debate.