Decisions, decisions, decisions.....???????

Sometimes making a final decision can be very difficult, especially when involved in group work. So how can that be done. Using a decision making matrix is the answer. Initially I thought this would be a very arduous process but I was wrong. Using a template such as this one....

allows the users to comprehensively and accurately decide on the final choise for their projects in a matter of minutes.

It requries students to

• List in the columns the factors on which to base their decisions such as cost, size, purpose etc. 
• On the left each row is labelled with the designs/solutions they are choosing from. 
• Each factor must be given a raking from 1-5 (1= not important to 5=extremely important) and different factors can have the same value.
• Each of the designs must then be given a ranking as to how well it demonstrates/reaches the factors.
• Multiply each of the answers with the corresponding design and factors rankings to calculate an amount.
• Add all the amounts in each row to obtain a total on the right hand side.

Therefore, each row will calculate a score for each design and, in theory, the design/solution with the highest score is the best overall design and should be chosen to use. It is important to ensure that the factors are ranked properly acccording to the criteria you consider most and least important. If the design you thought should win, does not, maybe some of the criteria are ranked incorrectly.

I did modify my use of the table slightly to have designs listed on every second row to allow for totals of each design to be shown in the same table rather than create the table a second time which showed the totals rather than the rankings. Mine have all been combined into the one table. I feel that this gives a simpler overview of things rather than swapping between two tables if changes needed to be made.

Some of the benefits of using a decision making matrix include:

• Unbiased opinions
• Allows for matching comparisons of numerous design at the same time
• Numerous factors can be accounted for in one matrix