MCDA-MSS ONLINE workshop 2023

Summary of the online workshop on the MCDA Methods Selection Software

 (MCDA-MSS)

Those interested in the recording of the online workshop can access it here.

The workshop on the Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis Methods Selection Software (MCDA-MSS) was held virtually on 6 October 2023, under the auspices of the INFORMS MCDM Section, the EURO working group on MCDA (EWG-MCDA) and the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM).  It was organized and presented by Dr. Marco Cinelli, Assistant Professor at Leiden University College (LUC) in the Hague, the Netherlands.

The MCDA-MSS is nowadays the most comprehensive software for recommending MCDA methods. This software contributes tackling the meta-decision-making problem caused by the very large number of MCDA methods available at this time, being the decision of which MCDA method(s) to use for a certain decision-making problem. This challenge is summarized in the question below, and the MCDA-MSS provides systematic guidance to an analyst facing it.

“Which is the most suitable MCDA method (or subset of methods) that should be used for a given decision-making problem?”.

The MCDA-MSS includes 205 MCDA methods, each one assessed with 156 objective features. The latter make the complexities of decision-making more transparent and manageable, as well as provide an extensive basis for a long-lasting and traceable development of MCDA methods.

The workshop on the MCDA-MSS was attended by many attendees (N = 76), who came from several countries, including the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Italy, Spain, the USA, the UK, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Chile, Mexico, Switzerland and Serbia.

The agenda of the workshop included firstly an introduction to the intelligible and sequential questioning strategy implemented in the software. This was followed by an introduction to the methodological background of the MCDA-MSS with its four sections:

1. Problem typology: Defines the type and structure of the decision-making problem;

2. Preference model: Defines the type of model that the user would like to apply;

3. Elicitation of preferences: Defines the type, modality and frequency of model preferences;

4. Exploitation of the preference relation induced by the preference model: Defines the strategy used to derive and enrich the decision recommendation.

Lastly, attendees asked clarification questions about the software and the instructor summarized the next steps for the future of the MCDA-MSS, including:

1. Test of the MCDA-MSS in several application areas;

2. Possibly update the description of the MCDA methods, if relevant input is provided by the researchers that propose the update;

3. Gathering recommendations of MCDA methods to be added to the database of the software.

The MCDA-MSS is available free of charge at the following link: http://mcdamss.com.