Solving ranking and sorting problems
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There are different decision problems which can be tackled with Smart Picker Pro. Let us first consider some examples of decision problems:

·   the car-choice problem where we need to choose the best car amongst several one but while considering the price (to be minimized), the power (to be maximized), the space (to be maximized), etc. Indeed, the perfect car doesn't exist... so, Smart Picker Pro. will help you to find YOUR best compromise.which person is the most suitable for a position considering his work experience, social skills, flexibility and motivation ?

·   the choice of a new cell-phone or laptop considering features or criteria such as the quality, life-time, battery, price, etc....

·   you have several projects in the pipe-line but you would like to give them a priority ; therefore you will define for instance three groups: the highly important projects (which requires immediate actions), the average important and the less-important project (i.e. the project that may be delayed). Based on these three definitions, all your projects will be assigned to a group and you will manage completely the consequences of the delays, penalties, etc. of your projects.

·   you would like to spot which of your customers or suppliers are the most promising ones and so, with who you need to build strong relationships.... you will therefore define again groups and sort/regroup them based on several conflicting criteria...



The first three examples are so-called ranking or scoring projects where the aim is thus to provide you, the decision maker, with a ranking or a scoring of all your options or actions. Typically, this will be in the form of Car A is the first with a score of 0.7, Car X is the second with a score of 0.63, etc. The cars are called actions. The actions are evaluated on criteria or features. Solving ranking and sorting problems


In the last to examples, the decision maker is facing a grouping or sorting problem. To solve this, he will at first define his groups or categories or classes by so-called profiles. These profiles, also called norms, can be examples in which case they are called central profiles or prototypes. But the profiles can also play the role of boundaries' or frontiers. In this case, they are called limiting profiles. You will find more information on this topic on the page: Terminology - Definition of profiles..



Depending on the version you have, you can choose the problem which you would like to tackle:

·   In the Menu Bar you will see the following choice-bar: choose one of the proposed options.

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·   When launching Smart Picker Pro. and choosing 'New problem with the Companion', he will show you figure 1. Choose either Ranking or Sorting (respectively left or right).


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Let us define some important notions which are used in the software:

·   Action: an action is an option or an alternative of your decision problem. In our car problem, the cars are the actions. In our recruitment problem, the persons are the actions. In our prioritization problem, the projects are the actions.

·   Criteria: the characteristics or the features defining our actions (e.g., the price, the power, the passion, the flexibility, etc. These evaluations can be numerical values or non-numerical values (i.e. ordinal values)

·   Ordinal values: values of a criterion implicate an order on the actions. Let us consider the criterion: comfort. The cars may have different values for this criterion: good, average, bad. These three labels implicate a ranking.

·   Profile: a particular action which defines a group. It will be characterized by performances on the different defined criteria. A profile may play the role of an example of group (called a central profile) or a boundary of a group (limiting profile).

·   Weights of the criteria: the relative importance of a criteria over another criteria is defined by the weights. Let us consider two criteria: price and quality and consider the respective following weight-values (or simply weights): 2 and 1. This means that for us, the price is two times more important than the quality.

·   Minimize/Maximize: we need to specify the direction of a criterion. If we are buyers, we would like to minimize the price. On the contrary, if we are sellers, we would like to maximize the selling-price.

·   Preference parameters: parameters which express your preferences: e.g., the weights express a part of your preference. The indifference and preference thresholds express other preference information.

·   Flow: score ; Positive Flow: positive score ; Negative Flow: negative score ; Net flow: Net score

·   Category:group

·   Sorting:grouping

·   Ranking:ordering, prioritization, order