The Analytic Hierarchy Process

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) T. Saaty [1977, 1982]; R.W. Saaty [1987] is a technique for converting subjective assessments of relative importance into a set of weights. It has proven to be very useful in assisting selection from a finite set of alternatives (see Zahedi, 1986 and Shim, 1989 for surveys). AHP has also been used to develop linear utility functions reflecting the relative importance of decision objectives or problem features that have been used for mathematical programming, as well as for ranking things (such as seeding tennis tournaments or selecting the best cities to live in).