Selecting Measurement Scales

Each alternative must be evaluated, or measured, with respect to each attribute. There are many different ways to measure things—in fact, there are different “classes” of measurements. Further, within a certain class of measurements, some manipulations of those measurements will make sense and others won't. A given multiple-attribute decision, such as the UFO situation, often includes attributes that are in different classes. So it's important for you to know what the different classes of measurements are, how to recognize them, and what can and can't be done with them.

NOMINAL SCALES

The simplest class of measurement is the nominal scale. This kind of scale is used for classification only. Examples of nominal scales ...

Get Return on Software: Maximizing the Return on Your Software Investment now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.