AHP as a Decision Making Tool in Projects, Programs and Portfolios

In both project, program and portfolio management decision has to be made all the time. Because of this there's a huge potential to optimize the time spend on decision making by standardizing it. Standardizing the decision making process also minimizes biased and emotional decisions. So it makes sense to standardize decision making, but how should it be done? It should be done by using analytic hierarchy process also known as AHP. AHP is a structured way of organizing complex decision. It’s based on math and psychology and it uses a scoring system. In this way it reminds of the decision matrix but the score is rated to make sure that no biased decision can be made. To use AHP the decision has to be formulated into a hierarchy with a goal, certain criteria and some alternatives to choose from.

History

Introduction

• A brief introduction to the history and development of the analytic hierarchy process.

Relevance for Project, Program and Portfolio Management

• A deeper insight into the pros and cons on using AHP for decision making

The Analytic Hierarchy Process

Criteria

• A short introduction on how to choose the right criteria for AHP

Hierarchy

• How to model the decision into a hierarchy

Application

• The use of AHP as a decision making tool