The Analytic Hierarchy Process (Ahp) in Software Development (Digital Short Cut)

This is the eBook version of the printed book. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is an advanced technique that supports decision makers in structuring complex decisions, quantifying intangible factors, and evaluating choices in multiobjective decision situations. It is a comprehensive and rational decision-making framework that provides a powerful methodology for determining relative worth among a set of elements. AHP is especially suitable for complex decisions that involve the comparison of decision elements which are difficult to quantify. The AHP, and its more recent version the Analytic Network Process (ANP), were developed by Dr. Thomas Saaty and have been applied in a wide variety of decision situations in organizations worldwide. AHP is particularly applicable in managing software complexity, and in Quality Function Deployment (QFD), as presented in Chapter 11 of the book Design for Trustworthy Software. This short cut illustrates the application of AHP in prioritizing complex design issues. It also shows how AHP and its supporting software, Expert Choice (EC), can handle much higher levels of complexities accurately and expeditiously than the prioritization matrices introduced in Chapter 7 of Design for Trustworthy Software. In addition to solutions facilitated by EC, this short cut also illustrates two known approximations to AHP solutions using manual calculations. Manual calculations can be used to solve relatively less complex problems. They are presented in this short cut to illustrate the first principles and the steps involved in AHP. This short cut is a reproduction of Chapter 8 of the book Design for Trustworthy Software and introduces AHP with a simple example. It can be used either as a methodology in trustworthy software design process or as a…