ERGO Users Guide 125228

i

Table of Contents

1 - Welcome to ERGO ............................................................................................... 1

How to Use This Guide ...................................................................................................................... 2

Technology Note ................................................................................................................................. 3

2 - Installing and Getting Started with ERGO ................................................... 4

System Requirements ......................................................................................................................... 5

Installing ERGO .................................................................................................................................. 5

Starting ERGO for the First Time ..................................................................................................... 6

Obtaining an ERGO Authorization License .................................................................................... 7

Getting Started: Opening Files .......................................................................................................... 9

ERGO Welcome Window ................................................................................................................ 12

Exiting ERGO .................................................................................................................................... 14

Navigating ERGO ............................................................................................................................. 14

Overview: Model Creation to Decision ......................................................................................... 15

How-To Build and Evaluate Models ............................................................................................. 16

Data Entry Windows ........................................................................................................................ 18

Analyzing and Getting to Results .................................................................................................. 18

Customizing ERGO Windows ........................................................................................................ 19

About ERGO Help, Glossary, Tutorial, and Support Services ................................................... 23

Building and Editing Models .......................................................................................................... 24

Creating New Models ...................................................................................................................... 26

Managing Priority Changes During Editing................................................................................. 29

Setting Thresholds ............................................................................................................................ 30

Assigning Rating Methods to Factors ............................................................................................ 33

ii

Defining Rating Methods ................................................................................................................ 34

Level Numbering .............................................................................................................................. 37

Set/Reset Trim Nodes ...................................................................................................................... 37

3 - Prioritizing Your Factors ................................................................................ 39

What are Priorities? .......................................................................................................................... 40

Selecting Local and Global Prioritizing Methods ........................................................................ 41

Balancing ............................................................................................................................................ 44

Local (Top-Down) Prioritizing Methods ....................................................................................... 44

Global (Bottom-Up) Prioritizing Methods .................................................................................... 49

Priority Documentation ................................................................................................................... 54

4 - Entering and Evaluating Alternatives ........................................................ 56

About Alternatives ........................................................................................................................... 57

Defining Alternatives ....................................................................................................................... 58

Using Costs/Benefits in Decision Making .................................................................................... 63

Editing Alternatives ......................................................................................................................... 64

User Defined Alternative Fields ..................................................................................................... 65

Parameters ......................................................................................................................................... 66

Formulas ............................................................................................................................................ 71

Rating Alternatives ........................................................................................................................... 76

Graphic Feedback in the Rate Window ......................................................................................... 79

Special Features ................................................................................................................................. 81

Other Features and Tips .................................................................................................................. 83

5 - Viewing and Analyzing Results .................................................................... 84

Using the Results Window .............................................................................................................. 85

Interpreting Results .......................................................................................................................... 85

Results Window Tools ..................................................................................................................... 87

Results Table Rows ........................................................................................................................... 90

Choosing a Ranking Method .......................................................................................................... 92

Special Functions in Results ............................................................................................................ 95

iii

6 - Analysis in Strategies for Decisions: A Tutorial ..................................... 100

Objectives of Analysis .................................................................................................................... 101

Tour of the Analysis Window ....................................................................................................... 102

Graph Presets .................................................................................................................................. 110

Driving Graphs from the Tree Utility .......................................................................................... 113

Scenario Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 116

Alternative Differentiation ............................................................................................................ 120

Sensitivity Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 121

Value for Money: Price Equivalency ............................................................................................ 123

Rotating 3D Graphs ........................................................................................................................ 125

Viewing Names & Data from Graphic Objects........................................................................... 125

Too Many Factors on the X-Axis .................................................................................................. 126

Graphs and Charts Reference ....................................................................................................... 128

7 - Reports .............................................................................................................. 147

Starting Reports .............................................................................................................................. 148

Using Reports .................................................................................................................................. 149

Opening Reports ............................................................................................................................. 151

Setting Report Properties ............................................................................................................... 153

Reports Tree Utility ........................................................................................................................ 155

Shortlisting and Viewing Alternativesin Reports ...................................................................... 157

Reports Preview Features .............................................................................................................. 158

Exporting and Importing Reports ................................................................................................ 159

Reports in Your Business Processes ............................................................................................. 159

Reports Reference ........................................................................................................................... 163

8 - Import/Export and RFI Generation ........................................................... 181

Starting Import/Export.................................................................................................................. 182

ERGO Import Field Codes Interpretation Tables ....................................................................... 189

1 - Welcome to ERGO

Thank you for choosing ERGO. This chapter explains what ERGO is, and how to use this manual to get the most benefit from the functions and features in ERGO’s toolkit.

2

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 1 -0BWelcome to ERGO

How to Use This Guide •••••

This guide is divided into eight parts. The first (this introductory section) is your roadmap. Parts

II and III are about setting up and getting started with ERGO, and the basic steps to build models. parts IV through VI define the main decision process steps, while parts VII and VIII deal with aspects related to getting information in and out of ERGO.

The decision process in ERGO is broken down into the following steps:

1. Benchmark development, Parts II and III

In this step the decision benchmark is created. A benchmark is generally concerned with achieving the best representation of the decision issues and the solution. It consists of the criteria in the decision which represents the upper level and lower level decision objective requirements, and their priorities with regard to the main objective. Additionally, you define how to evaluate the criteria in this step. Mandatory requirements can also be itemized.

2. Alternatives definition and characterization, Parts IV and V

At this stage, the real world enters the picture. Your alternatives are defined and characterized to enable the key differentiators to be determined. Using the methods of evaluation (called Rating Methods) defined in the first step, the alternatives are evaluated against the criteria.

3. Analysis and Final Conclusion, Part VI

The final step in part VI is the analysis of the results. Analysis can serve several purposes. You can use the analysis window to compare among shortlisted alternatives as well as with the benchmark. The analysis tools enable decision makers to perform sensitivity and what-if analyses, and identify the differentiators among the alternatives. A value analysis enables you to compare the relative cost/performance, while special graphics are available allow you to visualize the quality variance across the criteria for each alternative. There are many other capabilities worth exploring in this section.

3

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 1 -0BWelcome to ERGO

In addition to the steps above, ERGO enables the user to generate sets of reports, described in part VII. The reports are designed for a number of purposes, and include audit trail processing, questionnaires to obtain data, results summaries, and data review. Reports can be exported in a number of formats including HTML, PDF, and Excel file formats. In part VIII, import and export functions are described. Import functions let you convert Excel spreadsheet models into ERGO models. You can also export to Excel and delimited text files. Using a special RFI export/import feature lets you create spreadsheet RFIs for rapid response from vendors or other decision stakeholders, and import the data without having to enter the data manually.

Tips, Tricks, and Notes Look for Tips and Notes. These are helpful for organizing information in the fields of ERGO, and for systematically getting the appropriate data in and out of the program. There are many useful tips and tricks to insure data integrity and integrity in your results.

Technology Note •••••

Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. (TEC) has developed some unique elements to decision support. In order to make full use of the technology, TEC is continually developing best practice methods for creating, maintaining and analyzing models based on user experience. These practices are published from time-to-time. Contact TEC for details.

ERGO DB is an advanced tool which extends ERGO’s capabilities through the use of database managed information. These advanced capabilities enable the use of ERGO advanced capabilities in enterprise environments, where it can provide the basis for knowledge management and use in decision making.

2 - Installing and Getting Started with ERGO

5

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 2 -1BInstalling and Getting Started with ERGO

System Requirements •••••

Before you get started, take a moment to review the following list of hardware and software items you need to run ERGO.

• A PC with at least a 486-66 or higher processor. • At least 8 MB of RAM (16 MB or more recommended). • At least 40 MB of free disk space. • Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, NT, 2000, XP, and 2003 Server.

Note: For Windows 9x, 2000, ME, and Windows NT users it is always wise to have three times as much free disk space as the amount of RAM on your system. If this is not the case, system resource problems can arise for any program including ERGO.

Installing ERGO •••••

The installation procedure for ERGO depends on the version of Microsoft Windows you have on your system.

To install ERGO under Windows 9x, 2000, ME, NT, or XP: 1. Insert the ERGO CD in your CD-ROM drive. 2. If your computer supports Auto-Run, wait for the ERGO Install screen to appear, and go

to step 5. 3. If you do not have Auto-run, from the Start menu, choose Run. 4. In the Open field of the Run dialog box, enter d:setup (substitute for the letter d: your

CD-ROM drive if necessary) and click OK. 5. Follow the instructions from the ERGO setup program.

6


To install ERGO under Windows NT 3.5.1: 1. Insert the ERGO CD in your CD-ROM drive. 2. From the File menu of the Program Manager, choose Run. 3. In the Command Line field of the Run dialog box, enter d:setup, (substitute for the letter

d: your CD-ROM drive if necessary) and click OK. 4. Follow the instructions from the ERGO setup program.

Starting ERGO for the First Time •••••

To start ERGO: 1. From the Start menu, select Programs. 2. From the Programs sub-menu, select the ERGO option. 3. Select ERGO from the sub-menu that appears.

After installation, you should reboot your computer. Please read the "readme" files for any new information.

When you first start ERGO, you will see the ERGO start-up and activation window shown in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1. The ERGO Start up and activation window.

7


There are three choices available from this Window.

• Try ERGO. Press this button if you wish to try ERGO for its trial period. After the trial period has elapsed, you must purchase a license for ERGO to continue. Note: You may obtain a license at any time during the trial period. Instructions are given in the next section.

• License Activation. The user can activate the purchased license through the Authorization dialog. See Getting an ERGO Authorization License below.

• Exit. Exit without requesting a license or starting the trial period.

This dialog will only appear the first time you start ERGO. Subsequently, you will see the File Open window.

Obtaining an ERGO Authorization License •••••

Site Keys provide the user with access to ERGO capabilities beyond the free trial period.

Note: Depending on the kind of license you buy, Site Keys may provide some or all of the features of ERGO . This manual describes all the features of ERGO , and you may find that some features are not available to you or there are restrictions on one or more capabilities. You may upgrade at any time by purchasing licenses and obtaining the appropriate Site Key.

To obtain a Site Key you must first open the Authorization dialog in Figure 2-2. You do this by:

1. From the ERGO start-up and activation window you press the Activate Now button. The Authorization dialog in Figure 2-2 appears.

2. From the Help menu in the ERGO Welcome window, select Authorization 3. From the Help menu in the ERGO Build window, select Authorization

8


To activate a pre-purchased or authorized license, from the Authorization dialog: 1. Access the Site Code, and call, FAX or E-Mail the Site Code to the indicated locations in

the dialog. If E-mailing, allow one business day for response. 2. Enter the Site Key in the space provided and press Enter. A message will appear to show

the license has been authorized. If there is an error, re-enter the Authorization dialog and re-enter the numbers. If there is still a problem, contact TEC support.

Note: When you purchase a single user ERGO license, the license is for one copy and on one machine only. The license can be transferred to another machine using the ERGO Transfer License utility available in your ERGO Windows group.

Figure 2-2. Authorization window showing site code and site key entry

9


Getting Started: Opening Files •••••

When you restart, the ERGO Open Model File dialog in Figure 2-3 appears. From this Open Model File you can open files that are:

1. Existing: Use the dialog box to navigate to an existing file 2. Recent: To open from a list of recent files that you have previously opened and edited 3. New: To start a new ERGO file, or import from an Excel spreadsheet or delimited text

file.

4. Select the file you wish to open and double click on it, or press the Open button in the dialog, to open the file.

Note: If you open an existing model you will go to the Welcome to ERGO window in Figure 2-4.

Figure 2-3. Open Model File dialog showing a list of models

10


Note: If you open a new model, ERGO will open the Build Model [NONAME.MOD] window directly for you to begin to build a new model (Figure 2-5). You enter the new model name in the Criterion field on the right hand side, and enter criteria in the table. We will discuss the building of models later.

Figure 2-4. Welcome to ERGO window. In the lower left is the Task bar guide to building Models and adding data in the ERGO decision process. Focus and click on the Task you need to perform to bring up the associated window.

11


Figure 2-5. Build Hierarchy/new knowledge base (KB) window. The KB name and factors are entered in the table on the right of the window.

12


ERGO Welcome Window •••••

The Welcome Window in Figure 2-4 is a shortcut to the main ERGO windows and functions.

Task Menu Bar In the lower left of the figure is the Tasks menu (shown again in Figure 2-6). You may select any of the items on the Tasks menu and go directly to the associated window or dialog.

The coloured lights for the model are status lights, which are discussed in Navigating ERGO below.

Figure 2-6. Task Bar Menu

13


Model Information The window summarizes the model by indicating the total number of factors—including all parents—and the number of alternatives in the model.

The goal of the model is also identified in this window and enables users to determine if the model is directed at their own requirements. Models can be used for repeated decisions, or customized for specific scenarios.

The Goal statement is entered in the Model Information dialog (Figure 2-7). It can be reached from all main ERGO Windows (apart from Reports) shown in the Tasks menu in Figure 2-6. You can reach it using either:

• File menus Knowledge Base information option • Right mouse click menus in the window body

Figure 2-7. Model Information Window

14


Exiting ERGO •••••

To exit ERGO: 1. Close all open windows and you will return to the ERGO Welcome window. 2. From the Welcome window's File menu, select Exit or use the close window feature in

the top right of the window. 3. You will return to the Windows desktop.

Navigating ERGO •••••

You can move among the windows of ERGO by:

Selecting the window from the Tasks menu. The Tasks menu is located in the lower left of all major ERGO windows. The status of each task is indicated by the colored lights to the left of task name.

• A green light indicates the task is completed adequately to obtain a result. • A yellow light indicates only partial completion. • A red light means that a decision may not be made given the current task completion

state. • From the GoTo menu in each window, select the desired window.

Go to the next or previous task using the backward and forward arrows in the toolbar of the current window.

15


Overview: Model Creation to Decision •••••

ERGO evaluates what the value of a particular solution is to your decision from the data you input, and enables you to compare among the alternative solutions. Decisions can range from simple to complex. For example, if you are choosing enterprise wide software solutions (such as a new office suite) from among a group of information technology vendors, you need to judge their solutions according to your particular needs and priorities. ERGO is designed to help you understand just how much value you can expect, and to compare solutions from strategic and operational perspectives. Other decisions can be simpler of course.

The principle process behind creating ERGO value trees and value-oriented knowledge bases, and then using them to drive a decision is straightforward. There are six basic steps:

1. Determine the relevant factors, and organize them in an arrangement that reflects the relationship among criteria. Determine how you are going to evaluate the factors, and which you want to contribute an evaluation. Establish which factors are mandatory and set up the mandatory conditions. You do this in the Build Hierarchy window.

2. Determine the relative priorities of the factors (weights) in the decision. You do this in the Prioritize window.

3. Enter and describe the alternatives, including cost and benefit data. You do this in the Add/Edit alternatives window.

4. Assign ratings to the alternatives for each of the criteria. Ratings are generally performance or impact measures. You do this in the Rate Alternative window.

5. Getting to the results:

You obtain a summary of results in the Results window, and can investigate the details of the results in the Analysis windows.

6. Reports lets you summarize and output the results and create audit trails. There are also reports to generate document RFIs for hand-filling, questionnaires and detailed reporting on the model and its contents for review. You may access these features from the Reports window. In addition, ERGO has export functions for generating spreadsheet RFIs for automated RFI processing, and can export to other formats.

16


How-To Build and Evaluate Models •••••

This section gives some background on building a model, populating with it with information to become a knowledge base, and then using it to drive to a decision. This guide is preliminary and not intended to be comprehensive.

Entering factors: The Build Hierarchy window Make a list of the factors and organize them. Typical model building practices to organize criteria include:

• Structure criteria to reflect what the value propositions are in a way that best meets how the decision is going to be made. The value proposition can be personal, corporate, or a trade-off of the two. Factors relating costs and corporate or individual benefits can be trade-offs that have to be made.

• Structure your factors to reflect roles of responsibility or organizational structure. • Structure factors to enable some kind of step-wise decision process. For example

eliminating alternatives on the basis of cost, or failure to meet due diligence criteria, then proceeding on to evaluate the rest against other criteria.

Determine how to evaluate each factor: Ratings, Rating Methods, and Rates

When you need to evaluate the alternatives, you want to enter data that makes sense, such as "45 miles per gallon" or "$130," or more subjective values like "Fair" or "Difficult to implement." These raw values need to get translated into some measure of worth or value toward your decision. To do this, you must use rating methods. We will discuss rating methods in-depth later.

Rating Methods map your entered data into Rate values used in ERGO’s calculations. You can determine how this translation is done by selecting from a standard set of rating methods or creating your own rating methods.

You can use any of the standard rating methods provided by the program, or create your own. Some common scales that are used are point scales such as 0-5, or 0-100, and verbal scales such as Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor where Excellent achieves one hundred percent satisfaction, while Poor may only be at 10%—or zero—of the total value. ERGO enables you to develop simple or sophisticated rating methods which you can apply to one or more factors. Category factors, for example, can only be based on rate values.

17


Assign threshold levels of acceptability (minimum acceptance standards). You can optionally assign thresholds to category and leaf factors. These are based generally on your input Ratings. However, in some cases they will use Rate values.

Must Haves: In the Go To menu of most data entry windows, you will find Must Haves. Must Haves are a list of mandatory criteria the user keeps separate from the evaluation tree, and which the alternative must pass to be considered. You can use these to be a pre-requisite list or requirements prior to evaluation - e.g., in a due diligence checklist.

Prioritizing Priorities express a sense of priority or importance among the factors. In effect, you are trading off one factor against other factors in the decision model—the more important you make one factor, the less relative the importance other peer factors have. The relative importance or priority of a factor is called a priority.

In the Prioritize window there are a number of tools at your disposal to help you determine priorities. Priorities may also be assigned as a means to emphasize the factors where alternatives differ, thereby enabling better differentiation.

Entering Alternatives In the Add/Edit window, useful alternative descriptions and notes can be entered for reporting and review purposes. Costs can include, for example, total cost of ownership, service and maintenance costs, etc. Later, you can compare the value returned per dollar spent from the Analysis window Value Equivalency and Performance graphs. Using User Defined Fields, you can also add other alternative attributes to help you filter and select a shortlist of alternatives.

Rating Alternatives You use the rating methods that you have assigned to each factor to assign ratings to the factors for each alternative. These generally consist of numeric inputs like 45 miles per gallon, $50, or verbal statements such as Feature Supported by Third party depending on scales you have defined in the Define Rating Methods dialog.

Tip: You should be clear about how you evaluate your alternatives before working in this window. Changing your rating method in the middle of entering ratings could change your results, or require re-entry of data.

18


Data Entry Windows •••••

The four data entry windows are:

• Build Hierarchy. This is where you enter the factors, enter descriptive and supportive information for the factors, and determine how you want to measure the impact of your alternatives on the cirteria. For example, you can create scales such as "print speed for test printouts," or express "Quality of Print" through qualitative evaluation of the outputs (e.g., a scale of Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor).

• Prioritize. Factors are usually not of the same importance or have the same relevance in a decision. In this window you can express the relative importance of the factors, and create your decision scenario.

• Add/Edit. In the Add/Edit window the alternatives are entered, along with other attributes.

• Rate. In the Rate window the ratings are given for each alternative against each factor. A rating is an assigned value, usually in some raw input dialog—e.g., dollars for costs, miles per gallon for fuel consumption, (Excellent, Good, Poor...) value judgments.

Analyzing and Getting to Results •••••

Once the data is entered and has been accepted, arriving at a decision requires some additional steps. These steps are:

• Shortlist/Winnowing—eliminate weaker alternatives—for example, vendors who are eliminated by appropriate use of thresholds, which leaves a shortlist.

• Stepped process where the focus on specific factors enables the elimination of some weak alternatives for the selected factor. Thresholds can be set, if desired.

• Differentiation Points Discovery to enable negotiations or eliminate more alternatives • Confirmation and buy-in using sensitivity and other analysis tools.

19


Customizing ERGO Windows •••••

You can set up defaults and customize views in any window using the Settings dialog. To reach the settings dialog, right mouse click in the body of a main ERGO window (except Reports) and select Settings. Alternatively, select Settings from the File menu or Settings from the Tasks menu. The Settings dialog is shown in Figure 2-8.

In the Settings dialog you can:

• Press the Set Default button to permanently save any Settings changes. • Press OK to save the current settings for the current session only. • Press Cancel to cancel any changes.

The Settings dialog allows you to set the appearance and features of each window. Here are some of the important features you need to know about.

20


General Tab

Autosave

From the General Tab in Settings, select Autosave. Select the interval between saves in minutes. The data is saved to a temporary file. The temporary file is recovered when ERGO restarts following an unscheduled exit. It is not saved to the original file. You must save the auto-recovered file again to save its data.

Default Directory

The default directory locates where ERGO will look for files when you select File/Open. Use the Browse button to set and locate the default directory.

Figure 2-8. Settings Dialog—General tab

21


KB Tab You can select to view the global and local priorities in the tree or grid. You can also show or hide the Threshold column.

Prioritizing Tab In the prioritizing tab you set up the default appearance of the window and weighing method. There are two types of prioritizing methods that can be set (see Part III Prioritize Window). These methods are explained below.

Local Prioritizing Methods

Local prioritizing lets you prioritize clusters of peer factors in the table. There are three methods of local weighing—User Defined using a numeric scale, a tradeoff among the factors in the table using percentage, and pairwise (AHP) comparisons with two procedures using verbal or sliders.

Global Prioritizing

There are two global prioritizing methods: a global prioritizing technique where the leaf factors are assigned a fractional or percentage weight, and a point scale methodology called Real Values in which leaf factors are assigned points on an open-ended scale.

Balancing

You can set balancing on or off. Balancing is a special function that removes bias due to the way factors are distributed in the model. It is generally used as a validation step and is one of the unique features of ERGO. It defaults to OFF when you first build and prioritize your criteria.

Rating Tab In the Rating tab you can select the method for applying ratings. There are two modes:

• Rate by Criterion—which means you rate one alternative at a time against all of the criteria

• Rate by alternative, which means you assign ratings to one criterion at a time and rate all the alternatives.

Result Tab In this tab you control how the results in the Results window appears. You can select to view failed alternatives (those that have failed Must Haves and threshold criteria). You can also select whether to base the results on a 0-100 scale or another scale such as 0-5.

22


Decision Tab In the Decision tab you can select the decision method (how you want to make the decision from ERGO’s different decision algorithms), and set the conditions under which alternatives can pass or fail from Must Haves and Thresholds failures. The settings in this tab effect the Results and Analysis windows. Some of these settings can also reset values in the Alternative Filter, and vice versa, selections in the alternative filter can effect the settings in this tab. Specifically, these are related to the viewing and filtering of Must Have and Threshold exceptions.

Analysis Tab You can set various display limitations for Analysis graphs, including limiting the number of alternatives displayed in any one graph. You can also set parameters for Scenario analysis, where you can create and save scenarios generated while in Analysis.

23


About ERGO Help, Glossary, Tutorial, and Support Services

••••• It is strongly recommended that new users in particular use the help available with the program. The help includes:

• Many features have context sensitive help. This means where you see a Help button in the dialog, it will take you directly to the appropriate section in the help file.

• More general help is available, including Search and Favorites functions. • A tutorial is also included in the help system. From the Help menu, select Contents, and

then select ERGO Tutorial. • ERGO has an extensive glossary of terms. From the Help menu, select Contents, and

then select ERGO Glossary.

Service and Support—you will also find information on contacting TEC, as well as information on training and consulting services.

24


Building and Editing Models •••••

The Build Hierarchy window is where you build the ERGO decision tree. Its structure is typical of an ERGO data entry window. It is shown in Figure 2-9.

Figure 2-9. ERGO Build Model Window showing the functional components of the window. Below the menu and toolbar items, the goal is visible, and can be edited in this window as well as from the KB information dialog.

25


The window consists of:

• A hierarchical tree of factors, which makes up your decision tree on the left side. • A table (also called a grid) in the mid-right showing sub-factors of the item focused on in

the tree. The table has columns indicating various attributes of the factors. • Text information in the lower right such as the description for each factor. • A goal statement describing the goal of the model in a text field stretching across and

above the hierarchical tree and table. The height of the goal statement can be changed using the mouse.

• Set of windows tools to assist in editing the hierarchical tree.

A hierarchical tree is made of factors of which there are five basic forms:

• Criteria: these are the lowest level items (or leaves) in the tree. Criteria are the items you supply ratings for each alternative.

• A category or parent: is a factor which has lower level factors or sub-categories (children) directly connected to it.

• A sub-factor or child factor is an item directly under a category (may be another category or a criterion).

• A peer or sibling factor has one or more sibling factors if the shares the same direct parent category.

• Root—the factor at the top of the tree is called the root. It can be considered the parent category of all factors. It is entitled with the name of the model.

26


Creating New Models •••••

To create a new hierarchy, press the New icon in the top left of the Build Hierarchy window or select New from the File Open dialog as shown in Figure 2-3.

To build and edit the hierarchy:

1. Focus on the new root, and enter a name in the Sub-Criteria of box above the table (Figure 2-10).

2. Enter a factor name in the table grid, and press Enter. You will see the factor entered as a sub-factor of the root.

3. You can focus on the new factor in the tree, and enter sub-factors under it as in step two above.

4. Continue building the tree by focusing on parent factors in the tree and entering sub-factors in the table.

Figure 2-10.Edit Functions in Build Model.

27


5. You can move factors and categories in the tree by dragging and dropping them onto parents. Alternatively, there are delete, copy, and paste functions available from a right mouse-click menu (when focused on a factor in the tree or table), and from the toolbar.

Tip: If you want to delete a large number of factors, use the Mark for Delete feature. This will enable you to mark factors for delete, then delete them in one go, saving time and effort.

Note: A subtree is the set of factors directly connected to, not excluding, the parent factor.

In addition to adding factors there are many more features and functions to enable rapid model editing. These items are shown in the right mouse click menu of Figure 2-10, and include:

• You can change the order of factors in the Table by dragging the factors up or down in the table and dropping them in a desired position.

Tip: Use this feature to arrange your factors in order of priority. This can help in the prioritizing process, which you do once you have entered and arranged all your factors.

• Save Subtree. All data related to the subtree—priorities, text information, alternatives, and alternative ratings are saved with the subtree.

• Append Subtree. Choose any other model and append it to the current model. All alternatives and custom rating methods are also imported.

Note: When you append subtrees to the model, the subtree may be assigned a priority. You can change the priority to a desired value in the Prioritize window.

• Adding text for Factors, select the appropriate text field from the drop-down box below the table, and enter the text. The text fields include:

− Criterion Description—this is generally a statement that defines the factor and its purpose in the decision.

− Criterion Comment—this an additional field to make notes related to the factor. − Criterion Priority Comment—this is usually used to give an explanation of why the

factor is assigned a given priority. − Rating Question—this is a question usually used in RFI and other documents, and

for prompting a responder in the Rate Alternatives window. It may also give rating instructions.

− Aggregated Priority Comment—this summarizes the priorities of child factors directly below the current parent.

28


− Rating Comparisons, All Alternatives—summarizes the results (gives the rating) for the parent for all alternatives.

− Hyperlinks—you can enter hyperlinks which are relevant to explaining the factor (not for an alternative or its ratings).

− Attachments—the attachments tab allows you to save related information by attaching documents and other files from your hard drive.

• Press the Undo button in the toolbar to reverse changes you have made. Undo works back to the last change you made since entering the window. If you leave the window at any time for another dialog, the set of actions prior to entering the new dialog are lost.

• Window elastics—all areas in the window can be resized by dragging any partition border within the window body to a new position. The window can also be resized as any standard window in Windows using the mouse.

• Benchmark bar graph—this is a bar chart in the lower right of the screen that shows the percentage priority of each factor in the hierarchy relative to all the other factors. These priorities are called global priorities.

• Local Priority pie graph—this is a pie chart that appears in the lower right part of the screen under the text field. It shows the local priority of each item in the model table relative to only its siblings (these are model items that share the parent category highlighted in the model tree). These priorities are called Local Priorities and always add up to 100%.

• Status bar—this is the strip at the bottom of the screen on which the Tasks button is located. It displays information and settings specific to the current window and model. You should pay attention to the bar.

• The toolbar in most screens is located under the window menu items. The toolbar contains buttons to perform various actions. For example, in the Build Hierarchy screen the item with the blank page symbol on the far left is a tool button used to create a new model. Next to it is an opening folder. Clicking the folder brings up the Open file dialog box.

29


Managing Priority Changes During Editing •••••

Whenever you edit the hierarchy and move factors from one location to another, or add or delete factors, the system calculates the priorities in the model based on the changing structure as you edit. In most cases the global priority of factors remains the same unless there is a change in the number of criteria.

As a guide to editing and priority changes the following rules apply:

• For a new model where prioritizing has not been done (Prioritize light is red), adding and removing factors from a parent leaves the parent priority unchanged, and the priority of the parent is equally distributed among the child factors as factors are added.

Note: If Balancing is on, the criteria priorities are forced to have equal global priority and the parent factor priorities will depend on the number of underlying criteria in the subtree.

• For a model that has been prioritized (the Tasks Priority light is yellow or green), new factors are added with zero priority. When factors are deleted, their priorities are distributed to their peer factors in proportion to their priority—i.e., the ratios of their global and local priorities are unchanged. The parent global priority is left unchanged.

• When the number of leaf criteria changes—e.g., by deleting a leaf factor, dropping, or appending a subtree, priorities are changed throughout the model, with the lost weight being redistributed in proportion to the priorities of the remaining factors.

Note: Although every effort is made by the program to track changes, the user should be aware that severe editing may result in non-obvious changes to the priorities. Users should ensure that their modifications either do not impact priorities, or that they track original priorities.

Tip: Save the original file, and after each major edit, save the scenario. At the end of each session, validate the priorities are appropriate.

30


Note: If criteria change in number, priorities may change throughout the model.

Setting Thresholds •••••

You can set thresholds in the Build Hierarchy and Prioritize windows by:

• Clicking in the Threshold column cell next to factor to which you want to apply the threshold. The Threshold column is marked by in the Build Model table of Figure 2-9. If you do not see the Threshold Column in Build Hierarchy, bring up the Settings/KB tab and check the Threshold box under Grid Options. Press OK.

• Right-mouse click on a factor in the tree or table and select Set Threshold.

Depending on whether the factor is a category or a criterion, either the dialog shown in Figure 2-11 (for criteria), or the dialog for categories in Figure 2-12, appears. Follow the dialog box instructions to set the thresholds.

Setting the Threshold for a Single Factor The Threshold for a single criterion can be set using the Assign Rating Threshold dialog shown in Figure 2-12.

The Threshold for a single criterion can be set using the Assign Rating Threshold dialog shown in Figure 2-12.

Figure 2-11.Threshold dialog for criteria

31


To set the threshold for a criterion: 1. In the Criterion Rating Threshold dialog box, enter the minimum or maximum values in

the min: and max: fields. 2. Alternatively, you may use the spin dial controls, or move the arrows on the slider bar

by dragging with the mouse. Release the mouse button when you have moved the slider to the desired position.

Setting Thresholds for Category and Subtree Factors When you select a category to which thresholds are to be applied, the threshold can be:

a. set for one or more factors below the category;

b. set for just the category itself (so that the rolled-up values from the set of leaf factors meet a set equivalent rating value for the category); or

c. it may be applied to both the category and the sub-factors. Different thresholds can be set for the leaf factors and the category.

The values are set for each by setting the minimum or maximum thresholds in the Category Rating Threshold dialog shown in Figure 2-12, selecting the appropriate options, and pressing Apply.

Note: The dialog will not show the min/max settings for each change if you attempt to re-check a former setting. Only the last setting will be shown. You must exit the dialog and click on the appropriate factor or category to check the threshold settings for that factor.

Figure 2-12. Category Threshold Dialog. You can apply thresholds to categories and leaf criteria in the subtree.

32


To set thresholds in the dialog: 1. Set the threshold values using the spin dials in the data entry boxes of the dialog box, or

by dragging the arrows on the slider bar. 2. Press Apply. 3. To exit the dialog, press OK.

To set thresholds for one or more factors in the sub-tree only: 1. Check the Sub-tree box only. Make sure the category box is clear. 2. Select the set of leaf factors to which you want the thresholds to apply. 3. Set the threshold values using the spin dials in the data entry boxes of the dialog box, or

by dragging the arrows on the slider bar. 4. Press Apply. 5. To exit the dialog, press OK.

To set the same Factor Rating Thresholds for the Category and Sub-Tree: 1. Check both the category and sub-tree boxes 2. Select the applicable group of child factors 3. Click Apply.

To set different Factor Rating Thresholds for the Category and Sub-Tree: 1. Check the Category box only (Sub-tree box clear) 2. Set the threshold values 3. Press Apply. 4. Clear the Category check box 5. Check the Sub-tree box 6. Select the child factors to which to apply the thresholds 7. Change the threshold points to the desired values 8. Click Apply.

Note: When you next bring up the dialog in Figure 2-12, the last threshold positions that were set are displayed. To view the thresholds in the sub-factors, check the individual sub-factor thresholds. To obtain the threshold values for all factors, print out the Model Structure report, selecting factor thresholds in the Properties box, or from the Threshold Exception report without Alternatives.

33


Assigning Rating Methods to Factors •••••

You can assign rating methods to factors in the Build Hierarchy window by:

1. Right-mouse click on a factor in the tree or table and select Assign Rating Method. 2. The Assign Rating Method dialog box appears (Figure 2-13) 3. Select from the existing Rating Methods in the drop down box, and click Assign

If you want to create a new Rating Method or edit an old, press New/Modify. The Define Rating Methods dialog appears. See section on Define Rating Method.

Figure 2-13. Assign Rating Method Dialog Box

34


Defining Rating Methods •••••

An alternative rating is a way of expressing the worth or utility toward the goal (the decision) of a given factor. The value it is assigned for its utility is called a Rate.

Note: In the example show in Figure 2-14, the range values are determined from a user defined numerical scale “Printer Maximum resolution.” If the alternative has a good worth in terms of the goal for one factor, then it rates high for the factor. Alternatively, if the Alternative is not a good performer then it rates low for that factor.

ERGO’s advanced Define Rating Methods in Figure 2-14 allows you to do just this. It means one's intuitive evaluations and direct numeric evaluations can be impressed into the decision. ERGO comes with a number of predefined sample rating methods to use, or provide examples for you in making your own. Assign Rating Methods and Define Rating Method can be reached from the right mouse click menu when focused on a factor or category in the Rate Alternatives and Build Model screens.

Figure 2-14. Define Rating Methods Dialog showing a verbal rating method..

35


Note: The Equivalence value is always a Rate, and internally to ERGO the value ranges from a lowest rate value of 0 to highest rate value of 100. Numeric scales with units such as $’s, %, or degrees Celsius, have no meaning and should not be used for Equivalence values.

ERGO has three basic types of Rating Methods: numeric, verbal, and list.

Numeric Rating Method

A linear numerical scale can be defined such as -200 to +500. The linear scale is such that the lowest value (-200) is worth the least (lowest utility), while 500 has the highest utility. A scale can be reversed: that is, the higher a number the less worth it can be to you. For example, cost—lower cost is usually regarded as better (higher worth). You can define a unit scale—such as degrees Celsius, miles per gallon, or $’s.

Verbal Rating Method

A verbal method allows you to map verbal scales or ranges of physical values to equivalent utility values e.g. "good sales volume" can be defined as between $1M and $2M, and the range equates to a worth of 75 points on a 0-100 scale. The value generally displayed as the rating is the verbal statement.

• To ease the evaluation process, it is highly recommended to assign the first verbal item in the list as “Unrated”, and assign a zero equivalence value to it. Otherwise, the top rating item is displayed in the Rate Alternatives window, and its equivalent value is assigned by default.

• For range values, you can select from any numeric scale. Range scales normally have numeric units. If you select a predefined scale, these should be regarded as point scales. You can create your own scales, such as a rate of investment return from 1% to 15%, then select this for the range. A poor return would be 1%<x<4%, with an equivalent of 0 on the utility equivalence, and a high could be defined from 12% to 15%, with an equivalence of 100.

• Verbal scales can be used to create non-linear scales: perhaps a 12% to 15% return could be considered as high risk for some investors, in which case its utility could be significantly lower and the best utulity may be at 8% to 10%.

• The exception where rate numeric scales can be used as range scales is if the verbal method is to be used for a translation from calculated rate values into a verbal statement. See Set/Reset Trim Nodes.

36


List Rating Method

The list rating method allows you to build a list of items with known values for a given factor. For example, the factor "Monitor" may be part of a computer system selection model. An unlimited list of pre-rated monitors can be defined in a List Rating. A particular monitor can then be selected, and its rate value automatically assigned. The rating here is the verbal value (the monitor name).

• To ease the evaluation process, as with Verbal ratings, we highly recommend assigning the first List item in the list as “Unrated”, and assign a zero equivalence value to it. Otherwise, the top list item is displayed in the Rate window, and its equivalent value is automatically assigned by default.

Rating Method scales give rise to the following functions when rating Alternatives:

• Drop down menus of verbal ratings in the Rate alternatives value column for verbal and list rating methods.

• Numerical units for numerical methods defined for each scale such as miles per hour, minutes, dollars, etc. can be entered in the Define Rating Methods/Numeric method dialog.

• Rapid data entry by using up and down arrow keys to enter values in the Rate Alternatives value column with Auto-calculation off.

Using Predefined Point Scales as Rating and Rate Values Point scales are scales which have no numeric units, and they are predefined in ERGO.

The behaviour of the point scales for calculation purposes ensures that changing the point scale does not change the utility value—i.e. you can switch between point scales without changing results. This is not the case for user defined numeric scales, where the min/max range is used to translate these values into equivalence utility rates.

In many evaluations, simple point scales such as 0 through 5 are used. All ERGO default scales are regarded as point scales, while user defined numeric scales are considered to have fixed rating values, with a unit.

Point scales can be translated from one to the other. If the Rating Method is changed from a point scale of 0 to 5 to 0 to 10, two points on the 0-5 scale will automatically translate into four points on the 0-10 scale.

The predefined point scales in ERGO are 0-3, 0-4, 0-5, 0-10, and 0-100. These scales can be used as rate Equivalent values. Changing from one point scale to another will not change the end result. In this case the point scale is simply a vehicle to ease assigning a relationship.

37


Level Numbering •••••

Factors are arranged in the hierarchy as if they were headings in a legal document. The numbering scheme of the factors follows this organization, with the root as 0.

Thus in Figure 2-9 factor, Print and Network Performance for Corporate Printers, is identified as factor with ID 1 in the lower right of the Build Hierarchy window. The next factor under it, WordPerfect, is 1.1, MS Word 1.2, and so forth. This schema is used in reports and the export functionality. Alternatively, the ID number designates the position of a factor in the hierarchy.

Set/Reset Trim Nodes •••••

To customize models, or create smaller summarized ones for clients or other purposes, you can roll-up the results of the underlying sub-tree into their parent factors. You do this by right mouse clicking on a parent factor in the tree, and selecting Set/Reset Trim Node.

In the Figure 2-15, you will see the roll-up symbols on the child factors and, the symbol for the roll-up next to the parent criterion in the tree.

Figure 2-15. Trim nodes shown in the hierarchy.

38


To create a model which is rolled up to the trimmed level, go to the File menu in the Build Hierarchy, and select Save Special. Select "Save Trimmed Tree As" and follow the usual Save file dialog box.

The Save As trimmed model dialog box in Figure 2-16. You can select to aggregate comments from lower levels into the text fields, and also which rating method will function. The rating method must be a verbal or numeric scale to enable translation of the value range into a verbal assignment

Figure 2-16. Save Trimmed Knowledge Base dialog box.

3 - Prioritizing Your Factors

40

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 3 -2BPrioritizing Your Factors

What are Priorities? •••••

Priorities are a way of measuring and defining your scenario. Normally a priority is the relative importance you place on a factor—some factors are obviously more important than others. In other cases, you might consider it a priority to set up a weight pattern to help differentiate among your alternatives. In either case, you are expressing how your priorities are laid out.

You set up your priorities in the Prioritize window, which has a number of ways to help you set up your priorities.

ERGO has a number of methods for assigning priorities to the factors in a model. The one you choose depends to a large extent on the complexity of your model, and what you find comfortable. In models with more than one level there are two kinds of weights:

• Local—which has three methods for you to assign priorities

− Point Scale Weighing (also called SMART) − Percentage Tradeoff − Pairwise or Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in ratio and verbal forms

• Global—which has two methods for you to assign priorities

− Assigning priorities directly to each leaf factor − Assigning Real Values which can be actual values or risk values

You can use a mixture of priority methods. ERGO can seamlessly calculate the necessary parameters as you switch methods.

41


Selecting Local and Global Prioritizing Methods •••••

In models with more than one level there are two kinds of priorities, Local and Global Figure 3-1 shows the Prioritizing window with a very simple model to illustrate these types of priorities.

To explain the difference, consider a category A with two child factors, A1 and A2. The priority of A must somehow be divided between A1 and A2. Let us assign 80% of the priority of A to A1, and 20% to A2. If A has a global priority of 60% as in the figure, A1's global priority must be 60% x 80% = 48%, and A2's is 60% x 20% = 12%. The priorities 60% and 40% are the local priorities for the children A1 and A2.

42


The fact that there are two kinds of priorities leads to two different ways of assigning priorities. You can assign priorities either as global priorities, using ERGO’s global Prioritizing methods, or you can assign local priorities using ERGO’s local Prioritizing methods.

You can select local prioritizing by pressing the toolbar button , and global prioritizing by

pressing . Here are some points to note:

• Local priorities always add to 100%. The value is given on the right-hand side of the status bar.

• Global priorities must also add to 100%. In large models this fact can sometimes be difficult to ascertain, but ERGO keeps track of the prioritizing to ensure validity.

Figure 3-1. Prioritizing window in Local Priority mode showing Local and Global Priorities respectively in the tree on the left. In the table on the right side are movable horizontal bars, a value column in which you can enter a priority value, and a Done column, indicating the priority has been set.

43


• When you add priority to one factor, you lower the priority of other factors. In local prioritizing mode, only peer factor priorities are affected. In global prioritizing mode, all factor priorities are affected when you try to change the priorities of one or more factors.

• Press the Undo tool in the toolbar to reverse changes you have made. Undo works back to the last change you made since entering the window. If you leave the window at any time, the set of actions prior to entering the new form are lost.

Two charts can be used to provide additional feedback and are shown in Figure 3-1. Unlike the Build Hierarchy window only one graph at a time can be shown. These graphs are:

• The benchmark bar graph. Select the button on the toolbar. This graph is a bar chart (see Figure 3-1) that shows the percentage priority of each factor in the tree relative to all the other factors in the tree. These weights are called global priorities. In Figure 3-1, note the focus in the tree is on the category C (parent factor) and only the global priorities of its child factors, such as the criterion Application Service Provider Services, display.

• The local priority pie graph. Select the button on the toolbar. A pie chart, see Figure 3-1, that shows the local priority of each item in the table relative to its sibling (these are items in the model that share the parent category). These weights are called local priorities and always add up to 100%.

Tip: Use each of these graphs to gain insight into the weight pattern both locally in the local cluster, and globally for a perspective of the factor weights against those of factors in other clusters. This can help in reaching a reasonable weight pattern.

Note: To rotate either graph, focus the mouse pointer in the graphic area, then simultaneously press the keyboard Control key with the left mouse button. Move the mouse pointer to rotate the graph. You can also rotate graphs in Analysis.

44


Balancing •••••

If factor B in Figure 3-1 has ten equally prioritized children, then the average priority of a child of B will be 4%. Compared to A’s two children, B’s criteria are very poor relations. This may not be entirely intentional, and often this can give rise to unintentional bias in the prioritizing, called splitting bias.

ERGO uses a special patented method called balancing, to compensate for the unequal division of child factors amongst the categories (with some other considerations that result from how the children’s priorities are distributed and also on the priority of the parent factor).

Balancing is turned on or off in the Settings dialog. When you first start a model it is recommended that balancing is turned off. Later, when you want to validate the results are not unduly affected by how the model is constructed, you can try turning balancing on to see the change in results. The priority pattern will be changed, and you may want to examine the two patterns—balancing on and balancing off—to decide which best reflects your requirements.

The simple relation between local and global priorities is lost when balancing is in effect. This is particularly true of the first level priorities which will not reflect the original distribution of priorities that were assigned to them.

Local (Top-Down) Prioritizing Methods •••••

Local priorities are assigned by moving from the top (root) factor to the next level of categories, one at a time, and so on down to the last criterion in the hierarchy.

Local prioritizing has three methods by which you can assign weights. These are point scale prioritizing (also called simple multi-attribute rating technique or SMART), percentage tradeoff, and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in ratio and verbal forms.

45


User Defined Point Prioritizing Scale In this method a point scale is set. You can choose point scales 0 to 10, 0 to 5, 0 to 4, 0 to 3, or a custom scale which ranges from 0-2 through 0 to 100. Figure 3-2 shows the local prioritizing mode. You can select the method from the drop down box shown in the toolbar.

To change the priority, you can:

• move the colored bars in the middle column of the table, or • enter a value in the Value column.

The priority will change. If you have the local priority pie chart up, or the global priority chart up, it will automatically update.

Figure 3-2. Selecting a 0-10 user defined priority point scale from the toolbar drop-down. Moving the bars or changing the value in the Value column will modify the priority distributed among the factors in the table. Note that in this mode the length of the bars remains constant as a means of comparison.

46


Percentage Trade-off In percentage tradeoff, the movement of the bars in Figure 3-3, or the entering of values in the Value column, automatically changes the length of the other bars and values for automatic representation of the tradeoff.

Automatic update can be prevented by turning off the auto-normalization, and using the Normalize Now toolbar button. These are represented respectively in the toolbar by the toolbar

buttons . You may also set the default status of auto-normalization in the Settings dialog.

Figure 3-3. In this figure, percentage trade-off prioritizing is set. Moving the bars or changing values in the table will redistribute the weight of the parent B among the child factors. Bar lengths are automatically updated as the selected bar or value is changed.

47


Pairwise Comparison: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) In the AHP process, factors are compared a pair at a time. For example, B1 would be compared (in Figure 3-3) against B2, then B3, B4 and B5. Subsequently B2 would be compared against B3, B4, and B5 in sequence. You would continue the process until all pairs are compared.

You select Pairwise comparison from the Prioritize menu, or by pressing the toolbar button

. The AHP has two modes, verbal and slide bar ratios. To select verbal or slider methods of performing pairwise, right mouse click in the table area while in one of the AHP modes and select verbal or slider. You can also set pairwise modes in the Settings/Prioritizing tab.

Verbal AHP

At each comparison, select the verbal statement that makes sense in the comparison. For example, in Figure 3-4, if B1 is Car Style and B2 is Fuel Consumption when choosing a car, you might consider fuel consumption as being much more important than the car style. Press the Extreme button on the Fuel Consumption side (the right side coded with the green box) to indicate your choice.

Figure 3-4. Analytic Hierarchy Process showing the measure of consistency in the status bar on the left.

48


Grids and Sliders

In grids and sliders mode (Figure 3-5), the user moves the intersection of the colored bars, changing the ratio of importance between the two factors.

Points to Note about AHP

• AHP does not allow for zero priorities • The ratios in AHP are fixed to integer values only. Hence you cannot have 3.5:1, for

example. Ratios vary from 7:1, 6:1, ... 1:1 ..., 1:6, 1:7 • You must complete all pairwise comparisons

Figure 3-5. Grids and sliders mode of AHP. Moving the point of intersection of the colored bars changes the ratio of importance between the two factors being compared.

49


Consistency Level

AHP has a special property. The consistency of the judgments you make can be measured. Consequently you can adjust your judgments to ensure consistency. ERGO uses a method which measures the consistency according to a particular level.

As a rule of thumb, you can consider you have a good level of consistency if:

• For three factors—consistency level is 90% or more. • For four factors—consistency level is greater than or equal to 75%. • For more than four factors—consistency level is greater than or equal to 65%.

If your consistency levels are lower, you should consider reviewing some of your judgments. However, you should not be too occupied with achieving exact consistency: it is likely to be impossible as some inconsistency is actually inherent in the AHP mathematical method, independent of your judgments. There are several other reasons inconsistency can arise, a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this manual.

Global (Bottom-Up) Prioritizing Methods •••••

The second method of weighing factors is global prioritizing shown in Figure 3-5. It entails assigning priorities directly to each criterion, and priorities are automatically summed up the tree from the bottom. You can begin global prioritizing by pressing the globe icon in the toolbar, or selecting it from the Prioritize menu.

There are two methods of assigning global Priorities. These are:

• Assigning percentage weights to the leaf factors. • Assigning Real Values — these are values that may be actual real world values such as

monetary amounts or risk values which are directly used to determine priorities, or open ended point scales (see section on Real Values below).

50


Global Prioritizing by Percentage

To assign global priorities to items in a model: 1. If you are not already in the global prioritizing mode, choose Global from the Prioritize

menu. You will see the priority table on the right of the window with rows for the factors in your model. The sample model is small enough for all of its factors to appear at once in the table. With larger models, you can choose which factors appear in the table by clicking on the parent category in the model tree.

2. Double-click the Global Priorities cell value for the factor you want to prioritize. In the example model, you can double-click the value cell in the far right column of the table.

3. Enter a new priority value in the Global Priority cell. To add a weight, enter a value in the column, or alternatively drag the slider in the factor row. The slider provides visual feedback of how important one factor is with respect to the other factors in table. Since the slider is quite sensitive, you may not want to use it for very small changes. Also, if there are many factors in the table, the slider length is very small. It is generally more practical and faster to enter values in the value column.

Figure 3-6. Global prioritizing showing the fix priority column.

51


If you want the new priority value to remain constant as you change other priorities, click the Fix field, which will display the image of a lock.

Tip: for fast and accurate data entry when entering values in the Global Priorities column, use the down arrow key to move to the next field. Values can be entered in rapid succession in this way. When using the slider, focus the mouse on the slider and use CTRL-left and CTRL-right arrow keys to decrement or increment the slider by one unit at a time. Most sliders in ERGO work this way with the control key and arrow keys. This makes data entry accurate and fast.

4. Fixing Priorities. As you enter priorities, ERGO monitors the total and, if necessary, makes changes to avoid going over 100%. Although it may adjust the actual number, ERGO maintains the relative distribution of weights. In some cases, you may not want ERGO to adjust the priority of a particular factor. Click in the fix field and a padlock icon will appear to show the priority is a fixed priority. Categories of factors can be fixed in this way when the model has more than one level.

5. If necessary, repeat steps 2 through 4 to weigh other factors in the table.

Tip: Set auto-normalize off if the weights change on each value entry. The button is located in the toolbar.

Warning: If you adjust values and they exceed 100%, fixed weight item weights will change.

Global Priority Precision

The precision of your priorities may be adjusted from the Prioritizing tab in the Settings. By clicking the Precision button underneath the Global Prioritizing option (within the Settings dialog) will display a form that allows you set the number of decimal places to which factor results are calculated.

To enable a custom precision, click the check-box and enter the number of decimal places that you would like for the priorities. You can also use the up and down arrows for easy adjustment. The first check-box will set the precision for every level of your model hierarchy; you may set a different precision for your criteria by checking the Precision for Leaf Nodes box. You can also set each individual level of your hierarchy if you would like further specify the precision.

Note: the levels appear automatically, based on how you structure your model. If, for example, you create ten levels of sub-categories within a parent category, you will see the option for ten different levels of precision. These precision settings will also affect the precision of the reports your generate.

52


Global Prioritizing by Real Values In real values mode, a value column appears in which the user enters the scale values. The calculated global priority appears in the far right column of the table. Note that you must have auto-normalize on in order to have the values calculated. Turn off the auto-normalize function using the toolbar button if you do not want to continually update on a change. To update manually, press the Normalize Now toolbar button.

The sum of the point values under a particular parent factor can be found by focusing on the parent in the tree. The sum is shown in the lower right in the status bar of the window.

Figure 3-7. Global Prioritizing using real values.

53


Using Open Ended Point Scales in Assigning Real Value Priorities

One use for real values is in the assignment of open-ended point scales where points are given as a means of expressing perceived priority/importance. There is no upper limit as to the number of points an individual factor can be given.

The relative priority is calculated and still expressed as a percentage. If you wish to calculate the exact number of points an alternative has in terms of points allocated, create a numeric rating method with the upper limit as the total number of points, and assign this as the results method in the Settings/Decision, and selecting from the Results Based On drop-down in the form.

54


Priority Documentation •••••

A number of text fields are available from the text menu shown in the pull-down of Figure 3-8 under the table section of the Prioritize window. You can use the pull-down menu to access these text fields Figure 3-8 shows the text fields available from the Prioritize window.

Figure 3-8. Documenting in the Prioritize window.

55


These fields are:

• Criterion Description: The factor description which generally defines the factor and its purpose toward the decision.

• Criterion Comment: This is a comment in relation to the factor, with additional notes as to its purpose or other related material

• Criterion Priority Comment: The field is used to describe reasons for the weight assignment, or when to apply a particular priority to the factor, for example, in a particular business scenario it may be important, while in another it may not be required.

• Aggregated Priority Comment: This is an automatically generated field in which the current node priority data and the priority of next level (child factors) are shown in descending order of priority.

• Attachments: The attachments field allows you to associate file, such as Word documents with the criterion.

4 - Entering and Evaluating Alternatives

When you define the factors and their relationships, creating the decision hierarchy, and then prioritize the factors, you are describing an ideal (or benchmark) that represents the tradeoff picture for your scenario in the absence of your alternatives. When you start working with real world Alternatives, however, you face the task of matching the real world with the ideal. The construction of the benchmark, and the processes to match the ideal and real world Alternatives compose TEC’s ADEPT™ process.

57

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 4 -3BEntering and Evaluating Alternatives

About Alternatives •••••

Alternatives are the choices you face when you make a decision. In a car-buying model, the Alternatives would be cars of different manufacturers. In the example printer model, the Alternatives are printers. Alternatives can equally be choices of action, projects to prioritize, service calls, or prospective jobs and projects.

The two tasks in ERGO’s ADEPT™ process related to alternatives are as follows:

• Define the alternatives. You describe each alternative under consideration. You give it a name, a short name for use in graphics and reporting, a description, cost or benefit (a benefit is, for example, a salary or return on investment) and other relevant information. You can add additional notes and enter hyperlinks.

• Rate the alternatives. In this step you evaluate alternatives against the factors. You can regard the given value as a way of measuring how well each Alternative performs for each factor, or how the alternative impacts the factor. Factors are measurable items. A printer selection model might contain, for example, a factor named average turnaround on repairs, which could be measured in days. How much the number of days means is determined using is rating method. See Defining Rating Methods on page 34.

58


Defining Alternatives •••••

The process of defining alternatives is simple. Basically, you fill in data fields that describe the characteristics of each alternative in text fields and fields related to costs or benefits. Costs or benefits could also be considered as risk values or percentage returns on investments.

The Add/Edit window in Figure 4-1 has two main sections: a list of all the alternatives, anda group of data fields that describe one alternative on the right, including cost and benefit data

To work with one of the alternatives click its name in the list. Information about the alternative appears in the data fields. A mouse click produces a pop-up menu with alternative editing choice.

Figure 4-1. Add/Edit window showing the list of alternatives on the left, descriptive information on the right, and cost information in the lower right. In Benefits mode, the term Benefit appears instead of Cost.

59


Adding Alternatives When you begin a new model, the alternatives window will contain a single default alternative. You can edit the default alternative name to your first alternative.

Your next task is to add the other alternatives you’re considering and to describe them. Toolbar tools related to alternatives are indicated by the presence of a human figure.

To add a new Alternative: 1. Select one of these methods for creating a new Alternative

− Choose Add New Alternative from the Edit menu.

or

− Click the Add New Alternative button in the toolbar. This action adds the new alternative to the bottom of the alternative list.

or

− Choose Insert Alternative from the Edit menu. You can also click the Insert Alternative button. This action adds a new item to the list. The new alternative appears immediately above the currently highlighted alternative in the list.

2. In the Name field, enter the name of the new alternative. You can optionally add a short name in the field to the right of the main name field.

Tip: The Short Name can be used in the Analyses and Reports. To enable this feature, go to the Settings/General tab and check Short Name under Display Alternative Name As.

3. You can change the alternative color by clicking on the color button next to the short name field and follow the color wizard instructions. This color identifies the alternative and is consistently used throughout the program.

4. You can enter descriptive information about the new Alternative in the Description 5. Enter any additional information you want to add in the Comment or Note fields.

Tip: Use the Note and Comment fields consistently for all alternatives. For example, notes on particular vendors from past experience can be placed in the Note field. The Note and Comment fields can be selected for output in reports.

6. Add hyperlink. Hyperlinks can connect the user to additional information on the alternative, or direct a user to a vendor site.

7. Attach a graphic image. A graphic image such as a corporate logo or image can be inserted in the window.

60


You can also enter cost or benefit information for the new alternative and attach a graphic image if you have one. The next two sections give the details.

Deleting an Alternative

To delete an alternative: 1. In the Alternatives window, select the alternative in the list on the left. 2. From the toolbar, you can select the Delete Alternative button, select Delete from the

Edit menu, or use the shortcut CTRL-D keys on the keyboard.

Attaching an Image ERGO lets you attach an image such as a corporate logo or descriptive image to each alternative under consideration. These images must be in the Windows bitmap (.bmp) graphic format.

To attach an image to one of the alternatives in your model: 1. Make sure that the disk file that contains the image is available on your hard drive, a

floppy disk, or a network server. 2. In the alternatives window, select the alternative in the list on the left, and double click

in the box with the words Double Click Here to Assign a Picture. You see the Assign Alternative Picture dialog box.

3. Use the controls on the dialog box to locate the graphic file you want to use. You can specify the kind of file you’re looking for by choosing an item from the list of file types. Click the arrow button next to the List files of type field and choose one of the file extensions. Use the folders display to navigate your disk directories until you find the file you want.

4. Double-click the file you want to attach to the alternative. It appears in the graphic box on the alternatives window. A garbage bin also appears in the area. Left mouse click on the bin to delete the image.

Specifying Costs or Benefits Real-world alternatives usually have associated costs or benefits. Costs can be related to potential monetary outlay in purchasing, or potential losses. You can include costs as a value proposition in the decision hierarchy, where you essentially trade off costs against return benefits. Alternatively, you can consider costs as a separate entity by entering them in the Enter alternatives window. In some cases, an item may be an asset instead of a cost. For instance, if you’re creating a model for choosing a new job the base benefit would be in the form of potential earnings. Benefits are values that enhance alternative attractiveness or net utility.

Negative values can be entered into the Other Costs fields. In the case of a Cost based evaluation, a negative value reflects a benefit: in benefit mode, it will represent a cost.

61


Tip: The use of costs in the decision hierarchy enables you to balance cost and value return—a trade-off perspective, and where cost is regarded as a differentiating feature among your alternatives—the lower the cost the better for you, and the more value the alternative has relative to the other alternatives of higher cost.

Tip: Costs entered into the Enter Alternative window enable you to have a direct cost/benefit—a cost per point perspective. The decision methods (see Results, Part VI of this manual) related to cost are enabled when costs are entered into the Cost fields of this window.

Tip: You should decide how costs are to be handled. You can use both methods by arranging your decision hierarchy so costs are separated from the other value perspectives of the hierarchy, or can easily be assigned a zero weight.

To switch to cases where the alternative delivers a benefit rather than incurs a cost use the right mouse click and select the Setting / Decision tab. Select benefits from the Decision based on section. You must be in at least the Standard user level.

Note: If you select benefits on the Decision tab, ERGO changes any costs you’ve entered to benefits. Since ERGO treats benefits and costs differently in the decision formulae, it’s important to make the correct choice.

Though costs are discussed below, in principle the fields equally apply to benefits. ERGO divides costs or benefits into three categories:

• Base amount. This is, for example, what the seller charges regardless of any associated costs.

• Other costs. This category includes any costs beyond the basic price. You might include repair costs, finder's fees, taxes, life cycle costs, and any number of other items in this category. Values can be negative.

• Total cost. This is the sum of the previous two items and must always be positive.

62


To specify cost information for an Alternative: 1. On the Alternatives window, click one of the items in the alternatives list. 2. Enter the base cost of the alternative in the Base amount field. For the sample model, this

would be the purchase price of a particular color printer. 3. If there are any additional costs, enter them in the Other Cost table at the bottom of the

window.

For example, in the case of the printer, life cycle, and maintenance costs have been included.

Using Formulas to Calculate Costs

In cases where the costs for one or more alternatives depend on several different factors, you can use mathematical formulas to calculate those costs.

To calculate costs for an alternative using a formula: 1. Open the Alternatives window by choosing Add/Edit from the Tasks menu. 2. From the alternatives list in the left-hand pane, choose the alternative whose costs you

want to calculate using a formula. 3. Click the Add Other Cost button at the bottom of the Other Costs table to add a new

cost for the selected alternative. 4. In the Type column, choose Calculated from the drop-down list. The Formula Builder

opens. 5. Build your formula as described on page 74.

To edit an existing calculated cost formula: 1. Open the Alternatives window by choosing Add/Edit from the Tasks menu. 2. From the alternatives list in the left-hand pane, choose the alternative whose cost

formulas you want to edit. 3. In the Other Costs table, select any cost whose Type is set to Calculated. 4. In the Type field, click the ellipses (…) button next to the drop-down list. The Formula

Builder opens. 5. Edit your formula as described on page 74.

63


Using Costs/Benefits in Decision Making •••••

Costs or benefits are used in a number of ways in ERGO’s decision making processes.

Using Costs/Benefits in the Results Window In the Results window you can select a decision method that involves costs or benefits in order to select the most cost-effective solution, or to determine the value equivalency for a particular selected alternative.

Using Costs/Benefits in the Analysis Window Two graphics in the Analysis window utilize cost/benefit information. These are:

• Value Equivalency graph. This compares the cost-effectiveness of a solution to the most cost-effective solution (or for benefits—the most beneficial solution to the selected benefit solution)

• Price Performance graph. This uses the cost/benefit to position solutions in the cost (or benefit) performance space. The best solutions are of course low cost and high

64


Editing Alternatives •••••

You can edit and copy different parameters from one alternative to another for rapid alternative creation. In Figure 4-2 are the menu alternatives for cutting, copying and pasting alternatives attributes. Right mouse click in an alternative in the list to copy the alternative name only, Ratings, Ratings and Rating comments, Other Cost information, or All. You can then paste the data to another alternative.

The different actions are:

• Cut/Paste: This is a way of rearranging the alternatives. Cut and paste to a new location in the list moves the alternative to a new position in the list.

• Copy/Paste: You can copy the specific attributes shown in Figure 4-2. Note that you can copy the defined Other Costs labels in the Add/Edit windows to any other alternative.

Tip: To create new alternatives that are similar, copy all and paste. You can the change the ratings and comments where they differ.

Figure 4-2. Copy and paste of alternative attributes.

65


User Defined Alternative Fields •••••

User defined fields enable the user to add additional data to define alternatives.

To create a user defined field: 1. Select User Defined Fields from the View Menu 2. Complete the dialog box instructions:

a. Select whether the input is numeric data only. In the example in Figure 4-3 availability is measured in months, while language support is a list of verbal statements.

b. Click in the default column to mark the item that is the default value. You can also sort the table entries alphabetically using the Sort button in the form.

3. Click OK. Your user defined fields will appear in the Add/Edit window above the cost information fields.

4. The user defined fields are available for sorting and filtering alternatives in the alternative Filter.

Figure 4-3. User defined alternative fields dialog.

66


Parameters •••••

Parameters are values that are stored outside your ERGO Database in an XML file, and loaded each time you open a model. Normally, parameters are used for values that have several of the following characteristics:

• They’re determined by factors outside the scope of your model. • They’re supplied or calculated by another application (an ERP system, for example). • They change over time. • They are not intended to affect your decision directly. • You want to use them in multiple decision models.

For example, if you’ve built a model to help you select a fleet of cars, you could store the price of gasoline as a parameter. That way, it has no direct effect on your model—it’s not a criterion that you assign a weight or rating to, but you can use it to calculate other ratings and costs.

Creating a Parameters File A Parameters file is a simple XML file that defines which parameters are available in your ERGO models. You can author your parameters file using any XML authoring tool, or have another program—your ERP system, for instance—create the file automatically.

In either case, your Parameters file must contain the following tags and elements:

• <root> is the file’s root tag • <parameters> is a container element for all of the parameters in the file • <parameter> is a container element that defines individual parameters. You can create

named branches of the parameter hierarchy by nesting child parameter elements inside a single parent parameter element (see the following section, Grouping Parameters Hierarchically)

• <id> is ERGO’s unique identifier for each parameter. For your Parameters file to work correctly, no two parameters can have the same identifier.

• <name> is the name that will appear wherever your parameters are listed in the ERGO interface.

• <value> is the numeric value for the parameter.

67


A typical Parameters file looks something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<root>

<parameters>

<parameter>

<id>1</id>

<name>Price of Apples/Lb.USD - Retail</name>

<value>0.99</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>2</id>

<name>Price of Oranges/Doz.USD - Retail</name>

<value>3.99</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>3</id>

<name>Price of Cucumbers/3 Count USD - Retail</name>

<value>1.29</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>4</id>

<name>Price of Celery/Bunch. USD - Retail</name>

<value>1.29</value>

</parameter>

</parameters>

</root>

Importing the XML above into ERGO will give you access to a list of parameters that looks like this:

Figure 4-4. An imported one-level list of parameters, as displayed in the Formula Builder (see page 73)

68


Grouping Parameters Hierarchically

You can author your parameters file to produce a hierarchical list of parameters in ERGO. A hierarchical list is easier to navigate and can help you locate parameters that you use for specific calculations of models. For example, you might put parameters that help you calculate costs in one group and parameters that help you calculate ratings in another. Or you might create a group of parameters for each of your decision models.

To group parameters hierarchically, simply nest the parameters you want to group together under a parent parameter tag. The parent tag must have <id> and <name> elements, but does not need a <value> element.

For example, the following XML code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<root>

<parameters>

<parameter>

<id>1</id>

<name>Fruit Prices - Retail</name>

<parameter>

<id>2</id>

<name>Price of Apples/Lb.USD</name>

<value>0.99</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>3</id>

<name>Price of Oranges/Doz.USD</name>

<value>3.99</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>4</id>

<name>Price of Pears/Lb.USD</name>

<value>1.29</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>5</id>

<name>Price of Plums/Lb.USD</name>

<value>1.59</value>

</parameter>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>6</id>

<name>Vegetable Prices - Retail</name>

<parameter>

<id>7</id>

69


<name>Price of Green Peppers/Lb. USD</name>

<value>0.99</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>8</id>

<name>Price of Cucumbers/3 Count USD</name>

<value>1.29</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>9</id>

<name>Price of Broccoli/Head USD</name>

<value>2.00</value>

</parameter>

<parameter>

<id>10</id>

<name>Price of Celery/Bunch. USD</name>

<value>1.29</value>

</parameter>

</parameter>

</parameters>

</root>

Produces a two-level hierarchy of parameters like this:

Figure 4-5. An imported parameter hierarchy, as displayed in the Formula Builder (see XREF)

70


Importing a Parameters File

To import a Parameters file: 1. Open the Build Hierarchy window by choosing Build Hierarchy from the Tasks menu. 2. From the main menu, choose File > Settings to open the Settings dialog. 3. On the General tab of the Settings dialog, click the Parameters File > Browse button.

4. In the Open Parameter XML File dialog box, select the XML file you want to use and click OK.

Figure 4-6. Choosing a parameters file from the Settings dialog.

Click here to choose a Parameters file.

71


Formulas •••••

In ERGO, you can use mathematical formulas to calculate ratings and costs in cases where those ratings or costs depend on several different factors.

Let’s say you’re deciding which model of car to choose to replace an aging fleet. You might want to rate overall fuel efficiency based on some combination of highway mileage and city mileage. Later, when you’re calculating the cost of each model of car, you might calculate the cost of fuel based on some combination of average gas prices, each model’s fuel efficiency, and the ratio of city to highway driving that you expect your drivers to do.

You build formulas using the Formula Builder (see Building and Editing Formulas with the Formula Builder on page 73)—a dedicated interface for creating and editing formulas that’s accessible from both the Ratings window and the Add Alternatives window. The values you use can come from several different sources, and the formulas themselves use standard Microsoft Excel formula syntax.

Formula Values Your formulas can use a variety of different values from inside and outside your models. These include criteria ratings, user defined alternative fields, and parameters.

Criteria

You can use the rating or weight of any criteria in your model in your formula calculations. This is useful in cases where one criterion’s rating or cost is affected by the rating or weight of other criteria in the model.

It’s important to understand that when you use one rating to calculate another rating, the first rating will affect the decision twice.

For example, if you rate a car for fuel efficiency in city driving, and then use that rating to calculate an overall measure of fuel efficiency that includes other values, the city fuel efficiency rating affects the decision once on its own and once as part of the calculated rating for overall fuel efficiency.

72


User-defined Alternative Fields

User-defined alternative fields store values that you can use to define alternatives in your ERGO models. You can also use them in your formulas to calculate costs and ratings. Normally, user-defined alternative fields are used for values that are a) different for each alternative, b) not intended to affect your decision directly, and c) unlikely to change.

For example, if you’ve built a model to help you select a fleet of cars, you could store each model’s weight in a user-defined field. That way, it has no direct effect on your model—it’s not a criterion that you assign a weight or rating to—but you can use it to calculate other ratings and costs.

For more information about using user-defined alternative fields in your ERGO models, see User Defined Alternative Fields on page 65.

Parameters

Parameters are values that are stored outside your ERGO database in an XML file, and loaded each time you open a model. Normally, parameters are used for values that have several of the following characteristics:

• They’re determined by factors outside the scope of your model. • They’re supplied or calculated by another application (an ERP system, for example). • They change over time. • They are not intended to affect your decision directly. • You want to use them in multiple decision models.

For example, if you’ve built a model to help you select a fleet of cars, you could store the price of gasoline as a parameter. That way, it has no direct effect on your model—it’s not a criterion that you assign a weight or rating to, but you can use it to calculate other ratings and costs.

For more information about using parameters in your ERGO models, see Parameters on page 66.

73


Building and Editing Formulas with the Formula Builder The Formula Builder is a dedicated interface for creating the formulas you use to calculate ratings and costs. It gives you access to all the criteria, user-defined fields, and parameters in your model. You can add any of those items to the Formula Builder spreadsheet and perform calculations using any valid Microsoft Excel syntax.

Note: The display area at the bottom of the Formula Builder only shows options for changing the display method and viewing a normalized score separately from the calculated score when you’re calculating ratings. These options are not useful when calculating costs, so for cost calculations, the display area shows only the formula.

Values for your calculation appear in column E.

Selection pane

Use these tabs to switch between criteria, user-defined fields, and parameters.

Alternatives drop-down: Switching between alternatives shows the results of the formula calculation on each one.

Adds the selected item to the calculation. Spreadsheet

Removes the selected item from the calculation.

Formula field: Double-click to enter or edit a formula.

Display method drop-down: The results of the calculation are expressed according to the selected rating method.

Choose whether or not to normalize the results of the calculation.

Display area: All formula calculation results are displayed here.

Field column: Choose how you want to express criteria ratings.

Figure 4-7. The ERGO Formula Builder.

74


To build or edit a formula: 1. Do one of the following:

− If you’re adding or editing a formula to calculate ratings, open the Formula Builder as described on page 78.

Or

− If you’re adding or editing a formula to calculate costs, open the Formula Builder as described on page 62.

2. Add criteria to the calculation by doing the following:

a. From the Criteria tab in the selection pane, select each criterion that you want to include in the calculation and click the >> button to add it to the spreadsheet on the right.

b. In the Field column, use the drop-down list to choose how you want to express each criterion’s rating in the formula calculation. Choose one of the following methods:

Normalized Score: Converts the criterion’s actual rating into its equivalent on a scale of 0–100 and uses that value for the formula calculation.

Choose this method when your calculation includes criteria that are rated using different scales (a mix of verbal and numeric scales, for example).

Display Score: Uses the criterion’s actual rating based on its assigned rating method.

Choose this method when your ratings represent real-world values.

Local Priority: Uses the criterion’s local priority value in the calculation.

Use this method when you want to adjust a rating or cost value based on the criterion’s importance.

User Defined Fields (UDF) 1-10: uses the value of one of ERGO’s ten user-defined fields for criteria.

3. If your model has user-defined fields (see page 65) that you wish to include in the calculation, click the Userdefined tab in the selection pane. Then select each user-defined field that you want to include and click the >> button to add it to the spreadsheet.

4. If your database includes parameters (see page 66) that you wish to include in the calculation, click the Parameters tab in the selection pane. Then select each parameter that you want to include and click the >> button to add it to the spreadsheet.

75


5. If necessary, you can remove any item from the calculation by selecting it in the spreadsheet and clicking the << button.

6. Double-click the bottom-left cell of the spreadsheet on the right and type the formula that you want to use to calculate the rating or cost.

Your formula can use any standard Microsoft Excel syntax. The values that you’ll be working with are all in column E.

7. Press Enter to activate the formula. Once you activate the formula, the formula field will display the result of the calculation until you edit the formula again.

8. If you’re calculating a rating, you may want to set rating-specific options, as described in the following section (Rating-Specific Formula Options).

9. When you’re finished creating or editing the formula, click OK to save your changes and return to the Rating, or Alternatives window.

Rating-Specific Formula Options

When you’re using a formula to calculate a rating, the display area of the Formula Builder will show you both the calculated score and the normalized (0–100) value of that score.

You can also set several rating-specific options that are not available when you calculate costs. These include:

• Normalized Score vs. Display score: Choose one or the other using the radio buttons in the same row as the formula field.

• Display Method: You can display the result of the formula calculation according to any of the rating methods in your model.

− Choose the desired rating method from the Display Method drop-down in the display area.

− Click the Define button to open the Define Rating Methods dialog where you can edit any rating method or create a new rating method, as described in Rating Alternatives on page 76.

Figure 4-8. Rating-specific Formula Options

76


Rating Alternatives •••••

For each alternative you must provide ratings for every factor. While building the model you specified how the alternatives will be evaluated by defining and assigning rating methods. In this window you have the same capability to assign and define rating methods.

Tip: It is strongly recommended that you have completed the evaluation method definitions and assignments prior to entering the Rate alternatives window. Making changes to the rating methods while rating can lead to ambiguous results.

ERGO combines the ratings with the factor weights to calculate the decision values such as the weighted average and percent match to rank the alternatives.

Figure 4-9. Rate alternatives window in the rate-by-factor mode.

77


Using the Rate Alternatives Hierarchy Display The tree display of the decision hierarchy on the left of the Rate Alternatives window (shown in Figure 4-9) is the same as the corresponding displays on other data entry windows except that in addition to the regular features, each item in the tree has a small box next to it. If the item is a category, the new box is to the right of the category expand/collapse box. This box shows whether or not you've touched and rated (visited) the factor. Items that have not been visited have a red dot in the box; items where a rating has been assigned—even if it is zero—do not have a dot. The behaviour of the box depends on whether it belongs to an individual criterion or a category.

• When you assign a rating value to an individual criterion, the red dot in the item’s rating box disappears.

• When you assign rating values to all the items in a category, the red dot in the category’s rating box disappears.

The purpose of this system is more important in large models. It can quickly guide the user to any factors that were missed in the rating process, or that need to be completed. When all ratings have been completed, the light in the Tasks menu turns green. Otherwise, it may appear red or yellow, depending on the degree of completion of the ratings.

Rating by Factors or by Alternatives To the right of the model tree in the Rate Alternatives window there is a table where you can assign rating values.

• When the table rows contain factors, one alternative at a time is rated against the set of criteria: this is called Rating by Criteria mode. You select one alternative at a time from the drop-down box on the top right of the Rate Alternatives window toolbar.

• You can also rate all alternatives against each factor in the Rate by Alternative mode. In this case the alternatives appear in the table rows.

You can switch between the two rating modes using the switch tool in the toolbar.

To rate the factors for an alternative: 1. Choose Rate By Criteria from the Rate menu 2. In the toolbar, select an alternative from the drop-down alternatives list. In the sample

model, you might select iPaq H3656. 3. In the decision hierarchy, navigate to and click the category of items you want to rate. In

the case of the sample model, left mouse click the model name (the root), which is the item at the top of the tree. In a more complex model, you might click on a category. Note that selecting the root of the hierarchy will display every criterion in the grid or the

78


right with parent category names appearing in grey (categories themselves cannot be rated).

4. Select a factor in the table to rate it. Click one of the fields in the row for the factor. 5. Use one of the following methods to rate a factor in the table:

− Enter a new rating value in the Rating field. Double-click the field, erase the previous value if there is one, type the new value, and press Enter.

− In the column to the right of the factor name is a horizontal rating bar in the color assigned to the alternative. Click on and drag the right end of the rating bar. Drag right to increase the factor’s rating; drag left to decrease.

Note: Upon entering the Rate window, the root of your model's hierarchy is automatically selected. This means that the right side of the screen, displaying criteria, is actually displaying a list of every factor in your model. The category and sub-category names are displayed in grey and may not be rated, however the individual criteria are enabled for rating. To display only the criteria in a particular category, change the focus to that category by clicking it in the Decision Hierarchy on the left of the screen.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to rate the rest of the factors for a particular alternative.

ERGO also shows the cumulative score of each alternative as it is built up by displaying the number in the lower right of the window in the status bar.

Using Formulas to Calculate Ratings In cases where an alternative’s ratings for one or more criteria depend on several different factors, you can use mathematical formulas to calculate those ratings.

To calculate a criterion’s rating using a formula: 1. Open the Ratings window by choosing Rate from the Tasks menu. 2. Use the decision tree to locate the branch containing the criterion that you want to rate

using a formula. 3. Do one of the following:

− If you’re rating by criteria (see page 77), click the criterion in the grid to select it.

Or

− If you’re rating by alternative (see page 77), click the criterion in the decision tree to select it.

4. From the rating method drop-down in the toolbar, choose <Calculated Rating>. The Edit Formula button appears in the Scale column of the grid.

5. Click the Edit Formula button to open the Formula Builder. 6. Edit your formula as described on page 74.

79


To edit a criterion’s rating formula: 1. Open the Ratings window by choosing Rate from the Tasks menu. 2. Use the decision tree to locate the branch containing the criterion whose rating formula

you want to change. 3. Do one of the following:

− If you’re rating by criteria (see page 77), click the criterion in the grid to select it. The Calculated Rating button in the Scale column of the grid changes to an Edit Formula button.

Or

− If you’re rating by alternative (see page 77), click the criterion in the decision tree to select it. By default, the first alternative is selected in the grid, and an Edit Formula button appears in the Scale column.

4. Click the Edit Formula button to open the Formula Builder. 5. Edit your formula as described on page 74.

Graphic Feedback in the Rate Window •••••

One can view the accumulation of rate value in the Cumulative Weighted Average graph in the

Rate Alternatives window. To select this alternative, choose the graph display tool in the toolbar. The Cumulative Weighted Average graph appears in the lower right of the window.

Tip: The graph shows the aggregate of the weighted average for all the factors under a currently highlighted category. One can use the graph to see how well an alternative is doing as it is rated and quickly eliminate weak alternatives during the rating process.

You can display the benchmark (ideal) score in the graph by clicking on the Benchmark pattern item in the View menu, or in the Settings/Rating dialog. When the benchmark is visible, only the current alternative curve is shown.

The net weighted average value is shown in the status bar in the lower right of the window. When it is red the value is updated by a double left mouse click. This is a useful when auto-calculation is off.

80


Other things you can do:

• Real time graphics let you visualize how well an alternative is doing—you can eliminate weak alternatives rapidly by watching the decision build in the cumulative graph. The graph is obtained through the Settings window or the graph button on the Rate Windows toolbar.

• Highlight an alternative in the graph by selecting the alternative in the table or drop down box.

• Selection of two graphic representations—with or without benchmark

Tip: For real-time viewing, click on the Auto-calculation button in the toolbar. This reduces the performance of the window, and you may prefer to switch the Auto-calculation off until you have finished entering all or a number of the ratings. You can view the current weighted average of the alternative by clicking on the value in the status bar on the far right. Use the undo button in the toolbar to correct entry errors or accidental changes.

81


Special Features •••••

Undo Feature

Click the Undo tool in the toolbar to reverse changes you have made. Undo works back to the last change you made since entering the window. If you leave the window at any time for another form, the set of actions prior to entering the new form are lost.

Note: You cannot undo the Set Modify function changes.

Not Applicables

The Not Applicables function is one of the special features of ERGO. You set it by clicking in the Not Applicables (N/A) column next to the appropriate factor or alternative name in the Rate table. Not Applicables are only assigned for one alternative and one factor at a time. You can however set and reset (clear) the Not Applicables for a sub-category of factors by left-mouse click on the sub-category’s parent in the hierarchy, and selecting Not Applicables in the menu (see Figure 4-10).

If the Not Applicables column is not seen in the table, go to the Settings form and check the Not Applicable column.

Figure 4-10. The Not Applicables function.

82


When you assign a Not Applicable, the priority of the factor is proportionately distributed among its siblings. In effect, the ratings applied to the other factors give a weighted average rate to the factor marked Not Applicable—a kind of best guess.

Not Applicables are used in special cases when:

• The factor is not relevant, but is accommodated by other sibling factors, for example in evaluating a house, a third bedroom in the house does not exist, but one of the two bedrooms is a large room which can be split in two.

• The parent factor priority must not be affected by the absence of the child-factor. • There is missing data, and a best statistical guess is required from the set of known child

factors under the parent.

Visited Flag

The visited flag is a red dot that appears next to factor name in the tree. The red dot indicates the factor has not yet had an entry (i.e., no value has been entered nor a slider moved). The red dot rolls-up the tree to parent factors to indicate an incomplete data entry item exists.

You can clear, set, and toggle the visited flag for a sub-tree or individual factor by focusing on a factor in the tree, right mouse click and select Visited Flag from the menu.

83


Other Features and Tips •••••

• Auto-calculation On/Off button in the toolbar should be set off to speed data entry, then set on to view the results. One can also double click on the weighted average value in the status bar to update it at any time.

• Be careful not to move the Rating slider accidentally • Rating values can be copied from one alternative to another in the Add/Edit window,

and during making a copy of an alternative. • Modify/Set ratings to a particular value in the Rate Alternatives window. This is a

function for experts who wish to change the ratings in a category or a whole model for one alternative or all alternatives. The Undo function does not work with this feature.

Do not use if verbal rating methods are in the sub-tree unless you are certain the equivalent value on a 0-100 scale exists for the method—for example, “Supported by third party” has an equivalence value of 30, and assigning this enables the system to select the verbal rating. However, ambiguity will arise if another verbal rating such as “Poorly Supported” has been given the same equivalent value.

5 - Viewing and Analyzing Results

At this stage, you have entered all the required data to begin the process of examining the results. ERGO presents its findings in the Results window. However, simply viewing the numbers may not be sufficient, particularly if two or more alternatives have similar final values. In this case further analysis may be required. The ERGO analysis window is designed to provide multiple ways of looking at the data in order to reach a decision—or qualify a decision—with confidence. It also enables, for example, decision strategies to be developed to formalize the process and reduce the decision risk.

85

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 5 -4BViewing and Analyzing Results

Using the Results Window •••••

This screen summarizes the ERGO decision-making process. After you have built and populated your hierarchy and defined the real-world choices, ERGO can suggest which alternative best matches your requirements and ranks the alternatives according to the decision formula you select. There are six ways to make the selection, each of which enables you to view the decision from a different risk perspective.

Interpreting Results •••••

The main part of the Results window shown in Figure 5-1 is a table. The columns on the right represent alternatives under consideration and the rows are data items that ERGO uses to rank alternatives. If ERGO can recommend an alternative, the alternative appears in the slightly separated leftmost column with the heading 'BEST.'

In the example shown in Figure 5-1 the Percent Match has been chosen as the method because an overall best fit is sought. The weighted average, the more traditional measure, measures performance, but does not account for the variability of quality of the solution, particularly in regard to the priorities you established when you weighted the model. This is important, as the more variance, the more potential issues are likely to arise in making the selection. Selecting on weighted average alone may not always provide the optimal solution.

86


Though we shall leave the discussion here, you may further analyze the decision behind this result by bringing up the other graphics associated with the graph icons to the left of the row titles in the Results window.

Figure 5-1. The Results window. Drop-downs for drilling down in the hierarchy and selection of the decision method are shown in the top toolbar.

87


Results Window Tools •••••

The Results window (Figure 5-1) provides a multidimensional instrument to view results and reduce the number of alternatives to a shortlist using features accessible from the window.

The toolbar consists of filtering and alternative sort functions. Additional functions are found under the View menu.

Reports preview button in the toolbar lets you preview and customize the Results

Summary report. The Print tool will automatically print the Results Summary report (see section VII of this manual on reports).

Alternative Filter tool enables the selection of a subset of alternatives, and eliminates alternatives that have failed critical criteria (see Advanced Features). Filtering is done through the alternative filter tool.

Alternative sort tools let you sort respectively alphabetically, by rank, or in the order they were entered in the Add/Edit window. The buttons are in the toolbar to the left of the decision drop-down. Sort can also be reached under the View menu.

Alternative Find tool is useful when looking for an alternative among a large list of alternatives a displayed in the Results table. It is activated from the Edit menu.

88


Drop-Down Results Tree The drop-down tree shown in Figure 5-2 is located in the toolbar. The tool can be used to find the rate of an item in the tree simply by clicking on the tree node. The results in the table automatically normalize to the selected tree node. If the node is a leaf node, the equivalence value, translated from the original rating, is shown.

The tool us useful in determining the strengths and weaknesses of the alternatives on a per factor basis, and in some cases can be used to eliminate alternatives. A second use of the tool is to determine the consistency of the alternative under a given branch of the tree. This is given by the Weighted Average Composite Index, described below. The closer the value of the composite index is to unity, the more uniform are the ratings of the leaf nodes in the subtree branch. If the item is a leaf factor, the Composite Index is unity (there is of course no variance).

Figure 5-2. Drop-down results control tree is shown. Clicking on a factor normalizes the results to that node.

89


Multidimensional Alternative Ranking Tool You can select how you want to rank alternatives using this tool. The ranking selection tool is a drop-down tool located next to the drop-down tree in the toolbar and is shown in Figure 5-3. You can use this tool to investigate the ranking of the alternatives using different perspectives.

As with the drop-down model tree, you can use this to investigate the ranking of Options from different perspectives. These are discussed in more detail below.

Notice that there are four methods related to the cost (or benefit) values inserted into the Cost (or Benefit) fields of the Add/Edit window. If Costs have been selected, the ranking methods describe a ranking on Cost/Point or Total Cost/Point, or net gain of Benefit to Total Benefit Points, where the points are the Weighted Average or Percent Match.

Note: In cost/point methods, the lowest cost per point alternative is the lowest ranked: this may mean that low cost but low value alternatives can be highest ranked, which may not be desirable. In general, methods that rely on two or more combined independent parameters such as cost and weighted average can give rise to highest ranked alternatives that may not be exactly desirable, and the user should consider the results from the perspective of the component parameters individually—for example, remove low performing alternatives before making the comparison.

Figure 5-3. Ranking selection drop-down box showing the six methods to rank the alternatives.

90


Results Table Rows •••••

The rows in the Results table shown in Figure 5-1 are from top to bottom:

• Alternative. The name of the alternative. • Rating. This is a set of symbols or colors that group the alternatives into one of four

categories that range from best to worst. The rating depends on where the alternative falls on the chosen results scale. You can adjust the ranges of the symbols using the Alternative Rating Editor. The Alternative Rating Editor is selected from the View menu.

• Rank. An ordinal number that shows how an alternative ranks after ERGO has scored all the alternatives. In Figure 3-8, ERGO ranked the alternatives according to their Percent Match. You can use other decision methods that may change the recommendation and the ranking order.

• Must Have/Threshold. An indication of whether or not the alternative met must have and threshold criteria. Alternatives that fail critical criteria are marked Failed, and a button appears. Pressing the button will show the criteria for which the alternative failed.

• Weighted Average. The cumulative sum of the product of each factor rating and its respective percentage weight. It is usually a value out of 100. The score range can be set from the Settings/Results form accessible from a right mouse click in the body of the Results screen. Any numeric range defined in the rating methods can be selected.

• Weighted Average Composite Index (WACI). Briefly, the WACI is a number that describes how closely an alternative matches the pattern of priorities you set up when you prioritized the factors. The WACI has an additional component that makes it unique. It distinguishes poor distributions (where ratings are generally lower in the factors with highest priority), from rating distributions where the ratings are generally better in the higher priority factors.

• Percent Match. The product of the previous two items expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible value. It represents an optimum decision rather than the highest linear score. It avoids selections where large variations in strengths and weaknesses occur. It is the recommended method for most decisions where there is concern about the make-up of the ratings and there is discomfort with the value of weighted average. You can use this parameter as a way of checking the validity of the weighted average. If both weighted average and percent match agree, then the alternative is probably the lower risk selection. If they disagree—that is, the lead alternative is replaced when

91


switching between the two decision methods - then further investigation and review is suggested.

• % of Best. The degree to which an alternative compares to the top-ranked alternative.

If you have selected the Decision based on Costs the following will appear:

• Cost: The initial base cost of the alternative entered in the Add/Edit window. • Other Costs: The additional costs that you specify on the Add/Edit window. • Total Cost: The sum of the previous two items.

If you have selected the decision based on benefits the following will appear:

• Benefit: The initial base benefit of the alternative. • Other Benefits: The sum of the additional benefits that you specify on the Add/Edit

window. • Total Benefit: The sum of the previous two items.

Note: The rows that appear in the table may vary depending on the decision method you choose. Furthermore, you can display or hide some of the rows using the plus or minus buttons to the right of the WACI and Other Cost (or Other Benefit) row titles.

Shortcut buttons to the Decision Settings Form and Graphs On the left side of the Must Have/Threshold, Weighted Average, Weighted Average Composite Index, and Percent Match. These buttons provide direct access to, respectively, the Settings/Decision tab to tailor your view of mandatory failed alternative, and to analysis graphics. For the latter, the user is referred to the Analysis section.

92


Choosing a Ranking Method •••••

You can specify the method that ERGO uses to rank the alternatives. The more methods an alternative is best in, the less risk there is in the choice. Using the additional Cost (or Benefit) methods can be regarded as a means of reducing risk in the choice once a value based shortlist has been determined.

To choose a decision method, select an item from the drop-down list of decision methods shown in Figure 5-3. Your choices are:

• Weighted Average Choose this method to rank alternatives by their weighted average. Use Weighted Average if you are more interested in the overall value than how individual factors contributed to the weighted average. The detailed performance of alternatives is not important in this method.

• Percent Match Choose this method to rank alternatives by their percent match (the product of the weighted average and the WACI expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible score).

Use Percent Match if you want the composite index to influence the ranking, and are concerned about the consistency of quality in the alternatives. This method accounts for the way individual factors contribute to the final weighted average score and provides an optimal decision away from the extremes that can happen with the weighted average. If both percent match and weighted average agree on the highest ranked alternative it is more likely to be the least risky, and thus the overall optimal solution. If they disagree, you may want to analyze the results further.

93


Cost Based Ranking Methods If you wish to select on the basis of cost effectiveness, choose one of the following methods:

• Cost/Weighted Average. Choose this method to divide an alternative’s cost by its weighted average and rank alternatives according to the resulting value. In this method you rank the most cost-effective alternative without regard to how the weighted average is composed with respect to your priorities.

• Cost/Percent Match. Choose this method to divide an alternative’s cost by its percent match and rank alternatives according to the resulting value. In this method you rank the most cost-effective alternative with regard to how the weighted average is composed with respect to your priorities.

• Total Cost/Weighted Average. Choose this method to divide an alternative’s total cost by its weighted average and rank alternatives according to the resulting value. In this method you rank the most Total Cost effective alternative without regard to how the weighted average is composed with respect to your priorities.

• Total Cost/Percent Match. Choose this method to divide an alternative’s total cost by its percent match and rank alternatives according to the resulting value. In this method you rank the most Total Cost effective alternative with regard to how the weighted average is composed with respect to your priorities.

Note: Using cost per unit value can be regarded as a form of cost/benefit or investment/return type of decision, enabling equivalent value comparisons to be made among alternatives and establishing grounds for example, price bargaining.

94


Benefit Based Ranking Methods If you wish to select on the basis of gross benefit, choose one of the following methods:

• Benefit × Weighted Average. Choose this method to multiply benefit by its weighted average and rank alternatives according to the resulting value. This is a way of assessing alternatives on the basis of peak worth value, without consideration to the actual matching of priorities.

• Benefit × Percent Match. Choose this method to multiply an alternative’s benefit by its percent match and rank alternatives according to the resulting value. This is a way of assessing alternatives on the basis of overall performance and quality consistency with your priorities.

• Total Benefit × Weighted Average. Choose this method to multiply an alternative’s total benefit by its weighted average and rank alternatives according to the resulting value. This is a way of assessing alternatives on the basis of total peak worth value, without consideration to the actual matching of priorities.

• Total Benefit × Percent Match. Choose this method to multiply an alternative’s total benefit by its percent match.

As with costs, the benefit method can be regarded as a form of benefit-value or benefit-return type of decision, enabling equivalent benefit comparisons to be made among alternatives to establish grounds for example bargaining positions. Note that in a benefit/risk analysis, you might use the Cost/Point method. Benefit-value equations, with reverse ranking can also be used for risk-loss problems.

Tip: The cost and benefits methods are good if the weighted average or percent match values do not vary considerably among the alternatives. These methods can then provide the basis for negotiation of prices or benefit levels, for example. Cost methods are regarded as tradeoffs, while benefit methods are considered as aggregating benefit amounts and value. Costs and benefits can additionally be placed as one or more factors in the model, as tradeoff criteria such as cost against worth or benefits against risk. In this case, cost/benefit methods should not be used.

95


Special Functions in Results •••••

Shortlist Using the Alternative Filter and Filtering Alternative Functions The alternative filter allows you to create shortlists of your alternatives. In addition, you can use the Settings form/Decision and Results tab to further filter out alternatives, or look at specific

reasons for failure. To open the alternatives filter form in Figure 5-4 press the toolbar icon with a figure in a filter.

With this screen (Figure 5-4) you can:

• Select alternatives by rank (highest or lowest by decision method) by checking the rank. You can change the maximum rank number using the control to the right of the Rank check box.

• Filter out alternatives that have failed mandatory criteria - check the Must Haves/Thresholds box and select from Passed Only or Failed Only.

• Place alternatives in selected/Available categories, and select from each of these in terms of rank. Note: The decision method can effect which alternatives are shown.

Figure 5-4. Alternative filter used in creating the alternative shortlist. Selected alternatives appear in the second panel, leaving the unselected available alternatives in the far left panel. Controls to further refine the shortlist are located on the far right.

96


• Filter alternatives using the User Defined Fields established in the Add/Edit window. Select alternative fields, and click on the button next to the field (Figure 5-4). The advanced filter will appear.

Note: Click on the Fields Filter, select the logical combination of fields. You can filter by cost/benefit and all user defined fields using boolean logic (and/or).

Figure 5-5. Advanced alternative filter. Note the user defined alternative fields in the drop-down menu. In this case the user is looking for items in the range $350 to $600, and is looking at availability as the next filter variable.

97


Other Filtering/Shortlist Features From Settings Forms Settings offers two other short listing features from the Decision and Results tabs. You find the Settings form by right mouse click menus in the bodies of all windows, or from the View or File menus in the windows.

In the decision tab, you can independently select to view all alternatives, or just those which have failed or passed the mandatory requirements (form on the left in Figure 5-6).

In the Results tab, you can:

• Select to pass alternatives that have failed only a certain percentage of Must Haves. • Select if Must Haves and Thresholds are accounted for in the decision. Clearing these

will let all alternatives pass the mandatory requirements even if they have failed. • Select to look for the weakest (or more accurately, lowest rated alternatives) by checking

reverse rank. Reverse rank will essentially move the lowest rated alternative to the first rank position, and the highest rated alternative to the lowest etc.

• In reverse rank mode, you can choose to ignore the failed status of alternatives (since these are essentially the lowest scoring), or retain the failed status and eliminate alternatives from the shortlist process.

Figure 5-6. Filtering using the Customize Results and Decision dialogs.

98


Listing Failed Criteria for an Alternative You can see which Thresholds and Must Haves a given alternative has failed by clicking on the Failed button that appears for these alternatives. To see which alternatives have failed, make sure the Threshold and Must Have conditions are checked in the decision tab in Figure 5-6.

Figure 5-7 shows the listing of failed alternatives, indicating the rating values and ranges the user has assigned to the factors using Thresholds, and the failed prerequisite Must Haves.

If the factor is a category, the rate value is shown. This is because a category value is calculated by summing up the prioritized rate values.

Figure 5-7. Mandatory fails list, showing the criteria by which the alternative Visor Deluxe failed. Threshold values and input data were set by the user. The zero for criteria such as Processor Speed may indicate that no data is available for the device.

99


Rating Editor - Classifying Alternatives by Value The Rating editor lets you classify your alternatives into four groups by applying rating symbols according to the value from the decision method. The rating editor in Figure 5-8 is obtained from the Results window View menu, and selecting Rating Editor.

For example, selecting Percent Match, any alternative with a final percent match over 75 is represented by a . Other designations are a full moon, half-moon, and an empty moon. Alternatively, you can choose a color band by selecting the Color option on the form.

The Rating symbol appears in the Rating row of the Results window.

Figure 5-8. Rating Editor in the results window.

6 - Analysis in Strategies for Decisions: A Tutorial

101

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 6 -5BAnalysis in Strategies for Decisions: A Tutorial

Objectives of Analysis •••••

Analysis is the last phase of the decision-making process. In some cases, you may not need to proceed this far. The data on the Results window may be enough to satisfy your requirements.

The need to go deeper into Analysis is usually driven by four or five requirements:

• Insurance that the Solution is Robust

A selected alternative may be easily replaced by another alternative by small changes in priorities or ratings. This can give rise to uncertainty, and also to opportunity for negotiation. Using the drill-down capabilities in ERGO enables you to explore these possibilities.

• Alternative Differentiation

You can use the Analysis window to determine the key differentiators among your alternatives. This can lead to negotiation strategies and informed discussions.

• Validation and Buy-in through Scenarios

In the same vein as the first requirement, others can be convinced of the solution through investigating different scenarios, or determine other solutions for their particular scenarios. Different scenarios can be explored by a group of stakeholders to achieve buy-in to the solution.

• Continued Shortlisting Process

You can continue to winnow down the alternatives at hand through exploratory graphic tools, and explore the tradeoffs you will need to make to achieve a decision.

• Value for Money

Determining if you are getting value for your money requires exploratory work. Given an industry standard, just what is the perceived monetary value of a solution to your decision problem? Are less satisfactory solutions more cost-effective and can these solutions be used to negotiate price for a buyer, or set prices for a vendor?

The exploration of how these objectives and discovery processes are achieved in ERGO is beyond the scope of this manual. However, we shall take a tour of the Analysis window and review some of the graphical capabilities.

102


Tour of the Analysis Window •••••

Analysis Window Special Menu Features In this section we shall look at special menu features in the Analysis window.

Prior to investigating the graphics, we shall explain the Analysis window shown in Figure 6-1.

At the top of the window are the menus. Depending on the graph displayed, an extra menu item may appear for that graph.

There are two menus that need explanation. The first is the File Menu (see Figure 6-2), and the second consists of some items under the Window menu.

Note: For some of the commands in the File menu, an external toolbar button exists. The buttons are located in the top left hand toolbar under the menu items when you open the Analysis window. You can change their position if you wish.

Figure 6-1. Starting the Analysis window

103


The Analysis File Menu

Table 6-1. Analysis File Menu Options

File Menu Item Button Explanation

Reset Original Values

This resets the current graphic values to the rating and priority values in the model file.

Save Scenario Model As This saves the current set of priorities and ratings to a new model. You can change priorities and ratings in the Analysis window to obtain new scenarios, which you can then save.

Scenario dynamic graph On/Off

This command turns the dynamic scenarios on or off. When the scenario is turned on, you can dynamically change priorities and ratings in the graphs.

Open Profile Open a graphic profile. A profile is a set of formats for your graphs, including titles, 3D/2D formatting, etc. You can use profiles as a way of customizing graphics for each decision model.

Save in Personal Profile [Default]

You can save your current graph settings in a personal profile.

Save Personal Profile As You can save a personal profile with this command.

Save Image You can save the currently selected graph as metafile or bitmap image.

Saving Graphic Setups as Personal Profiles You can store your graphic settings—including titles and graphical styles for each graph—as a personal profile. Profiles can be opened, saved, and retrieved from commands under the Analysis File menu.

Use this capability to create custom graphic arrangements. Graph profiles can be saved and reopened for any model.

Figure 6-2. The File menu in the analysis window

104


Analysis View Menu

From the view menu you can control what appears in the graph and the sort order of factors and alternatives in the graphs. This enables you to view the most important factors first, for example, or to keep the alternatives in order of rank as you investigate various scenarios. Figure 6-3 shows the View menu options. Table 6-2 lists the View menu options, and shows the equivalent tool icons in the toolbar.

Table 6-2. Analysis View Menu Options

View Menu Item Button Explanation

Analysis Toolbox

Brings up the Analysis toolbox menu.

Factor Tree

Brings up the factor tree utility (for navigation the model hierarchy).

Alternative Filter

Brings up the alternative Filter form.

Hide / Show toolbar / status bar

Hides or shows the toolbars and status bar. Use this command to expand the view for graphs.

Sort Factors and alternatives

lt Sorts Factors and alternatives in the graphics.

• Factors can be sorted by:

− order in the hierarchy or − by weight (ascending or descending)

• Alternatives can be sorted according to: − As entered

− In alphabetic order

− By rank − Weighted average

− Total cost

− All the above in ascending or descending order

Comments These are alternative or factor comments, according to the focus in the graphic

Figure 6-3. View Menu Items.

105


Analysis Window Menu

Under the Window menu in Figure 6-4, there are two uncommon items to consider—Refresh Legend width and Refresh Charts.

Select Refresh Legend width if graphic legends run together in a graph. The graph will refresh and legend text will not run together. This sometimes occurs because of a discrepancy with some printer drivers and screen display resolutions.

Refresh Charts is used to control the updating of graphs. It is important if you wish to control how each graph updates when, for example, you change priorities or ratings while exploring a scenario analysis. The three refresh options are:

• Auto continuously updates the open graphs as you change scenario data. • On Focus updates only when you focus on the graph window. A red border will appear

around the graph when it requires refreshing. It lets you make major changes without continuous updates of data and is useful when handling large models where calculations are slow.

• Manual mode is useful when you want to compare two scenario outcomes. A refresh button appears in the toolbar. When it is with a red border, the graph can be updated by pressing the tool. See table 6-3 for an explanation. You can also use this mode to set one scenario and compare one or more others.

Table 6-3. Analysis Window Menu Options

Window Menu Item Button Explanation

Refresh Legend Width

If the legend text is running together, use this command to correct the legend width. This sometimes happens because of a discrepancy with some printer drivers and screen display resolutions.

Refresh Charts—Now Refreshes the current graphs and updates values.

Refresh Charts—Auto Automatically updates graphs when changes are made to the data or format of the graph.

Figure 6-4. Window Menu.

106


Refresh Charts—On Focus Updates only when the user focuses on the graph window. Graphs that need updating are shown with a red border.

Refresh Charts—Manual

In this mode, a special button appears in the toolbar. To update a graph, you must focus on the graph and press the manual button.

Cascade and Tile Commands

Standard windows commands applied to the graphs, to cascade, arrange vertically, or arrange horizontally respectively.

Close all Windows

Closes all graphs.

Graphs Shown Lists the currently open graphs.

Analysis Toolbars

Scenario Control Toolbar

As indicated previously, scenario control is invoked by toolbar buttons or File menu commands.

The top left toolbar consists of the following commands:

Table 6-4. Scenario Control Toolbar

Button Explanation

Reset Original Values—This resets the current graphic values to the rating and priority values in the model file.

Scenario Dynamic Graph On/Off—This command turns dynamic scenarios on or off. When the scenario is turned on, you can dynamically change priorities and ratings in the graphics.

Alternative Selection Filter—This tool brings up the alternative filter.

Rank—This tool appears when you are selecting to view alternatives according to rank. The tool prevents or enables alternatives to change when filtering by rank. Different alternatives will be ranked if you change decision methods (e.g, by changing from Weighted Average to Cost/Percent Match) or modify priorities and ratings during scenario analysis.

Turn Rank off to prevent alternatives from changing. The best way to ensure alternatives do not change is to select the alternative Filter to Selected Alternatives only and have the rank filter off.

Tree Utility—This tool is used to bring up the hierarchical tree of factors. The tree expansion state drives the number of factors visible on the x-axis of many graphs.

Settings—Choose this tool to bring up the Settings dialog.

Toolbox—This brings up the set of tools to customize your graphs.

107


Graph Tools Drop-Down Toolbox

The graphical Drop-Down toolbox opens the set of tools to customize your graphs (see Figure 6-5).

You can use these tools interactively to change the appearance of individual graphs.

To change a specific graph that is open in the Analysis window:

1. Open a graph if a graph is not currently open. The toolbox tool appears in the toolbar.

2. Focus on the graph in the Analysis window. 3. Click on the toolbox tool, or press the Function key F2. You can also select the toolbox

from the View menu, or from the left-mouse click menu. 4. Select the tool shown in the drop-down menu.

Other tools control the appearance of the graph and can switch from graphical to tabular representation of the data.

Focus on the graph you want to change, and then navigate the toolbox features to change for that graph. Each graph is customized separately.

You can save your custom graph settings in a personal profile.

Table 6-5 is an explanation of the Graph Customization Toolbar commands.

Table 6-5. Graph Customization Toolbar

Button Explanation

Print Chart — prints the current graphic.

Figure 6-5. Graph Tools

108


Graph Wizard — Launches the graph wizard.

2D / 3D—Switches between two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphs.

Grid or Graph—Switches between tabulation of results and the graph.

Legend On / Off—Turns the legend of the current graph on or off.

Marker On / Off—When on, factor data are marked by appropriately colored balloons when the focus is changed in the hierarchy.

X-Axis Font—controls the X-axis font, style, and number of characters per x-axis item (factor or alternative name). Can make characters stand in 3D mode.

Factor ID— pressing this tool writes factor level numbering IDs into the x-axis rather than factor names. This is good for referencing and for when factor names overpopulate the x-axis.

Show Bottom Up—this toggles the factors between justifying the top factors or the bottom factors on the x-axis of a graph. This is effective when at least one part of the tree is expanded to deeper than one level. Display to Level will display the number of levels from the top level of the model.

Controls the depth or number of levels of factors from the top level that are displayed on a graph’s x-axis. This option is only visible when the graph has factors on the X-axis.

X-Axis Font and Character Control

With the X-Axis Font control in Figure 6-6 you can control the font, size, and color of characters and the length of the character string for each factor name.

Factor names can sometimes be lengthy and as a consequence the graphic is sometimes unable to display the factors due to space limitations. You can adjust the number and size of displayed characters in this form.

In 3D graphs, you can make the factor names stand out by checking the Standing box.

Figure 6-6. X Axis Font Control.

109


Viewing Both Grid and Graph You can see both the grid and graph in the analysis window by moving your cursor up from the bottom of the graph. When your cursor becomes two parallel lines, left-click and drag upward to make the grid appear.

The Graph Wizard The graph wizard in Figure 6-7 enables you to customize graphs in great detail.

In the graph wizard you can:

• Gallery tab—Change the graph type • Style tab—Change the style of different data series • Shape tab—change the shape of bars and other objects. Changing shapes can reduce the

performance of the graph • Background—largely for 3D graphs, you can change the color of the background, and

the light source angle • Titles tab—change the titles of the X, Y, and Z axes as well as font sizes and styles for Y

and Z axes. X-axis font and style may be changed under the X-Axis Font tool. • Base & wall tab—change the style, fill, and number of divisions for Y and Z axes • Picture tab—change or add a background picture to the graph. • Other—Save the file as a bitmap or metafile, control legend position and appearance,

and print from the wizard. • Auto-refresh control— Check for instant graph update. Clear when making many

changes and processing is slow. Use the manual Refresh button to update graph. • Press Finish to exit the graph wizard.

Figure 6-7. Graph Wizard

110


Graph Presets •••••

Graph presets are sets of graphs which the user can bring to bare on particular analysis issues. Users can construct their own presets. The presets are shown in the Analysis window cutout in Figure 6-8.

The six presets provided by the system are defined in Table 6-6.

Table 6-6. Graph Presets.

Preset Name Explanation /Objective

Basic Displays the results in bar graph form, and shows local and global weights of major criteria.

Rating Analysis These graphs can be used to analyze ratings and rates, and compare the performance of the alternatives.

Value Analysis These graphs can be used to make cost/benefit comparisons, as well as equivalent value. The graphs use Cost or Benefit decision methods, and the values for Cost or Benefit entered in the Add/Edit window.

Alternative Comparison Use these graphs to compare one alternative against the benchmark or an ideal alternative.

Alternative Evaluation

Use these graphs to evaluate the intrinsic strengths and weaknesses of individual alternatives. When alternative weighted averages are close, they can be used to compare among the alternatives.

Advanced Analysis Use these graphs to perform decision sensitivity tests such as weight sensitivity and decision sensitivity to progressively adding in factors to the decision.

<New Preset> Use this tab to create your own set of graphs to tell the decision story.

Figure 6-8. Preset Bar in the Analysis Window.

111


Creating a Personal Graph Preset To create your own preset:

1. Click on the <New Preset> tab 2. From the toolbar above the presets, click on the customize preset graph tool 3. The Graph Preset form appears (Figure 6-9) 4. Enter the name of the new preset 5. Select the graph profile to which you want this preset assigned. If you have not defined

a profile, then assign it to the standard profile), or go back and create a new personal profile

6. Select the graphs. You can choose to have more than one instance of a graph in order to compare scenarios

7. Press OK to save 8. To clear a profile of all settings, press Clear 9. To cancel the current modifications, press Cancel

Figure 6-9. Graph Preset Dialog.

112


Working with Presets

To open a graph, click on the desired Preset tab, and select one of the graph buttons that appears in the left corner above the Basic tab. To activate all the graphs, press the Load All

Graphs button .

Status Bar Information The status bar of the Analysis window can contain useful information pertinent to the current graph. Figure 6-10 shows a status bar where the reference has been changed, and also indicates how many alternatives are currently in view.

Figure 6-10. Analysis status bar.

113


Driving Graphs from the Tree Utility •••••

When a graph displays factors, you use the tree utility to drive which factors appear in the graph. The factors in the graphs follow the expansion state of the hierarchy.

The tree utility has a number of features associated with it accessible from the toolbar, menus, and left mouse click menu (see Figure 6-11).

These are:

• Saving the current analysis priorities and ratings as a scenario model using the Tree utility Save tool or from the utility’s File/Save scenario model As menu Item

• Display the information table (see Figure 6-12) • Set the pivot factor using the Tree Utility tool • Expand and collapse the tree or display to a specific level — this applies to the entire

tree, not just the focused node • Display priorities in the tree • View selected factor comments

Figure 6-11. Menus in the Tree Utility.

114


The Show Results Details button displays rate values for the viewed alternatives in an information table at the bottom of the Analysis model utility tree. The tree must be extended adequately for the table to be viewed. Values in the information table are normalized with respect to the point of focus in the tree i.e. the values are calculated as if a set reference action has been performed on the sub-tree (see Figure 6-12).

The pivot tool appears when the relevant chart is open and focused upon. It sets the

pivot factor for the Local Weight and Factor Performance graph.

• In the Local Priority graph, it sets the parent factor under which the criteria local weights are seen in the graph.

• For the Criteria Performance graph, it selects the factor that appears on the y-axis, while the x-axis factor is selected by focusing on another factor in the tree.

Figure 6-12. Tree utility in the Analysis window showing the information table in the lower part of the utility form. Zero prioritized criteria are grayed out in the tree and ignored in the decision processing.

115


The utility tree can also be used to set the reference point of the decision. This means that you can set any category as the root factor. In effect, the decision becomes based on the sub-tree only of the reference factor. When the reference is set, a message is seen under the x-axis of graphs to indicate the values are referenced to the factor, and not the root of the model.

To set the reference factor: 1. In the tree utility, focus on the category you want. 2. Click the Set Reference button in the tree utility toolbar. The reference is now set. All

factors other than those within the category are grayed out, indicating they are not included in the calculations.

3. All weights are adjusted proportionately in the subtree, and all rates are calculated according to the new re-normalized weights.

Controlling the Display of Factor Hierarchies in Graphs You can control the display of factors in a graph by adjusting a number of features.

These include:

• Tree hierarchy level depth can be controlled in any graph where factors appear on an axis. Use the graph toolbox menu and choose Display to level.

• Sort the factors by weight, name, or model order. Sort Options by name, rank, or entry order. Select Sort from the View menu in the Analysis window.

• Adjust the maximum number of characters of item names in the x-axis using the spin dial in the upper toolbar, or use F2 to bring up the font dialog. Font sizes can also be changed using the toolbar on the right. This is useful if the x-axis labels do not appear due to lack of space.

• View the hierarchy top down or bottom up perspectives using the top or bottom justify toolbar button in the Analysis toolbox.

• Identify tree item names and other data by focusing the mouse on a data point or area in a graph and holding the mouse button for a moment. Other choices include using the tree with the data point marker set on (available from the graphics toolbox).

• Press F5 to increase screen area for graphs—the toolbars and status bar are hidden to expand the graphic area. Pressing F5 again returns the toolbar and status bars.

116


Scenario Analysis •••••

Open a model containing rated alternatives, and click on the Basic tab. If you are new to ERGO, we recommend you open a small model to start.

Changing values with Scenario does not change the data in the model. You must save the changed values in a different model, thereby creating a new scenario. You cannot have more than one scenario open at a time. However, by using the Refresh Charts function you can create and compare two or more scenarios graphically.

Starting Scenario Analysis

To start Scenario analysis: 1. Press the Scenario On/Off button in the top left of the toolbar. Alternatively, select

“Scenario dynamic graph On/Off” from the Analysis file menu. 2. Select an open graph. You will now be able to drag graphic objects such as bars and pie

sections. 3. To increase the value of an item such as a factor, click on the item and drag it toward the

top of the screen. To decrease its value, drag it toward the bottom of the screen.

Example Using Scenario Analysis As an example, you can change the priorities of factors and observe the impact on the results. Start the scenario analysis as in the previous section, then:

1. Select the Basic tab. Press Load All Graphs button. 2. The benchmark, local priority, and score breakdown graphs will appear. 3. In the local priority graph, focus on a pie segment and with the mouse, click on it and

drag it down. The segment should get smaller. Dragging it up will increase its size. 4. To make all the other graphs update simultaneously, go to the Window menu, select

Refresh Charts / Auto. 5. Any graph that displays data with priorities or ratings can have the values changed by

dragging the data objects in the graph. 6. To customize the drag functions open the Settings/Analysis tab by pressing F7 or

selecting customize from a right mouse click menu in the body of the Analysis window.

117


In the customize settings dialog, you can: • Select to show a caption indicating the changing value in a box as you drag the graphic

object—check Show Drag Caption. • Select to display the name of the factor or alternative in the drag information box. Check

Show Item Name in Drag Caption. • Choose continuous refresh of the graph by checking While Dragging, or on a delayed

basis when you pause by checking When Stopped. For example, when dragging the priority of one factor up in Figure 6-13, the other factor weight will decrease. The other factor priority can be updated continuously as you drag, or update only when you pause or stop dragging.

Figure 6-13. Dragging caption is shown on the bar graph on the left

118


Scenario Examples

Basic Preset—Local Priority and Score Breakdown

A classic example of changing priorities is shown in Figure 6-14. The factor Configuration and Features, is traded off against Price. At about the 50:50 ratio, the iPAQ H3650 is the leader, but has a major quality inconsistency with this priority pattern, as can be seen from the large shaded portion of the score breakdown (Percent Match has been selected as the decision method). As the importance of Configuration and Features is increased from 50% to about 80% (Price is reduced in importance from 50% to 20%) the value of the iPAQ H3650, in particular, increases, and so does the consistency with requirements since the shaded area is also reduced. Hence, price is the main issue both in terms of consistency with the objectives of the decision maker and in terms of the value delivered by the choice.

Figure 6-14. Changing the priority of Configuration and Features.

119


Rating Scenario

In rating scenarios, you can investigate the effect of changing ratings on the result. In Figure 6-15, the Rating Comparison (in the Rating Analysis Preset) graph and Score Breakdown (basic Preset) graph are used in tandem. The challenge is to determine if increasing the rating of the most important factor—in this case Features—for the Palm Vx will improve its position and perhaps overtake the value attributed to the iPAQ H3650. In the lower graph, even increasing the rating to 100% (satisfying all desired features) is not capable of improving the Palm Vx’s rank. In a strategy to affect negotiations, the price of the Palm Vx could be significantly reduced, or other improvements made in order of a needed priority, for it to outrank the iPAQ H3650.

Figure 6-15. Increasing the rating of Features, from the top left rating Comparison graph to the lower left graph, shows the Palm Vx value can come close to, but does not outrank the H3650 in the right hand score breakdown graphs. Factors in the Rating Comparison Graphs are in order of weight, descending left to right.

120


Alternative Differentiation •••••

Once alternatives have been narrowed down to a shortlist, one of the most important next steps is to determine the distinguishing characteristics among the alternatives. The Rating Comparison and Rating Differences graphics enable you to drill down to find the differences. They can be found in the Rating Analysis preset.

In the Rating Differences graph (Figure 6-16), one alternative is selected as the comparison alternative from the Drop-Down box above the graph, in this case the iPAQ H3650. The comparison alternative rate is subtracted from the rates of the other alternatives. When the difference is positive, it means the iPAQ is not as good as the other alternative; when the bar is negative it means that the compared alternative has a lower rating than the iPAQ. The degree is indicated by the length of the bar.

You can further expand the tree to determine more deeply where the major differences exist. You can determine the real weaknesses, which can be used in, for example, price or added value negotiations, and determine the differentiators. The Rating Comparison graph can similarly be used to trace relative weaknesses and strengths among the alternatives.

Figure 6-16. Rating Differences graph. The compared alternative (pivot alternative) is selected from the drop-down in the toolbar. Positive bars indicate the alternative has a higher rating than the pivot alternative, while a negative bar indicates the alternative is of lower value.

121


Sensitivity Analysis •••••

Sensitivity analysis enables an understanding of the robustness of a solution with respect to specific factors. If it does not take much priority change for the lead alternative to be outranked by another, then the solution lacks robustness, particularly if the priority change is within acceptable limits. Scenario analysis is one way of determining sensitivity, but a more convenient

graph, The sensitivity graph - marked by in the Advanced Analysis preset.

To use the sensitivity graph: 1. Select the Advanced Analysis preset 2. Press the Sensitivity Analysis graph. The sensitivity graph appears, initially blank. The

tree utility will be activated with the focus on the root, and the “Set Sensitivity” button will appear in the toolbar. When pressed this brings up the Sensitivity setting Form shown in Figure 6-17.

3. Select a decision method from the Drop-Down box in the toolbar. 4. Click on a factor in the tree utility. A calculation box will appear, and ERGO will

calculate the change in the value of the decision parameter as the priority changes from 0% to 100% in a set of equally spaced steps.

5. When the calculation is completed, the Sensitivity graph updates, yielding a graph similar to that shown in Figure 6-18.

6. You can click on other factors in the tree to determine the sensitivity of the Option ranking to the weight of each selected factor. ERGO will recalculate when you focus on each factor.

7. At any point you may expand an area of interest by clicking on the Set Sensitivity button in the toolbar. The Set Sensitivity form in Figure 6-17 appears. Use the spin dials to define the priority range, and select how many break points you want to calculate.

8. Click Apply to calculate the new range.

Figure 6-17. Sensitivity settings Form.

122


Note: The sensitivity graph, which displays the global weighted average of each vendor against the global priority of a given criterion or category, includes "×" markers to show the amount a criterion or category is contributing to the analysis.

Figure 6-18. Sensitivity graph showing that the Percent Match has been selected as the decision method from the drop-down box in the toolbar.

123


Value for Money: Price Equivalency •••••

One question that often arises is the cost effectiveness of a particular solution.

To compare the monetary value equivalency: 1. Make sure costs have been entered in the Add/Edit window in at least one of the Base

Cost or Other Costs fields for every alternative. Costs must be entered as positive values. 2. Select the Value Equivalency graph from the Value Analysis preset. 3. If the decision method is not a cost method, you will see a blank window with the

message Graph Not Available with Current Decision Method.

You must select a cost-based decision method from the Decision Drop-Down box in the toolbar. In Figure 6-19 Total Cost/Percent Match has been selected. Relative costs are calculated from finding the most cost-effective solution among all alternatives. In the figure, the alternative Rolls Sanders B4C is the most cost effective (but not necessarily the ‘best’) alternative.

4. After selecting a cost based decision method, the graph updates. You will see the Options plotted against Cost on the left hand side. The shaded portion of the bar indicates the price reduction required to make the Option have the same cost effectiveness as the most cost effective solution.

You can focus on the shaded area at the top of each bar and left mouse click. The value reduction represented by the shaded area is seen. Clicking in the body of the data bar obtains the price equivalency directly. Alternatively, raise the grid from under the graph, or from the toolbox select Grid, to obtain the Figure 6-19 style.

5. Use the alternative Filter if necessary to make sure that the alternatives you want to see are visible in the graph.

124


Switching to a Benefit-Based Decision In some instances alternatives return benefits as well as their values. Getting a job, for example, provides merits with regard to the job and also a payoff in terms of salary. Or a vendor may consider the price he or she can get from a client and the value derived from dealing with a client: (the client is the alternative).

In Value Equivalency the net benefit of one alternative is compared to the alternative that provides maximum benefit—a combination of monetary benefit reward and value (Weighted Average or Percent Match)—rather than minimum cost/unit value as in the Cost mode used above. In this case, an alternative that provides less benefit than the maximum is shown in the Value Equivalency graph as it is requiring to add an additional reward. In other words, one job may be less exciting than another but pay more. The additional pay has to compensate for the loss of attractiveness of this job compared to another job. Value Equivalency identifies which is most beneficial in terms of combination of pay and the type of job. Note: You must choose a Benefit decision method.

To switch to benefit, press F7 or go to the Decision tab of the customize Settings form. Select benefit instead of cost. The decision formulae will change. Click OK, or save as default if this is to be the default mode in which you wish to operate.

Figure 6-19. Value Equivalency chart showing the grid of values. The cost reduction for the iPAQ H3650 is indicated at $124 compared to the best value equivalency.

125


Note: All Benefits and Costs have to be positive numbers. Other Costs or Other Benefits can contain negative values, but Total Cost/Benefit must be positive.

Rotating 3D Graphs •••••

If your graph is in 3D mode, you can rotate it to a custom orientation.

To rotate a 3D graph: 1. Switch the graph to 3D either from the graph toolbox or from the graph wizard/Graph

Type tab. 2. Focus on the graph and press the control (CTRL) key on the keyboard. A two way

anchor figure will appear. 3. Keeping the control key depressed, click on the graph. A frame will appear. 4. Move the mouse to rotate the frame while keeping the CTRL key and mouse button

depressed.

Viewing Names & Data from Graphic Objects •••••

In all graphs, if you focus on a data point or section of a bar in a graph and hold the mouse button, the relevant data for that item will appear. Factor names, value equivalencies and specific values will be seen in a yellow box.

126


Too Many Factors on the X-Axis •••••

If you attempt to view a large number of factors in a graph, a point is reached where becomes impractical to read. You may find that the Analysis window will show a blue band and a slider under the graph area (Figure 6-20). In addition, not all factors will be displayed in the graph. By expanding or reducing the length of the slider on the bar you can increase or decrease the number of factors viewed. To view other factors, you can grab the slider in the middle and move it across. You may need to wait for the graph to update once you release the slider.

The minimum and maximum number of factors that the slider size can be set is determined from the Graph Display Control in the Analysis tab of Settings. You can reach this tab in Analysis by a right mouse click in the body of the window (or from the View menu), and selecting Customize (alternatively, press F7). The customize settings form appears. Go to the Analysis tab as shown on the right side of Figure 6-20, and use the spin dials to adjust the minimum and maximum number of factors the slider can support along the sliding axis

Figure 6-20. Setting dialog for the Analysis window.

127


Figure 6-21. The case of too many factors being displayed. On the left is a graph with factors in the x-axis, and the blue over-limit slider in the below the graph. The limits on the number of factors the maximum and minimum length of the slider represents are determined from values set in the Analysis tab of the Customize form shown on the right.

128


Graphs and Charts Reference •••••

In the following pages the graphs, special tools, and requirements of ERGO are described.

The graph descriptors in the following tables consist of:

• Button: shows the button that represents the graph. • Purpose: the general purpose of the graph. • Preset Location: in which graph preset you can find a particular graph. • Purpose: the general purpose of the graph. • X-Axis: the x-axis item. • Y-Axis: the y-axis item. • Z-Axis: optional feature in 3D graphs, which generally displays the alternatives. • Special Menu Item: this is an extra menu item that appears at the top of the Analysis

window. • Additional Toolbar Control: this is a special tool whose button appears in the toolbar,

usually in the top left of the Analysis window. • Tree Utility: The tree utility displays the factor hierarchy and is used to control how

many factors you see in graphs. It is also used to set a factor as the pivot from which other factors are compared (for example the Factor Performance graph) or from which the subtree of a graph is revealed in the graph (for example the Local Weight graph).

• Alternative Drop-Down: (located in the toolbar) this is a Drop-Down box with the list of current alternatives in it. You use it to select an alternative against which other alternatives are compared.

• Decision Method Drop-Down: (located in the toolbar) this drop-down lets you select a decision method for your graph.

• Sort Option: Provides options, such as alphabetical, or by order of entry, for the order in which alternatives are appear.

• Notes: These are special usage notes on how to use the graph controls and options.

129


Graph: Benchmark Global Priority

Button

Purpose Display global priorities and cumulative global priority

Preset Location Basic

Default Graph Type Bar and dashed line for cumulative (see below)

X-Axis Factors, requires tree utility to expand

Y-Axis Global priority

Right Y-axis Cumulative Global priority

Z-Axis N/A

Special Menu Item Benchmark

Additional Toolbar Control

None

Tree Utility Required to expand the hierarchy

Alternative Drop-Down Dependent on presence of Not Applicable(s)

Decision Method Drop Down

N/A

Sort Options Sort factors by priority or hierarchy

Notes When at least one factor with a Not Applicable from at least one priority is visible in the graph, you can select to view the original benchmark — i.e., the one currently set in the priority window, or select a current priority which may have a modified benchmark due to the presence of the Not Applicable. The Benchmark graph displays

130


Graph: Contribution Analysis

Button

Purpose To evaluate and compare the contributions of factors to the weighted average, and how these contributions differ from an ideal solution

Preset Location Alternative Comparison

Default Graph Type Line

X-Axis Factors

Y-Axis

Right Y-axis Percent contribution to Weighted Average

Z-Axis Alternatives (3D) — In the graph wizard, check On Axis in the Other tab



Tree Utility Required

Option Drop-Down Dependent on presence of Not Applicables

Decision Method Drop-Down

Sort Options Factors by priority, hierarchy

Notes Graph can be used to determine the relative strong points of an alternative, and how it deviates from the desired scenario, Composite Index is a measure of the quality of the pattern match shown in this graph between each alternative and the Benchmark/Ideal contribution. Can be used to examine vendor strategies and where their product focus is, compared to a customer’s requirements.

131


Graph: Correlation Analysis

Button

Purpose Provides classical correlation statistical analyses between priorities and the percentage contribution of each factor to the weighted average. Assists in identifying similar complementary alternatives. R-value is given in the graph legend.

Preset Location Advanced Analysis

Default Graph Type Special X/Y scatter

X-Axis Priority

Y-Axis Percent Contribution

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis Factors, controlled from the tree utility

Special Menu Item Compare To


Tree Utility

Option Drop-Down Active when other alternative selected in Compare To menu


Sort Options

Notes Compares the alternatives against the weight benchmark, giving a statistical correlation factor R. Does not work if all priorities are equal or close to being equal (requires statistical distribution of priorities for validity).

132


Graph: Cumulative Weighted Average Graph

Button

Purpose Shows the weighted average of alternatives incrementally increasing with each factor

Preset Location Option Comparison


X-Axis Factors, controlled from the tree utility

Y-Axis Weighted average on 0-100 scale (default)

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis Options (3D) - In the graph wizard, check On Axis in the Other tab






Sort Options Factors by weight and hierarchy

Notes Optionally show the Benchmark/Ideal Alternative. When Factors are displayed where one or more alternative have at least one Not Applicables, you can select which alternative Benchmark to compare against.

133


Graph: Non-Cumulative Weighted Average Score Breakdown

Button

Purpose Shows the completeness of one or more alternatives' completion of a given category's criteria.


Default Graph Type Bar

X-Axis Factors, controlled from the tree utility

Y-Axis Weighted average on 0-100 scale (default)

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis




Option Drop-Down None



Notes Optionally show the Benchmark/Ideal Alternative.

134


Graph: Criterion Performance

Button

Purpose Position alternatives with respect to two independent factors

Preset Location Option Evaluation


X-Axis Factors, selected from tree utility

Y-Axis Pivot factor, set in tree utility

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis

Special Menu Item Mode



Alternative Drop-Down


Sort Options

135


Graph: Benchmark Local Priority Pie Graph

Button

Purpose Display local priorities


Default Graph Type Pie

X-Axis Factors

Y-Axis Local priority

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis

Special Menu Item


Tree Utility Required to set pivot

Option Drop-Down


Sort Options

Notes Requires to set the Pivot Factor using the tree utility set pivot tool

136


Table: Alternative Comparison Detail

Button

Purpose Tabulates and summarizes data and results in two ways: cumulative values and progressively where progressive means that the current factor and prior criteria are taken as the decision factors only, while those below are excluded.


Default Graph Type Table only

X-Axis Factors, controlled from tree utility

Y-Axis N/A

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis

Special Menu Item


Tree Utility

Alternative Drop-Down


Sort Options tl

Notes Enables the user to view ratings and weights actually used on a per priority basis, and displays for each alternative in a separate column: • Global Weight

• Rating or rate equivalent

• Prioritized rating = (rating or rate equivalent × global priority) • Progressive Weighted Average (PWA)—how the weighted average

changes as each factor is brought into the decision • Weighted Average Composite Index (WACI)—how the index changes as

each successive factor is brought into the decision. • Progressive Percent Match (PPM) = PWA × WACI—indicates how the

Percent Match progresses as each factor is brought into the decision.

• Cumulative Weighted Average CWA is the sum of the Prioritized Rating components, and shows the accumulating weighted average up to and including the current factor.

• Cumulative Percent Priority—the cumulative priority of the factors up to and including the current factor.

Note: Progressive decision making assumes that only the preceding criteria and the current criterion are taken into account in the decision, and the other factors are not considered at all. Cumulative is merely the accumulation of contributions from factors in the current (complete) model. The results for each alternative are displayed in a separate tab in the table.

137


Graph: Performance Zone (Quadrant) Analysis

Button

Purpose Segregate issues into designated quadrants of Priority/Rating. The graph enables identification of issues and gives the number of issues in segregated quadrants.



X-Axis Rating

Y-Axis Priority

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis Factors, controlled from tree utility

Special Menu Item Quadrant


X & Y axis drop-down windows spin dials respectively to set quadrants

Tree Utility Required to expand factors in graph

Option Drop-Down


Sort Options For legend only

Notes Figure 6-22 shows the results of a particular model. Figure 6-23 shows the grid output for the same graph.

138


Figure 6-23. Quadrant analysis output of figure 6-22a in grid format.

Figure 6-22. Quadrant Analysis graph showing the user set quadrants at rating of X=30 and weight Y=5% using the drop-down boxes at the top. The Critical Fails count is checked in the Quadrant menu, and the number of fails appears next to the alternative names in the legend under the graph.

139


Graph: Price Performance

Button

Purpose Compare the performance of alternatives against Cost or Benefit. Used, for example, to analyze alternative cost/performance trends Can identify "outsider" alternatives if there are an adequate number of alternatives. A Cost or Benefit decision method must be selected.

Preset Location Value Analysis


X-Axis Weighted Average or Percent Match

Y-Axis Cost/Total Cost, or Benefit/Total Benefit

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis

Special Menu Item


Tree Utility

Option Drop-Down

Decision Method Drop-Down Required—must select a Cost or Benefit method to view graph.

Sort Options

Notes Size of dots indicates rank, with first rank by selected method indicated by largest dot. A Cost or Benefit decision method must be selected. Make sure that cost/benefit data is entered in the Add/Edit window.

140


Graph: Progressive Weighted Average or Decision Method

Button

Purpose Shows how the decision changes as each factor is brought in, moving from left to right in the graph

Preset Location Advanced analysis



Y-Axis

Right Y-axis Decision method value—dependent on selected decision method

Z-Axis Options (3D)—in graph wizard, check On Axis in the Other tab.





Decision Method Drop-Down Down

Required. Select method

Sort Options Factors by weight, and hierarchy

Notes Use this graph to examine how a decision changes as each factor is brought into the decision. Sorting by weight enables outcomes based on business rules, such as the 80/20 rule, to be obvious. Try setting this graph as a radar graph (using the graph wizard) and sort the hierarchy by weight. Factors rotate clockwise from the top in decreasing order of weight. A cumulative weight curve can be displayed from the Benchmark.

141


Graph: Rating Comparison

Button

Purpose Shows the normalized rates (that is, as if scores were applied to the category). On criteria, they show the rate value based on the Results scale. For a perspective of value to the decision, the weighted rating mode can be used.

Preset Location Rating Analysis/Advanced Analysis (prioritized)



Y-Axis Equivalent category rating or rate value

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis Options (3D)—In graph wizard, check On Axis in the Other tab

Special Menu Item Mode



Option Drop-Down



Notes Rating comparisons enable you to identify weak performing or strong performing alternatives in particular factors. You can drill down in these areas to discover the specific weaknesses to be used for negotiation and discussion purposes. In the prioritized rating comparison mode, the rates are multiplied by the factors weight to give a sense of the relative importance of dealing with a particular issue.

142


Graph: Contribution Analysis

Button

Purpose To determine the differences in rates of alternatives compared to a selected (pivot) alternative.

Preset Location Rating Analysis



Y-Axis

Right Y-axis


Special Menu Item

Special Toolbar Control

Tree Utility Required to expand factor hierarchy

Option Drop-Down Required to select pivot alternative


Sort Options Factors by priority, hierarchy

Notes The graph enables you to find the differences from a particular alternative (the pivot alternative)—usually the top performing alternative—and the other alternatives under consideration. It enables differentiation to be identified from the pivot alternative to the competing alternatives. In the prioritized rating differences mode, the rates are multiplied by the factor’s priority to give a sense of the relative importance of dealing with a particular issue.

143


Graph: Score Breakdown

Button

Purpose Shows the results according to the method selection. In Weighted Average, the scale is the results scale. For Percent Match, the scale is the percentage of the maximum possible score. When Percent Match is selected, a shaded region indicates the impact of the composite index.



X-Axis Alternatives

Y-Axis Weighted Average or Percent Match according to the decision method selected.

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis

Special Menu Item


Tree Utility

Option Drop-Down


Required to select method for ranking of alternatives

Sort Options Sort alternatives by name, as entered, by rank, cost, weighted average

Notes If Percent Match is chosen, the bars usually have a shaded portion at the top. This represents the loss as a result of inconsistencies with the priorities expressed by the weight pattern—the rate pattern and priority pattern are essentially mismatched. If the area is large, it can result in alternatives changing rank when switching between weighted average and Percent Match evaluation methods, and can indicate there are deeper issues to be examined for these alternatives. Cost methods are used to change the rank of the alternatives, but the values on the Y-axis are always weighted average or percent match, depending on the decision method selected.

144


Graph: Sensitivity Analysis (Priorities)

Button

Purpose Determines sensitivity of results to weight changes of specific factors. Shows the rank of each Option at each calculated weight point.

Preset Location Advanced Analysis

Default Graph Type Special X/Y Scatter

X-Axis Weight of selected factor

Y-Axis Value according to selected decision method

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis Option Rank with respect to all alternatives

Special Menu Item


Set Sensitivity

Tree Utility Required to select factor

Option Drop-Down

Decision Method Drop-Down Required to select decision method

Sort Options

Notes

Sensitivity is used to determine the robustness of a solution to priority changes. It also enables you to determine certain priority scenarios to enable the selection of a particular alternative. The rank of alternatives is given by a numeric above each calculated data point in the graph. It is recommended to have fewer than five alternatives in the graph otherwise it will appear cluttered. Use the Set Sensitivity tool to narrow in on a priority range, and identify where rank changes occur.

145


Graph: Strengths and Weaknesses

Button

Purpose Display the intrinsic strengths and weaknesses of a alternative. It also compares the relative variance of ratings among the alternatives. When weighted averages are close, can be used to compare the strengths and weaknesses among the alternatives.




Y-Axis Percentage contribution difference to the weighted average of the Option from the ideal solution.

Right Y-axis


Special Menu Item



Option Drop-Down


Sort Options Factors by priority and hierarchy

Notes Positive bars indicate a higher contribution to the weighted average than the benchmark priority pattern: negative going bars indicate a weaker contribution than the benchmark priority pattern. The sum of these differences is zero for each alternative. The graph displays intrinsic strengths and weaknesses and should not be used to compare alternatives unless the alternative prioritized averages are close (a rule of thumb is within 5%). The graph is meant to display intrinsic strengths and weaknesses in examining a single alternative.

146


Graph: Value Equivalency

Button

Purpose To determine the relative monetary worth and incremental amounts required to achieve the same cost or benefit-effectiveness of the best cost (or benefit) solution.

Preset Location Value Analysis


X-Axis Alternatives

Y-Axis Cost or Benefit values defined in the Add/Edit window

Right Y-axis

Z-Axis

Special Menu Item


Tree Utility

Option Drop-Down


Required—must select Cost or Benefit-based method

Sort options

Notes Shaded regions in the bars are the amounts of cost reduction (for Cost based decisions) or benefit increases (for benefit decisions) required to meet the most cost effective (or beneficial) alternative.

7 - Reports

148

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 7 -6BReports

Starting Reports •••••

To enter ERGO Reports, select Reports from any Go To menu or from the Tasks menu in any ERGO Window. The dialog shown in Figure 7-1 appears.

Figure 7-1. Reports Open Dialog.

149


Using Reports •••••

Setting General Report Preferences: Creating Report Profiles When using reports for the first time, you can customize reports and store your custom settings in a reports profile. You do this by:

Figure 7-2. General Preferences Dialog.

150


To store report settings in a reports profile: 1. Press the button marked General Preferences in the Open Report Dialog; or from the

Reports File Menu, select General Preferences. The General Preferences dialog in Figure 7-2 appears.

2. Fill in your personal and company information in the Company Information tab, and optionally insert your company logo. Check the boxes to include them in any report. You can clear them later if you wish.

3. Enter specific information in the Footer tab if you want the information included the footer of reports.

4. In the General tab, select the information you want to see in the report by default as Model Information. This is the lead text that can appear in any report. You can include times and dates of creation and modification, and summary statistics such as number of factors and alternatives in the model. The Author name and Knowledge Base name can be optionally included in the model information as well. In this tab you will also find:

− Hide All Table of Contents--If the report generation is slow, you can prevent the calculation and appearance of Tables of Contents

− Reset Numbering of a Knowledge Base defined as Sub-tree--In the Reports window you can set the root reference to any sub-tree. In this case the level numbering can be set to start at the new sub-tree root. Otherwise the numbering scheme will be that of the master model.

− Prompt before quitting reports--Checking this box will cause Reports to validate if you want to quit reports.

5. Save the current settings as your default settings--When you next load reports the settings will be restored until you change them and set the default again.

6. To save your custom setup from the Reports file menu, select Save Report Profile and follow the dialog box to save the profile in an appropriate directory. Profiles will also include how you have set up the properties and titles of your reports, and hence you can always update your profile, or create new custom ones.

151


Opening Reports •••••

To open a report, double click on a report from the Open Report dialog. If the Open Report

dialog is not open, click the Open Report button in the toolbar.

You can string a number of reports together, and choose to create a common table of contents, using the Reports Batch report facility.

Figure 7-3. Reports Batch reporting facility.

152


To create a batch report: 1. From the Reports file menu, select Batch Print. The Batch Print dialog appears (Figure

7-3). 2. Select the reports you want to print by moving them to the right hand column. 3. Customize each report by selecting the desired report and pressing the Properties

button. A Properties box for the report will appear (Figure 7-4). 4. You can Preview the reports by pressing the Preview button. 5. You can make the current settings the permanent default by pressing the Default button.

You can also recover the default by pressing Load Default. 6. Press ‘Print’ to print the reports, Cancel to exit without printing, and OK to save the

current settings for this session. 7. Set the cover page and its contents in the Cover tab. You can give a general report name

to the batch printout, and include specific header text. 8. You can include a custom Summary at the end of the report by editing and including

specific text using the Summary tab. 9. In the General tab, you can check if you want continuous numbering across the reports,

or restart the page numbering for each report. You can also hide the header information for each report, so as not to repeat the same header for each report. Finally, you can include a table of contents and choose to show custom reports fields or not.

153


Setting Report Properties •••••

Every Report has a set of properties which let you customize each report. To access a report’s properties you can:

• From the Open Report dialog box, select a report and press Properties. • When you have a particular report in preview, from the toolbar click on the Properties

tool . When you change the properties, the current report will refresh. • From the View menu, select Report Properties.

Customizing Reports using the Report Properties The Properties (Figure 7-4) dialog for all reports is composed of the following tabs:

• General Tab: this is the same for all reports. Its field settings apply to the current report only. In this tab you can:

− Select to view the Report Title. − Select to Repeat the Report Title in the header of every page. − Edit and change the Report Title. − Change the Font size for the report. − Choose to include Model Description, Model Information, company information and

Goal statement as lead text for your report. − Apply a page break after the lead text. This sets the start of the body of the report on

a separate page. − Choose whether alternate rows in the body of your report are highlighted with a

gray highlight. This is only visible if you save the report in RDF format and print the report from the Reports module directly.

− You can control whether your report shows or hides the sub-trees of trimmed factors in the knowledge base. Trimmed factors can be set in the Build Hierarchy window (see appropriate section) or using the Reports model tree (see Figure 7-5).

• Details tab. This tab is specific for each report, and determines the detailed fields and format you want for the report.

• Table of Contents. Select this if you wish to add a table of contents to the report. This tab differs for each report depending on the nature of the report. For example, if factors are

154


included in the report, the location of those factors can be entered in the table of contents.

• Intro/Summary pages. You can edit or create and include separate introductory text and summary text. The introductory and summary texts will appear at the beginning of every report for which you include them.

• Graphs. Graphs can be included in the report. However, the capability of reports to customize graphs is limited, users can save graph images as metafiles or bitmaps in the Analysis window for inclusion in rich text documents exported from reports.

Figure 7-4. ERGO Reports Properties

155


Reports Tree Utility •••••

The Reports Tree Utility (Figure 7-5) enables you to customize reports and set graphic parameters that rely on the factor hierarchy.

Select the tree button in the toolbar . With this utility you can:

• Set the root reference to the current factor. Reports and calculations are then based from this parent of the sub-tree. Factors outside the sub-tree of the reference node are grayed out.

Note: Use the Alternative in Preferences/General to reset the level numbering to the reference node.

• You need to set a factor as the pivot factor for some graph--the Factor Performance, Local Priority Pie graph, and Sensitivity. Select the factor and press pivot button or set it

from the right-mouse click menu. The symbol for the pivot factor appears besides the factor.

Figure 7-5. Report Tree Utility showing left mouse click menu.

156


Tip: If you wish to see graphs in an exported report to file formats other than RDF, it is recommended that the graph is formatted and exported from the Analysis window as a windows metafile or bitmap. A text editor can then import and format the image in the report.

• For the Factor Performance, you also need a compare factor. This is the current factor. Click on a second factor and select Current Factor from the right-mouse click menu, or press the Current Factor button in the tree utility. The symbol for the current factor appears besides the selected factor.

• Set/reset Trim Node sets the current node as trim node. Tree hierarchy reports are trimmed to this point, with values rolled up to the designated trim node as if the sub-factors do not exist.

Note: This does NOT remove sub-tree factors automatically. You must also check the box “Hide Trimmed Factors” in the Properties/General dialog in Figure 7-4 for this to take effect. Clearing the box will return to printing out the sub-tree factors.

157


Shortlisting and Viewing Alternatives in Reports •••••

The Alternatives menu in the Reports window lets you control the alternatives you wish to see, and how they are ranked. You can:

• From the Alternatives menu select the Alternative Filter. The Alternative Filter dialog appears. Use the dialog box in the Alternative filter to control what Alternatives you want to see. See the section in Results window for a description of the Alternative Filter.

• To sort the order in which you want to see the Alternatives, from the Alternatives menu, select Sort. The Alternative Sort dialog appears (Figure 7-6). Select the primary then secondary sort parameters you want to use. You can choose to have the items by descending or ascending rank.

Note: The highest rank is 1 but the numeric sequence takes precedence. To have the first rank Alternative appear first, select Ascending when choosing to sort Alternative by rank.

Figure 7-6. Alternative Sort dialog in Reports.

158


Reports Preview Features •••••

When you preview a report, you can customize the preview window in the following ways:

• View the report’s table of contents. Press the Table of Contents preview button in the toolbar. The table of contents for the report appears on the left hand side.

To use the table of contents, click on a table of contents item. The report preview will shift to the top of the page on which the item is present.

• Use the backward and forward buttons in the toolbar to move from one report page to the next. You can view the page number you are on.

• Enter the page number in the page number display to go to that page.

• Use the increase/decrease magnification spyglasses or the drop-down to view more or less detail in the report.

• Press the refresh button to refresh a report after changing report parameters, or press

stop if you want to Stop the refresh calculation .

Running Multiple Reports and Multiple Copies of Same Report

You can have more than one report preview open at a time, and even produce multiple forms of the same report. Open the Open Report dialog and select the report. Change its properties and then double click to run the report.

You can compare reports side-by-side using the tiling functions available under the Reports Window menu.

159


Exporting and Importing Reports •••••

You can export ERGO reports to a number of standard document formats.

To export reports: 1. Go to the Reports/File menu after running your report and select Save As. 2. From the Save As dialog box, select the file format you want to save in and enter the

name of the file. 3. The default file format is RDF. Only RDF files can be imported by other ERGO report

modules and run. 4. You can save in the following formats: pdf, text, rtf, and EXCEL. If you save in text

format, any graphic will be lost.

To import an RDF file, from the Reports File menu select Open RDF.

Reports in Your Business Processes •••••

To use reports effectively, the user has to determine what reports will serve her best. In this section we make a few suggestions on reports to use at various stages of a procurement or other decision making process. These processes can be divided into the following operational parts:

• Criteria Review. You review the content in terms of the factors, their priorities, and other attributes, and mandatory requirements you want to implement in the decision process.

• Information gathering and review--RFP/RFI/RFQ processes. In this step you create documents such as RFI’s and questionnaires to gather data.

• Results Summary and Analysis. In this step you tabulate the results for presentation purposes, and use the reports to support your decision.

• Process Audit and Review. In this step you provide a detailed paper trail on how the decision was made, and why. This can aid in cases of decisions being challenged by third parties.

160


Criteria and Alternative Review Before you go through the process of issuing an RFP you can review and document the factors and other attributes associated with them. Examples of these other attributes are the assigned priorities and rating methods.

You may also want to review the details of the Alternatives you consider correct.

In general, to fully document the contents of a model you need to use all of the reports in Table 6-1 below.

Table 7-1: Criteria and Alternative Review Reports

Default Report Name Use

Model Report Lists the main factors in the model, and Factor attributes including text fields (Description, Priority, Comment), rating methods, local and global priorities.

Threshold Definitions Obtain a list of threshold and threshold settings.

Must Have Exception List of Must Haves.

Alternative The alternative report provides detailed information you have entered for the alternative.

Priorities Exception Use this report to find Factors whose priorities are less than, equal to or greater than a specific global priority. This is useful to validate that all factors have been assigned priorities, or to select the factors with priorities above a certain value.

Information Gathering RFI, RFP, and RFQ Processing The information gathering reports are divided among several reports:

Table 7-2. Information Gathering Reports


RFP/Questionnaire With this report you can set up an RFP style document to obtain responses from vendors. The RFP/Questionnaire report supports a special feature for comments. Select the Details tab from the Settings dialog (this can be displayed by clicking the Properties button). In the middle of the Details tab, you will see the Criterion box, which includes an for Rating Comments. By selecting the check-box, your report will display extra fields that provide space for additional comments.

Multi-Alternative Questionnaire This report is intended to obtain data from evaluators who have evaluated the alternatives, and can supply the responses in tabulated format. You may find this function is better served in the Import/Export described in another section of this manual, where the tabulated responses can be obtained in an Excel spreadsheet and automatically imported into ERGO.

Client RFI A generic form that can be used to elicit responses on factor priorities from decision stakeholders on a 0-100 scale.

161


Results Summary and Analysis Reports to Support Decisions The main strength of ERGO reports is in the summary of results and generation of detailed reports to support the decision.

Table 7-3. Results Summary and Analysis Reports to Support Decisions


Results Summary Use this report to summarize the results. You can obtain a comparative list of the Alternatives, or have detailed reporting on Alternative results and mandatory fails. Set the adjusted rank to ignore the ranking of Alternatives which have failed mandatory requirements.

Rating Detail This report provides a grid of factor ratings against Alternatives. Advice: make sure that Truncated Decimals is NOT checked, otherwise you may find that the values appear without values beyond the decimal point. This may or may not be significant. Use if the formatting and numeric value do not infringe your ability to compare Ratings.

Strengths and Weaknesses This report provides the intrinsic strengths and weaknesses for an Alternative. If Alternatives have close prioritized averages, then this report can be used to compare the strengths and weaknesses between the Alternatives (close, by rule of thumb, is within the error margin, typically 5%).

Aggregated Rating Comment This report lets you define the percentages that must be met for a factor to be considered a strength or weakness. It will display all factors in the hierarchy (or limited to the level you specify) and state which are strengths or weaknesses, based on the high and low percentages you define.

Alternative/Rating Comments This report provides all the Alternative rating comments, and optionally show the rating for each Alternative for each factor. You can optionally select to see all the factor/Alternatives, or just those with comments.

Alternative Must Have Status

Use this report to obtain a grid format or list format of Alternative pass/fails against Must Haves.

Graphs Use this interface to generate graphical output. If you wish to have more customized graphs than that supported in Reports, return to the Analysis window and save the graph as a bitmap or metafile to import into an RTF formatted report.

162


Process Audit and Data Review Finally, for full documentation of the decision, the following reports enable a complete audit trail of information.


Model Structure Gives the Hierarchical tree, priorities, text fields except Rating Question for Factors, and Rating Method assignments.

RFP/Questionnaire Gives the Rating Question text information for Factors.

Rating Detail Gives ratings for the Alternatives.

Alternatives Gives complete details on the Alternatives.

Rating Methods Gives details on all rating methods used in the decision.

Alternative/Rating Comments Gives all rating / Alternative comments.

Must Have Definitions Gives a list of all Must Haves and their definitions.

Alternative Must Have Status Gives a table of the Alternative Must Have status against each Must Have.

Threshold Definition Gives all factors with thresholds and the given limit information.

Alternative Threshold Status Gives the status of Threshold ratings and rates (for categories). Select “Threshold Definitions” to show the given factor threshold limit details

163


Reports Reference •••••

The following pages contain a listing of the reports, what they provide, and an image of the associated Detailed Properties box.

• Model Structure • RFP Questionnaire • Client RFI • Multi-Alternative Factor Questionnaire • Results Summary • Rating Detail • Strengths and Weaknesses • Alternatives • Rating Methods • Alternative/Rating Comments • Threshold Definitions • Alternative Threshold Status • Must Have Definitions • Alternative Must Have Status • Priorities Exception • Graphs

164


Model Structure Provides details of the decision hierarchy.

165


RFP/Questionnaire Provides the ability to generate RFP style questionnaires.

166


Client RFI Provides the ability to obtain priorities (or ratings) from stakeholders based on a 0-100 scale.

167


Multi-Alternative Criterion Questionnaire Provides the ability to have evaluators enter ratings on a grid of criteria against alternatives for multiple alternatives.

168


Results Summary Summarizes the results for the alternatives.

169


Rating Detail Provides a cross-reference of alternative ratings against the factors.

170


Strengths and Weaknesses Provides an analysis of the intrinsic or possibly the relative strengths and weaknesses of two or more alternatives with closely prioritized averages.

171


Alternatives Provides a summary of the attributes of the alternatives including User Defined Fields.

172


Rating Methods Provides details of all rating methods.

173


Alternative/Rating Comments Provides the comments for each alternative and criterion.

174


Aggregated Rating Comments Based on user-defined levels of strengths or weaknesses, displays factors that fall above or below these levels.

175


Threshold Definition Provides information on the threshold definition—minimum or maximum and set values.

176


Alternative Threshold Status Provides the status of the alternatives for the factors with thresholds.

177


Must Have Definitions Provides a list of Must Haves only.

178


Alternative Must Have Status Provides a summary of Must Haves that have passed or failed, against alternatives either in the grid format or in a list format.

179


Priorities Exception Enables the filtering of factors by setting conditional priority parameters.

180


Graphs Enables the customization and inclusion of graphs in the current report.

8 - Import/Export and RFI Generation

182

ERGO User’s Guide Chapter 8 -7BImport/Export and RFI Generation

Starting Import/Export •••••

Import/Export enables you to import or export to delimited text and Excel spreadsheets into or from ERGO models. You start the import or export process from:

• The Welcome to ERGO window. Select Import/Export from the File menu. • The Build Model window file menu, select Import/Export.

Figure 8-1. Open File New Tab showing import options.

183


Exporting Files ERGO exports to tabbed text and Excel files.

To export files: 1. Follow the procedure for starting the import/export process, and select Export. 2. The Export wizard in Figure 8-2 appears.

3. Select to export to a text file or an Excel spreadsheet.

4. Click on the button to browse to a directory and choose a filename under which to save the file.

5. Press Next to begin the selection of the ERGO fields you wish to export to the file. Figure 8-2 is typical of an Export dialog box.

Figure 8-2. Export Wizard entry dialog.

184


These fields include:

− Hierarchy and factor fields including priorities. See alternative ratings for adjusted priorities.

− Alternatives—You must select the alternatives you want to export if you do not want to export them all. By default, all alternatives are exported.

− Alternative Ratings—take note of the following:

• Display and 0-100 Scale. You can export ratings on a rate scale of 0-100 (in which case these are rates translated from your ratings, not your input ratings), or as the original ratings you entered. To choose original ratings select Display Ratings.

• You can include Adjusted Weights at this point. Adjusted priorities are the result of having Not Applicables assigned to at least one factor for at least one alternative. It causes redistribution of the weight within the category, adjusted priorities will show the exact priorities used in the calculations.

− Must Have Criteria—Must Have status displays the Must Have/Alternative grid showing the passes and fails

− Rating Methods—You must export the rating methods if you intend to import new ratings

− Results—This exports the set of results, including rank, percent match, composite index, and weighted average columns.

Figure 8-3. Typical format of the export dialog for exporting to an Excel file. You can set the name of the tab of the Excel file which will contain the data.

185


− RFI Import/Export Dialog—this exports an Excel form for easy RFI response purposes. Currently you may exporting and importing RFI data with a single rating method. However, other methods can be done using Excel functions. Select the rating method from the drop-down in the dialog. Use a method that is generic. ERGO creates one Excel worksheet per alternative, with the alternative name on the worksheet tab, which can be sent to the appropriate vendor.

− Decimal Precisions—it is strongly recommended that you select the highest accuracy if you intend to re-import data exported from the file. Do not limit the accuracy, as this can adversely effect your results particularly in large models. Additionally, it can compromise your procurement process. Use this facility only if you intend it for presentation or viewing purposes.

− Export Profile—this saves the settings you have assigned in this export. You can use these settings to re-import the Excel file, Provided you have not changed its structure and layout (See step 7)

6. You can name the tab to which you want the data saved at each step. If you are not exporting to an existing Excel file, you can name a different tab or select from the available tabs. Do not change the tab names after exporting.

7. To save the settings for the file, you save it in an export profile just prior to exporting. Figure 8-4 shows the save profile window.

8. Press Finish to save the file.

Figure 8-4. Saving the Export File

186


Importing Files Before importing, a file must be in an appropriate format. You may assign the ERGO fields to the fields in the text or spreadsheet file. Thus you must prepare them in a way that complies with the import facility described in this manual.To import files you can:

• Choose File Open, select the New tab. You see the dialog in Figure 8-1. • Select Import an Excel Spreadsheet or Import a Text File

If you have a model currently open, you can import another file to replace it.

To import a replacement file: 1. In the Welcome to ERGO window, from the File menu, select Import/Export then

Import. 2. Do one of the following:

− Choose "Import as a New Model" if you want to import the file to create a new model.

− Choose Update Current Model if and only if the current model that is loaded in ERGO is exactly the same in structure and content, and differs only in ratings, priorities, or text information. Alternatives and factors must match exactly, including the order of the alternatives in the two files.

3. The Import file appears (Figure 8-5) note: if you select Import as a New Knowledge Base

the ERGO KB tab does not appear. Use the to navigate and select the file to import.

187


4. Press Next, and the file will be read into ERGO. The Import file wizard in Figure 8-6 appears.

Figure 8-6. Import wizard dialog.

Figure 8-5. Import File Dialog.

188


5. You must now define each of the columns in terms of ERGO fields:

− If you already have an export or import profile for this file, press the Load Mapping button. Navigate to where the file is located and open it. The mappings are automatically loaded. You must be sure that the file has not been changed in terms of the location of any of the ERGO, matching fields, or errors can result which may cause significant data integrity problems with the final output.

− If the profile is not available, you must manually assign each column to an ERGO field. See below how to assign columns to ERGO fields.

Manually Assigning ERGO Fields to Imported File fields

To assign ERGO fields to imported file fields you must proceed as described in this section (this also dictates the exact file format you will need to import models from Excel and tabbed text files).

Before you begin, you should take note of the columns to which the different ERGO fields will be assigned. This will assist you greatly during the import exercise.

To assign ERGO fields to imported file fields: 1. In the lower left of the wizard, use the spin dial labeled Import from Row to indicate

from which row the first (root) factor starts. 2. The first column must contain the hierarchy level numbering. You may need to enter

this by hand. The import wizard cannot automatically generate the level numbering. Select Factor from the top drop-down over this column, and Hierarchy from the second drop down.

3. Where factors are defined, select Factor from the top drop-down above the column and Name from the second drop-down.

4. Repeat step 3 above until the lowest level of the hierarchy is assigned Factor/Name 5. Continue scrolling across until all columns are assigned to ERGO fields. For fields which

are not relevant, select <Ignore> in the lower drop down. 6. When done, press the Next button. You have the opportunity to save the mapping

profile, which we strongly recommend for future reloading. 7. Press Finish to complete the import. 8. Your current model should be updated, or the new model appear in the Build

Hierarchy window.

189


ERGO Import Field Codes Interpretation Tables

•••••

The drop-down boxes in the Import wizard in Figure 8-6 are somewhat cryptic and deserve interpretation. The table below describes what each of the fields are.

Table 8-1. Import Wizard Factor Fields

Wizard Field ERGO Field Other Explanation

<ignore> Not an ERGO field Use if you want to ignore the column.

Name Name of factor Factor names that appear in the model tree.

Description Factor description Descriptions of factors in the model tree.

Hierarchy Level number of factor

FComment Factor comment Factor Comments of factors in the hierarchy.

WComment Factor weight (priority) comment Factor Weight (Priority) Comments of factors in the model tree.

Hyperlink Factor hyperlink(s) Factor Hyperlinks of factors in the model tree.

Table 8-2. Import Wizard Alternative Fields


<ignore> Not an ERGO Field Use if you want to ignore the column.

Name Name of the alternative As defined in the Add/Edit Alternatives window.

Description Alternative description As defined in the Add/Edit Alternatives window

Hyperlink Alternative hyperlink(s) As defined in the Add/Edit Alternatives window, hyperlink field.

190


Table 8-3. Import Wizard Rating Fields



dispscore display rating Rating data as entered

stdscore rate value Translated rating value into rate value through the rating method, measured on a 0 to 100 scale.

MHStatus Must Have status Pass/Fail designation for the alternative for each Must Have. Must Haves are defined in the spreadsheet rows.

RatingComment Rating comment Rating comment for the alternative and factor.

MethodID Identification number of rating method

This is an internal number kept by ERGO which is assigned to the Rating Method. It enables the identification of which rating method is being applied to which factor or factor(s).

Table 8-4. Import Wizard Must Have Fields



Name Must Have name

Description Must Have description

191


Table 8-5. Import Wizard Methods (Rating Methods) Fields



Name Rating method name This is the name you enter for each rating method in the Define Rating Methods dialog.

Description Rating method description This is the description you enter for each rating method in the Define Rating Methods dialog.

MethodType Type of method N= Numeric Rating Method L= List Rating Method V= Verbal Rating Method

ReverseOrder Designates if the numeric method is reverse rated

This is a check-box status for reverse rating set in the Define Rating Methods dialog for numeric scales.

Definition Verbal item statement of a list or verbal rating method

List of verbal statements in a list or Verbal rating method defined the Define Rating Methods dialog.

BaseMethod Equivalent This is the numeric scale used for the equivalent (rate) value. It is picked from existing numeric methods. Note: this is generally a simple numeric scale without units,

RangeMethod Range values (verbal) This is the numeric range method used to define the range values in a verbal rating method. It is picked from existing numeric rating methods.

StartRange Start value of numeric method or verbal range

In a verbal rating method, it is the start value of the range for a particular verbal item in the verbal list.

EndRange End value of numeric method or verbal range

In a verbal rating method, it is the end value of the range for a particular verbal item in the verbal list

Equivalent Equivalent or rate value Equivalent value assigned to a verbal or list item in a verbal or list rating method

192


Table 8-6. Import Wizard RFI Field

Wizard Field ERGO Field Other explanation


MethodID Rating method ID The first rating method ID that the import finds in an RFI dialog is used throughout the import. Consequently, only one rating method can be currently used for import.

RFI Rating Rating from an RFI dialog Rating Value from an RFI, translated by the rating method for factor, by hand if necessary.

Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) helps private- and public-sector organizations choose the best enterprise software solutions for their unique business needs—quickly, impartially, and cost-effectively. TEC’s online Evaluation Centers, containing IT research and extensive software models that catalog vendors’ support for thousands of enterprise software features and functions, are the leading resource for IT decision makers around the world.

By combining that information with a proven methodology, unique Web-based software selection platforms, and years of software selection expertise, TEC delivers an unmatched range of online software evaluation and selection services that bridge the gap between enterprise decision makers and the vendor/value-added reseller (VAR) community.

Find Out More. Contact TEC Today.

http://www.technologyevaluation.com/about-tec/contact-us/�

Documents

ERGO Users Guide 125228