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Preference-Based Decision Support in Software Engineering

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Value-Based Software Engineering

Abstract:

Throughout the lifecycle of a software system, complex decisions have to be made. One major source of complexity in decision problems is the need to simultaneously consider different, and sometimes conflicting, criteria. When a decision involves multiple criteria, it cannot be made in a purely objective way, but requires subjective judgement to evaluate the trade-offs between criteria. In the field of decision analysis, several methods have been developed to help decision makers to specify their preferences and apply them to a decision problem in a consistent way. In this chapter, we review several methods for multicriteria decision making, in particular additive weighting methods, methods based on aspiration levels, and outranking methods. We present the theoretical background of these methods, their specific ways of evaluating alternatives, and discuss their applicability to decision problems in software engineering. A concluding section discusses issues related to sensitivity analysis and the use of incomplete information.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Studies, University of Vienna, Brünnerstr. 72, 1210, Vienna, Austria

    Rudolf Vetschera

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  1. Rudolf Vetschera
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Software Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Karlsplatz 13, 1040, Wien, Austria

    Stefan Biffl

  2. School of Information Systems, Technology and Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Aybüke Aurum

  3. Center for Software Engineering, University of Southern California, 941 W 37th Place, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0781, USA

    Barry Boehm

  4. Software Engineering NRC Institute for Information Technology, National Research Council Canada, Building M50, 1200 Montreal Rd., Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0R6

    Hakan Erdogmus

  5. Systems Engineering & Automation, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstr. 69, 4040, Linz, Austria

    Paul Grünbacher

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Vetschera, R. (2006). Preference-Based Decision Support in Software Engineering. In: Biffl, S., Aurum, A., Boehm, B., Erdogmus, H., Grünbacher, P. (eds) Value-Based Software Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-29263-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-29263-2_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25993-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-29263-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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