COMPARISON OF PRIORITIZATION TECHNIQUES USING INTERHIERARCHY MAPPINGS

This paper discusses a method of comparing different prioritization te chniques that entails mapping the input data from one system to anothe r. The ranking vectors output by the methods should then be comparable . As an illustration, a method that uses pairwise comparison, e.g. the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) of Saaty, itself viewed as a mapping , is compared with a method using cross impact analysis, the Edinburgh Approach. The problem centres on an appropriate inverse of the proces s mapping. Although the discussion is restricted to simple bilevel hie rarchies, useful insight is provided into the methodologies in general and, in particular, the problem of inverse inconsistency associated w ith rank reversals. A way in which the theory of AHP might be incorpor ated into a Differential Hierarchy Process is suggested.