Reference Rating Example

Suppose we have a model that we are using to decide which one of five homes to buy. One criterion in the model is the distance to work and, for this criterion, we wish to use the distances from a nearby apartment and duplex to work to help rate the five homes even though the apartment and duplex are not alternatives that are being evaluated. We want to use their distances only as a reference.

In this case, we can create a reference rating called Distance Reference that will contain the two reference alternatives, Apartment and Duplex. Then we will open the rating ruler associated with the Distance to Work criterion, and display the Distance Reference reference rating ruler above it.

The following steps are used to create and display the reference rating:

• Create the reference alternative Apartment by clicking on the New Reference Alternative    icon in the toolbar and entering the name of the new reference alternative.
• Create the reference alternative Duplex in the same manner.
• Create a new reference rating Distance Reference by clicking on the New Reference Rating    icon in the toolbar and entering the name of the new reference rating.
• Double click the Distance Reference rating to open it for editing.
• Add both reference alternatives to the reference rating and set the desired values (see the section on Specifying Ratings for instructions on how to do this).
• Now open the rating for the Distance to Work criterion in the criteria tree, and double click it to open for editing. In the Reference Rating list box on the right-hand side below the ruler you will see an item for the newly created Distance Reference ruler. Click on the label to select it, and the Distance Reference rating will be displayed above the rating ruler.

Having followed the above procedure you will be able to see the reference alternatives as shown in the image below. Note that Set Right and Set Left operations are available for these reference alternatives (see Specifying Ratings for details).

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