Draft:MCDA-MSS

The Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis Methods Selection Software. (MCDA-MSS) is a freely accessible software that allows decision analysts to find the most relevant MCDA methods for many decision-making problems, from relatively simple to very complex.

This software has two aims:
 * Allow analysts to learn a sequential and dynamic framework to describe complex decision-making;
 * Guide an analyst assisting a Decision Maker (DM) in choosing the most appropriate MCDA method(s) for a given decision-making problem.

Motivation
Why is the MCDA-MSS needed? Over the last few decades, the number of MCDA methods has grown steadily (hundreds are available nowadays), and an analyst can find it difficult to select the relevant MCDA method(s) for the problem under consideration. The main issue that decision analysts have to deal with is summarized by this question:

Which is the most suitable MCDA method (or subset of methods) that should be used for a given decision-making problem?

Web Application
The MCDA-MSS includes 205 MCDA methods, each one assessed with 156 objective features. The latter make the complexities of decision-making more transparent and manageable, as well as provide an extensive basis for a long-lasting and traceable development of MCDA methods. The MCDA-MSS has four sections:
 * 1) Problem typology: Defines the type and structure of the decision-making problem;
 * 2) Preference model: Defines the type of model that the user would like to apply;
 * 3) Elicitation of preferences: Defines the type, modality and frequency of model preferences;
 * 4) Exploitation of the preference relation induced by the preference model: Defines the strategy used to derive and enrich the decision recommendation.

The decision aiding process is structured. As the software walks the user through, the user provides answers to the questions presented in each section. Answering them leads the user to a subset of methods relevant to their problem.

Under each question, the user can find its description, while the description of an answer appears when the user moves the mouse on it.

Documentation
The MCDA-MSS is available free of charge. Those interested in the recording of an online workshop on the MCDA-MSS can access it

Team
Assist. Prof. Marco Cinelli Assoc. Prof. Miłosz Kadziński, Grzegorz Miebs, Prof. Roman Słowiński Dr. Michael Gonzalez Dr. Peter Burgherr
 * Decision Engineering for Sustainability and Resilience Laboratory, Leiden University College, Faculty Governance and Global Affairs & Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Faculty of Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands
 * Laboratory of Intelligent Decision Support Systems Institute of Computing Science, Poznań University of Technology, Poznań, Poland
 * Environmental Decision Analytics Branch, Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati (OH), USA
 * Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis, Technology Assessment Group, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland

Funding acknowledgment
This project has received funding from Leiden University College, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 743553, the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant agreement No IZSEZ0_193662, the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education under the Diamond Grant project (Grant No. DI2018 004348), and the Polish National Science Center under the SONATA BIS project (Grant No. DEC-2019/34/E/HS4/00045).