Title: A Preference Programming Approach to Make the Even Swaps Method Even Easier

Authors: Jyri Mustajoki and Raimo P. Hämäläinen

Status: Decision Analysis, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2005, 110-123.

Keywords: Multicriteria Decision Analysis, Even Swaps, Trade-off, Preference Programming, Decision Support Systems

This paper introduces an approach to support different phases of the Even Swaps process by Preference Programming, which is a framework for modeling incomplete information within multiattribute value theory. In the approach, the Even Swaps process is carried out as usual, but in parallel the evolution of the preferences of the decision maker is modeled with Preference Programming. With this model we can provide information to the Even Swaps process to help identify practically dominated alternatives, and to find applicable candidate attributes for the next even swap. The approach does not compromise the original idea of an ease to use process. Our Smart-Swaps web software is used to demonstrate the method in practice.