Factors

Factors are the specific measures that you will use to determine which alternative is your best choice. It is important to identify all the factors relevant to your decision if you want to do a thorough job. While it may be tempting to say that you cannot have too many factors, that may not be true. Too many factors may make the decision process so overwhelming that you may not get through it. However, irrelevant factors have a way of exposing themselves pretty early in the process. They may not be truly measurable, or the information required may not be available.

It is also important to rank each factor. Factors are not equal in their importance. Your decision process must take this into account. An alternative may “fail” a particular factor, but that factor may be so low in terms of importance that it does not rule out that alternative.

The factors in our college example might include: campus resources, cost, distance from home, faculty contact, financial assistance, graduation rate, student body diversity, urban / rural, housing options, internships, odds of entry, pressure, religious affiliation, reputation, safety, and sports.

Each factor has an associated desired value. In DecisionPlanner, these values have four different formats: descriptive, numeric, scale and Yes / No.

An example of a descriptive factor might be “color”. If you want a red car, then the alternative’s value has to match the word “red”. Descriptive factors need not be exact matches however. Descriptive factors generally require more analysis than the other formats.

The number, or numeric, format is easy to understand. In the home buying example, you want 3 bedrooms – no more, no less. The alternative must match this number. The numeric format does allow more flexibility than that though – you can set a minimum, a maximum, and an expected value. If it falls in the range – it passes.

The scale is used to express a subjective opinion in a numeric fashion. Scales allow DecisionPlanner to compare the rating of an alternative to an ideal value for that factor, while still allowing for some analysis.

Finally, the Yes / No option is the simplest of all. Either that factor passes, or it doesn’t.

Factors are a very important part of the decision making process. Take the time to figure out which are the most important and you will not regret it.

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