PREFERENCE RANKING GLOBAL FREQUENCIES IN MULTICRITERION ANALYSIS (PRAGMA)

An MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision Making) method, known as PRAGMA, is presented which provides the ranking frequencies of feasible actions. The method is based on the comparison of the partial profiles of each alternative with reference to all the possible pairs of criteria considered. The global frequencies are obtained as the weighted sum of the corresponding partial ranking frequencies. The information supplied by this method is valuable in solving discrete multiple criteria choice problems and, in particular, in building complete and partial preorders of feasible actions. PRAGMA is a useful complement to the MAPPAC method, being instrumentally based on the same fundamental preference indices.