Method ZAPROS for Multicriteria Alternatives Ranking and the Problem of Incomparability

Abstract. The new method for the construction of partial order on the set of multicriteria alter-natives is presented. This method belongs to the family of Verbal Decision Analysis methods and gives a more efficient means of problem solution. The method is based on psychologically valid op-erations for information elicitation from a decision maker: comparisons of two distances between the evaluations on the ordinal scales of two criteria. The information received from a decision maker is used for the construction of a binary relation between a pair of alternatives which yields preference, indifference and incomparability relations. The notion of a method decisive power is introduced. The illustrative example is given. Key words: decision making, multiple criteria evaluation, verbal decision analysis, qualitative estimates, ZAPROS method. 1