N
ncwalker
First I am not sure this belongs in the Lean section of the Cove. But it seems to make sense.
The situation is ranking criteria and the application is any kind of audit or survey where you are coming up with an overall score but the criteria you are using needs a scaling factor for importance.
For example, you have a group of people and you want to decide which beer you are going to drink for the next tailgating party. And your factors are:
1) Less filling
2) Tastes great
3) Can or bottle
4) Cost
5) Visual appeal of label
Most of us would agree that weighting of label appeal as the drinker of the beer would not be very important. And should not carry as significant a ranking as, say, tastes great. But if we got a group together, there may be some serious arguing if we were asked to put these 5 factors in order from most to least important.
Enter the pairwise comparison. (Or what I was taught years ago as a pairwise comparison). The theory behind it is basically that while it is hard to put a list of 5, or 10, or whatever, into a priority list, it is less difficult to decide between only 2. So you run a pattern....
Is "less filling" more important than "tastes great?"
Is "less filling" more important than "can or bottle?"
and so on ...
Then, you add up the number of "victories" and this generates the ranking. So that if you then come up with a Likert scale, you can multiply this score by the ranking so that some factors count more than others (as they should). What you do with the ranking is up to you.
And honestly, a Pairwise comparison is easily done on a white board. But it's nice to have an Excel version. (Easier to store away in a file if needed for supporting data.)
Anyways, here is an Excel version.
The situation is ranking criteria and the application is any kind of audit or survey where you are coming up with an overall score but the criteria you are using needs a scaling factor for importance.
For example, you have a group of people and you want to decide which beer you are going to drink for the next tailgating party. And your factors are:
1) Less filling
2) Tastes great
3) Can or bottle
4) Cost
5) Visual appeal of label
Most of us would agree that weighting of label appeal as the drinker of the beer would not be very important. And should not carry as significant a ranking as, say, tastes great. But if we got a group together, there may be some serious arguing if we were asked to put these 5 factors in order from most to least important.
Enter the pairwise comparison. (Or what I was taught years ago as a pairwise comparison). The theory behind it is basically that while it is hard to put a list of 5, or 10, or whatever, into a priority list, it is less difficult to decide between only 2. So you run a pattern....
Is "less filling" more important than "tastes great?"
Is "less filling" more important than "can or bottle?"
and so on ...
Then, you add up the number of "victories" and this generates the ranking. So that if you then come up with a Likert scale, you can multiply this score by the ranking so that some factors count more than others (as they should). What you do with the ranking is up to you.
And honestly, a Pairwise comparison is easily done on a white board. But it's nice to have an Excel version. (Easier to store away in a file if needed for supporting data.)
Anyways, here is an Excel version.