SuperDecisions Software Tutorial

• Getting the SuperDecisions Software• Glossary (3 slides)• Building the decision hierarchy• Removing unintended loops• Making Pairwise Comparisons• Improving Consistency of pairwise comparisons• Entering Direct Data instead of Pairwise Comparing• The Three Types of Supermatrices• Getting Results• Sanity Check• Graphical Sensitivity• Dynamic Sensitivity• Creating a Ratings Model

• Restoring backups

• Exporting Supermatrices for use in Excel or Word

• Reports

Getting the Software• The SuperDecisions software for students is available in

Course Documents on the Pitt Course web or at http://superdecisions.com/sdInstall2.1.16.zip

• Serial number good until Dec 2013:

WXPP-AC8BV-8A99• Install the software by running the SuperDecisions install

file. Double-click on this icon on your desktop to run the software.

• You will be requested to enter the serial number the first time you run it.

GlossaryAlternative– an alternative is a node representing one of the choices or outcomes for a decision

model. The alternatives are grouped together in a single cluster.

Cluster – a cluster is a collection of nodes that have some logical relationship together in a frame inside a SuperDecisions Window.

Comparison Group – consists of a parent node linked to a group of children nodes that will be pairwise compared with respect to the parent node for importance, preference or likelihood. The children nodes must be in a cluster together; the parent node may be in a different cluster or in the same cluster as its children nodes, and may have children groups in several clusters.

Criterion – a criterion (always use this word when you mean just one!) is a decision factor, something that must be considered when making a decision. A criterion is represented by a node in a SuperDecisions model.

Goal – the goal of a model is a single node in a cluster of its own. In a network the goal is not an explicit node, but is external to the model and exists only as a concept with respect to which the judgments are made.

Hierarchy– In a hierarchy the goal is at the top, the criteria are in a separate cluster connected from the goal, the subcriteria are in clusters connected from a parent criterion. Clusters are often arranged hierarchically with the goal cluster at the top of the window, the criteria cluster below that, the subcriteria clusters below that and the alternative cluster at the bottom.

Inconsistency– if element A is preferred to element B by 2 and element B is preferred to element C by 3, then element A should be preferred to element C by their product, 6. If it is not 6, then there is inconsistency. All such triples of judgments for a comparison group are checked for consistency and SuperDecisions gives a measure of the inconsistency as a decimal number that should be less than about 0.10.

Glossary (Cont’d)Judgments – a dominance judgment is entered for each pair of children nodes in a comparison group

using the Fundamental Scale: 1-Equal, 3-Moderate, 5-Strong, 7- Very Strong, 9-Extremely Strong, plus numbers in between for intermediate judgments, as well as decimals for finer distinction. The judgment modes in SuperDecisions are:

Graphical – use ratios of bars or relative areas in a circle Verbal– use a continuous sliding scale on which the words from the Fundamental Scale

are indicated Matrix– enter the dominance judgments as numbers in a table or matrix for each pair Questionnaire–use a questionnaire form in which the appropriate whole number from the

Fundamental Scale is selected to indicate dominance for each pair Direct–this mode allows the direct entry of priorities for a group of children nodes;

numbers which do not add up to 1.0 can also be entered and they will be normalized to give the priorities

Link or Connection – a link goes from one node to another. A node most often has links to several other nodes.

Model– a SuperDecisions model may be a simple network contained in a single window, or a complex model of 2 or 3 or more levels consisting of a main network (window) with attached sub-networks (windows) linked together.

Network – any collection of clusters, nodes, and their connections in a single window (a window is a box or frame). A network may be either a hierarchy or a feedback structure.

Glossary (Cont’d)Node – a node is an element or factor in a decision such as the goal, a criterion, a subcriterion, or an

alternative. Nodes are smaller rectangular frames inside a cluster frame.

Normalization– mathematical procedure of summing a group of numbers and dividing each by the sum so that the resulting numbers will sum to 1; the numbers are then said to be normalized to 1. Priorities are sets of numbers normalized to 1. To obtain priorities from any group of numbers apply the procedure above.

Priority – Priorities result from making a set of pairwise comparison judgments on a group of children nodes. The priorities sum to 1.

Sensitivity– To perform sensitivity with respect to a criterion in a hierarchy means to vary the priority of that node, maintaining the same relative proportion of the other nodes with respect to the goal, and see how the outcome changes. To perform sensitivity in a network is a more complicated process because every node may be involved in many different comparison groups, but it still means to vary the priority of a given element in the structure and see how the outcome changes.

Supermatrix – the judgment data for a model is stored in supermatrices (think of an Excel spreadsheet).

Synthesis – after judgments are made the model is synthesized to give the best alternative; that is, the one with the highest synthesized priority.

Window– a box or frame, sometimes with a menu of commands across the top, or sometimes not, in which case it is called a dialogue box. The opening screen of SuperDecisions is a blank window.

SuperDecisions’ Opening Screen

• File – Open file, Close file, Recent Files, Backups, Export supermatrices, Print preview for text version of model Each model is contained in a separate file. Old files have .mod extensions, new files have .sdmod extensions

• Design – Build a network by creating clusters and nodes and making node connections• Assess/Compare – Perform pairwise comparisons, access the Ratings spreadsheet if there is one• Computations – Synthesize results, look at supermatrices, perform sensitivity, do sanity check for errors and

incomplete comparisons• Network – quickly transit around the sub-networks in a complex model and go going directly into a selected subnet• Test – Programmer menu for development work• Help – Sample models, including some in other languages, Help (not yet implemented in 2.1.16 version of

SuperDecisions), for now use this old Help file: http://www.superdecisions.com/SuperDecisions_Help.pdf

Main Menu Commands

Relative Decision Model

• We will demonstrate how to use the SuperDecisions software to create a simple hierarchy for selecting the best of three cars.

A Three-Level Hierarchy to Choose the Best Car

Goal

Buy Best Car

Prestige Price MPG(Miles per

gallon)

Comfort

Acura TL Toyota Camry Honda Civic

The Cars• Acura TL

– Cost $30,000-$35,000– Miles per Gallon 20/29 (City/Hwy)– Prestige is very good– Comfort is excellent

• Toyoto Camry– Cost $22,000 - $28,000– Miles per gallon 22/30 (City/Hwy)– Prestige is good– Comfort is good

• Honda Civic– Cost $16,000 - $20,000– Miles per gallon 29/38 (City/Hwy)– Prestige is medium to low– Comfort is medium to low

The Decision Hierarchy as it appears in the SuperDecisions Software

Cluster

Node

All links are among nodes: the cluster link is automatically created because some node(s) in the Criteria cluster are connected to some node(s) in the Alternatives cluster

See the SuperDecisions software model: Tutorial_1_Acura_Relative_Model.sdmod

Building the Decision Hierarchy

• File>New and choose Simple Network

(simply leaves you with a blank window) or just

start building on the blank opening screen

To create the Goal Cluster select the

Design command:

• Design>Cluster>New brings up

the cluster editing window. Type a name

and description for the cluster and set the

parameters: font, text size, color,

icon (if you want) and save.

Decision Hierarchy with a new cluster to hold the Goal Node

Double-click on a cluster to minimize it to an icon or expand from an icon.

Add Goal Node to Goal Cluster

• Design>Node>New to get to the node editing window. Select cluster to add node to, enter goal node name (and description if you wish) selecting parameters as before, and save. For convenience, just use the word Goal again.

To display descriptions make sure the Icon on the top menu bar is depressed then hold cursor over node or cluster.

Add the Rest of the Clusters and Nodes

Double-click a cluster to minimize or expand

To re-size a cluster click on bottom right hand button on a cluster and drag.

Note: Prefacing Cluster and node names with numbers allows you to control their order in the supermatrices as they are appear in alphabetical order there.

IMPORTANT!The cluster holding the alternatives must be named with some version of the word Alternatives(prefacing with a number is OK)

Build the Hierarchy in SuperDecisions

To turn on the connection shortcut mode left-click the “connections” icon.

Or use the shortcut to

connect nodes

Step 1. Create the clusters and nodes shown below

Use the Design>Node Connexions from menu command to connect the Goal Node to the Criteria:

Complete the Rest of the Connections

Turn on the fan-shaped “Show Connections” icon by clicking it

Hold your cursor over a node – such as “Comfort” -, to display nodes it is connected to outlined in red.

When the judgments for these nodes with respect to Comfort have been marked as completed, their window will alsoappear with a red outline.

Connect each of the four nodes in the Criteria cluster to all three of the alternative nodes.

Connecting Nodes: Menu or Shortcut

Click the “Make connections” icon to depress it and enter the shortcut “make connections” mode.

Left-click the “from” node Selected nodes are depressed and outlined in black

Right-click each “to” node (which outlines them in red)

Line then automatically appears from Goal cluster to Criteria cluster

12

3

4

To input a picture for a node or cluster icon use the Design>Node>Edit command , click, the Change Icon command and select a picture. To add your own pictures to the available collection, copy your picture files into the C:/Program Files/Super Decisions/Icons folder (*.gif files work pretty well).

Connect Criteria Nodes to Alternative Nodes

Shift left-click on any “from” node in a cluster - selects all nodes

SHORTCUT to connect

many nodes at once

Shift right-click on any “to” node connects all “from” nodes to all “to” nodes

Line automatically appears between clusters

Remove Unintended Loops

A loop will appear on a cluster when a node or node(s) are connected to other node(s) in the same cluster.

REMOVING LOOPSRight click on the background of the cluster with the loop and select the Remove self loop command.

Unweighted Supermatrix before making any pairwise comparisons

The nodes connected from a node are shown in the column below that node; for example, the Goal node is connected to the criteria nodes and they are equally weighted at .25 before making pairwise comparisons. Supermatrices are square; every node appears as a column and a row. The priorities, that add up to 1.0, are read from the columns.

Cluster names

Node names

Priorities of Criteria nodes

Making Pairwise Comparisons

• Click on the Goal Node to select it.• Click the pairwise comparison/assessment icon on

the menu bar to enter the assessment mode or use the Assess/Compare command.

• The Questionnaire Pairwise Comparison Mode opens by default. Click on the Matrix tab to switch to the Matrix Mode.

More About the Compare/Assess Mode

Choose tab indicating whether comparing nodes or clusters (cluster comparisons not possible in hierarchies)

Selector for parent node of comparison

Selector for cluster containing nodes linked from parent node, to be compared with respect to it

Restore button will bring back original judgments for selected comparison group when revisiting comparisons

There are 5 possible modes for entering assessments; judgments entered in one mode will appear as theequivalent judgment in any other mode.

Example of a Pairwise comparison Matrix in SuperDecisions and in traditional AHP

• Only 3 judgments

are necessary

• In the AHP Theory

view you see 9 judgmentsAcura Civic Camry

Acura 1 8 4

Civic 1/8 1 1/4

Camry 1/4 4 1

Diagonal elements are always 1, so they do not need to be displayed. The elements below the diagonal are always inverses of the judgment in the reciprocal cell above, so they do not need to be displayed (e.g. 1/8 8).

aij = 1/ aji

AHP reciprocals are shown in red in SuperDecisions. For example, 4.0 means for1/4.

Start Making Pairwise Comparisons

1. Left-click on Goal node to select it

2. Left-click on “make assessments” icon Comparison/Assessment Questionnaire mode appears.

3. Switch to the Matrix mode by clicking on matrix tab. Change the comparative phrase 1Prestige is ????times more Preference than 2Price by left-clicking on it and choosing importance.

.

Note the copy commands. You can then paste into Excel or Word.

Enter Judgments (Matrix Mode)1. Enter judgments in cells by typing numbers from Fundamental Scale. The direction of the

arrow indicates which criterion is more important. Double-click on arrow to change dominance direction. The first element in the comparative phrase is the dominant one. Up arrows are red, down arrows are blue.

2. The current parent node is the Goal node and the Criteria nodes are being compared with respect to it for importance. The inconsistency should be less than 0.10.

Inconsistency=0.07685; Derived Priorities

Mark completed and move to next comparison

Improve Consistency (available only from Matrix Mode)

• Click on the Inconsistency button (at top left corner of matrix)• Choose Basic Inconsistency Report; the first cell, Prestige versus MPG, currently has

a red 3 in it meaning that MPG are more important than Prestige (see previous view of matrix), but the Best Value of 1.05 (in blue) means Prestige is a little more important than MPG and the inconsistency would be improve down to 0.01 if that were the judgment

• Left-click on either the Current or Best Value cell to return to the matrix and input a new value . You can use the suggested value, or a value between it and the original value, or leave it as it is and go to the number 2 most inconsistent judgment (MPG versus Comfort) and change that, and so on. See next slide.

Matrix View after Improving Judgment of MPG vs Prestige

New judgment Better Inconsistency of 0.01.

Although the original inconsistency of 0.07 passes the .10 test, it can be improved.

Derived Priorities are placed in Supermatrix

Other Comparison ModesGraphical

Verbal Tracking – shows which judgment you

are on in equivalent matrix view

Click and drag on circle

(NOT the bars) to change

judgment

Click button to invert dominance

The Questionnaire ModeThe Assessment/Compare command opens the pairwise comparison mode by default. Choose the judgment on the left or right side of the zero on the questionnaire line that is nearest to the more important, more preferred, or more likely, node. Here price is more important than prestige. If necessary, and it is here, change the verbal phrase so it reads correctly, as explained below.

In the view above the questionnaire opened with the wrong dominance word, “moderately to strongly more Preference”. Left click on the dominance phrase itself to get the menu of possible phrases and select the most appropriate word.

Direct Data Assessment Mode

Click the Invert box when the priorities are inversely related to the data such as distance, farther is lower priority, or cost, more expensive is lower priority.

Enter direct data in the Direct mode. It may be already normalized, as shown here, or it may be numbers representing costs or distances.

Important! Click <Enter> or move away from last judgment entered to make sure it has registered

Weaknesses of using Direct Data• Data may not be as good as judgments in determining your personal

priorities. It would usually be better to prioritize the price of the cars to customize the priorities for you instead of using the data directly. Suppose you are a poor college student. See the two results below. Which do you think more accurately reflects the reality?

Comparing cars for price using judgments

Priorities from judgments

Priorities from data

Compare Cars for Prestige and PricePrestige Comparisons

Price Comparisons

Compare Cars for MPG and ComfortMPG Comparisons and Priorities

Comfort Comparisons and Priorities

The Supermatrices

1. Computations>Unweighted Supermatrix: matrix containing the priorities from the pairwise comparisons.

2. Computations>Weighted Supermatrix: The unweighted supermatrix components have been multiplied by cluster weights. In a hierarchy there are no cluster weights and the weighted supermatrix is the same as the unweighted.

3. Computations>Limit Supermatrix: The limit matrix is obtained by raising the weighted supermatrix to powers until it converges to give the answer.

The Unweighted Supermatrixafter all Judgments Completed

Synthesize to get Overall Results• Select Computations>Synthesize or click to get

the final results: the priorities of the alternatives. You MUST name the Alternatives cluster with some variation of the word alternatives to get an answer.

Acura TL 0.344

Toyota Camry 0.200

Honda Civic 0.456

The Raw values come from the Limit Supermatrix. The Normalized values are obtained from them by summing and dividing each by the sum. The Ideals are obtained by dividing the Raw values by the largest Raw value

Sanity Check

• The Computations>Sanity Check will reveal incomplete comparisons and duplicate goals, among other things. Each time you finish a set of comparisons you must mark it complete before proceeding to the next set. Unintentionally skipped comparisons will also be caught by the Sanity Check.

WARNING! No Alternatives Found

This error message will appear if there is no cluster named some version of the word alternatives, IN ENGLISH, but for example, 3alternatives is an acceptable name. The SuperDecisions software uses this word to find for which nodes it should deliver synthesized priorities extracted from the raw values in the limit supermatrix. To obtain synthesized priorities for any other nodes go to the limit supermatrix, get the raw values, and normalize them yourself. The Normals are the raw values divided by their sum. The Ideals are the raw values divided by the largest raw value.

Results obtained from Limit Supermatrix

Graphical Sensitivity1. To do graphical sensitivity select

the Computations>Sensitivity command

2. Select Edit>Independent Variable to get to the Sensitivity input selector box and change the Independent Variable to the Goal.

The first graph that appears has the first node, alphabetically, selected as the “with respect to” node. It is generally not the one you want. Here you need to select the Goal, not the Acura TL, as the independent variable

Graphical Sensitivity (cont’d)

Step three. In the Input Parameter Box select Parameter Type: Supermatrix, the Goal as Wrt Node (“with respect to”) and select one of the criteria as the 1st other node, for example, choose Prestige. Click on the button to the right to get the drop down box with the other choices.

Step one. Select the Edit>Independent Variable command

Step two. In the Selected Node box highlight the current node (Acura) then lick Edit.

Getting Sensitivity Graph for Prestige

Show Selected Node Box Set Parameters Box

Updated Parameters – click Update for resultsSensitivity Graph for Selected node(s)

1 2

3 4

Priority of Prestige is given on x-axis; vertical line starts at Prestige priority of 50%; car priorities for Prestige=50% priority are shown by intersections with vertical line.

Interpreting Sensitivity of PrestigeAt Prestige = 50%, Acura is best At Prestige = 9.2% (actual priority in model), Civic is best

Click and drag vertical line to change priority of Prestige on horizontal axis from 0.5 to 0.1.

The analysis: If your priority is less than about 25% for Prestige, the Honda is the car to buy. For any priority greater than that, the Acura is your best car.

Priorities of all Nodes in Model• Select Computations>Priorities

command to see the priorities of all nodes in model

• “Limiting priority” column shows priority of Prestige compared to all the other nodes in the entire model.

• “Normalized by Cluster” column shows the priority of Prestige (.096) compared to the other criteria in its cluster.

• Drag the vertical line from .5 to .096 on the x-axis in Sensitivity to show the priorities of the cars at the model priority of .096 for Prestige.

Dynamic SensitivitySelect Computations>New Sensitivity to get into Dynamic Sensitivity Mode

Click on “Node for Sensitivity” selector button at right and change from Goal Node, shown here, to 1Prestige.

Dynamic Sensitivity - Prestige

The Prestige parameter can be dragged from 0.00 to 1.00. At 0.50, the priorities of the cars are the same as the overall synthesized result priorities of 0.344, 0.200 and 0.456.

Dynamic SensitivityAt a parameter value of 1.00 for Prestige the most prestigious car, the Acura is clearly the best choice.

Putting Subcriteria into a Hierarchical Model

• Create separate clusters for the subcriteria of the criteria that will have subcriteria.

• Price has subcriteria of initial cost and maintenance, which then connect to the cars.

• Comfort has subcriteria of Ride and Driving Performance which then connect to the cars.

• Prestige and MPG have no subcriteria and connect directly to the cars.

Ratings

• Relative models: In a relative model such as the car model all nodes are pairwise compared to establish priorities.

• Ratings models: In a ratings model standards are established for the criteria and the alternatives are rated one at a time against them.

Create a Ratings Model1. Build a hierarchical model as shown below and enter judgments as before, but do not

include the alternatives in the main screen of the model. The model has 4 criteria and the Comfort criterion has subcriteria of Ride and Driving Performance.

2. Select Design>Ratings to open the Ratings screen where the Alternatives will be evaluated.

This Ratings model is available in the file Tutorial_1_Acura_RATINGS_Model.sdmod

Starting Ratings1. Blank screen appears

2. Select Edit Criteria New and click on the criteria/subcriteria to appear as column headings. You must start by adding Criteria (trying to add Alternatives first will result in a software crash at present). Select the lowest level of covering criteria. Do NOT select Comfort; instead select its subcriteria, Driving Performance and Ride.

Ratings Spreadsheet3. Ratings spreadsheet now has selected criteria with their priorities in it as shown below:

4. Select Edit>Alternatives>New and enter name for each alternative:

5. The Ratings Spreadsheet now has one alternative; continue adding alternatives:

Ratings Spreadsheet (cont’d)5. Ratings Spreadsheet in which alternatives have been entered (you can enter as many as you like and they do not have to have been in the original model.

6. Select Edit>Criteria> Edit Categories from menu or right-click on a column heading, for example, Prestige, to get the dropdown menu and select Edit Categories.

Ratings Spreadsheet (cont’d)7. Category Editor will appear. Enter names of Categories for the Prestige criterion (use New command)

8. Click Comparisons in Category Editor to bring up pairwise comparison screen

a. Change comparison word to “preferred” (select Misc>Comparison words)

b. Enter judgments – questionnaire mode appears but you can use any mode.

c. Improve inconsistency to less than 0.10

Ratings Spreadsheet (cont’d)9. Compute priorities with Computations>Ideal Priorities command. The Ideal priorities are computed from the usual Priorities by dividing each priority by the largest.

8. Close the Comparisons screen in the usual way to return to the Ratings Spreadsheet. The categories have been established and pairwise compared for Prestige.

9. Click on the (Acura, Prestige) cell to show the categories from which you will choose the applicable rating and choose Excellent.

Ratings Spreadsheet (cont’d)10. Repeat the process to create the categories for Price and pairwise compare them. Note that we have made the Price categories ranges of prices and that the lowest price range is the most preferred and gets the highest priority.

11. To display the priorities associated with the categories as shown here, turn on View>Category Display>Names and Priorities

12. Click on the (Acura, Price) cell and select its price range which has a priority of .085.

Ratings Spreadsheet (cont’d)13. Create categories for the remaining columns and rate the alternatives

14. Display Totals and Priorities columns with the View command

Results in Ratings15. Final rated spreadsheet. The Priorities are the results.

16. Priorities can also be displayed with the Calculations>Synthesize command

Ratings Relative Model

Acura TL .280 .344

Toyota Camry .264 .200

Honda Civic .456 .455

Getting BackupsThe most recent backup is at the top of the list. Double-click on the name of the version you wantto open it in a new window with a complete history of backups to its time included. Backups are made at frequent intervals. However, it is still a good idea to do versioning occasionally yourself, saving the file with a different version name: Vacation Rev 1.sdmod, Vacation Rev 2.sdmod, and so on.

Exporting SupermatricesThe following files may be exported as text files using the File>Export

command:

Unweighted Supermatrix

Weighted Supermatrix

Limit Supermatrix

Cluster Matrix

Import into Excel using the File>Open command . Be sure to select All Files so the .txt file you exported will appear. Click yes through the wizard to open in Excel.

Reports

• The Computations>Full Report command and the File>Print command both generate the same HTML file of reports about the model. You may use the Print Preview version, or save as a .html file. It gives the names and descriptions of the nodes and clusters and important priorities.