MS Excel based system for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives1

Josef Jablonsk, Pavel Urban

University of Economics Prague, Department of Econometrics

Introduction
Multicriteria evaluation of alternatives belongs among the basic decision problems of

multicriteria decision making with very large possibilities of real applications (evaluation of
investment alternatives, evaluation of credibility of bank clients, rating of companies,
consumer goods evaluation and many others). The theory of multicriteria evaluation of
alternatives is very good established and there are available many different methods for this
kind of problems. From the decision makers point of view the wider utilisation of
multicriteria evaluation techniques depends on the availability of the powerful and userfriendly oriented software tools. The paper describes simple application for multicriteria
evaluation of alternatives developed under MS Excel environment as standard add- in
application written in Visual Basic for Application (VBA). The name of the system is
SANNA (System for ANalysis of Alternatives).
The multicriteria evaluation of alternatives problem is usually defined by criterion matrix
as follows:

Y1
X1
X2
M
Xn

y11
y
21
M

y n1

Y2

K Yk

y12 K y 1k
y 22 K y 2 k

y n 2 K y nk

where X1 , X2 , ..., Xn is the set of n alternatives to be evaluated by k criteria Y1 , Y2 , ..., Yk and

yij, i=1,2,...,n, j=1,2,...,k is the criterion value of the alternative Xi with respect to its
evaluation by criterion Yj. The criterion values are the basic input values for solving
multicriteria evaluation of alternatives problems.
Multicriteria decision problems must always be solved with respect to the final objective of
the evaluation. The objective of the evaluation can influence the selection of the solving
1

The paper is supported by the Grant Agency of Czech Republic grant no. 402/98/1488 and corresponds to the
research program of the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics no. CEZ:J18/98:311401001.

MS Excel based system for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives

94

technique and information that must be specified before or during the evaluation process. The
basic objectives of the evaluation of alternatives are:
selection of the best alternative,
complete ranking of alternatives,
classification of the alternatives (splitting of the alternatives into several classes, e.g. ABC
analysis),
selection of the subset of good alternatives.
The SANNA system does not contain an expert system that could help to decision makers to
select the best solution technique for solving their problems depending on the objectives of
the evaluation. However, the evaluation methods containing in the SANNA system belong
among the standard and most often used techniques and can usually be used in most cases.
All the decision methods supported by SANNA system expect the knowledge of the
information about the decision makers preferences of the criteria in the quantified form. This
means that the decision maker must input the weights of the criteria w1 , w2 , ..., wk . The
specification of the weights is facilitated by the special module of SANNA that helps to
estimate the weights by simple well-known methods.

General structure of the application

SANNA is the standard MS Excel add-in application. After the user opens this application

the new SANNA menu item is added into the basic Excel menu bar. Simultaneously the
SANNA toolbar with buttons for easy working with the application is opened (see Fig. 2).
The structure of the SANNA menu corresponds to the structure of the application. The
SANNA system consists of five basic modules plus simple help tool (each module
corresponds to one item of SANNA menu):
1. Data management module.
SANNA works with standard .xls worksheets. Input data information of the decision
problem with the criterion matrix is placed in this worksheet in the sheet named data.
Data management module either opens new data sheet (if does not already exists) based on
specification of the basic parameters of the problem (the number of alternatives and
criteria) or deals with the current data sheet. The basic functions for dealing with the

MS Excel based system for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives

95

current data set are adding of the new alternative or criteria or removing the alternative or
criteria marked by the active cell of the sheet.
2. Non-dominance filter.
This module makes it possible to test the non-dominance of alternatives in the current data
set. The alternatives are marked according to the results of the test as dominated or nondominated. Another feature of the module is the possibility to remove the dominated
alternatives from the data set. The removing of dominated alternatives is non-reversible.
3. Estimation of weights module.
The decision maker can specify the weights of the criteria either directly by their setting in
the data sheet or by means of three simple well-known methods supported by estimation of
weights module. The decision maker can use the following techniques:
- scale method (weights are set in any numerical scale and normalised),
- Fuller method (based on paired comparisons of the criteria and selection one of the
following: one of the criteria is more important or both the criteria are equally
important),
- AHP (based on the standard Saatys scale) uses either eigenvector calculation or
logarithmic least square method (approximation of the eigenvector); the consistence of
the comparison matrix is checked.
The estimation weights module contains the function that transmits the weights calculated
by above mentioned methods into the data sheet and the function than graphically presents
the weights.
4. Methods for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives.
The current version of the SANNA system supports five basic methods for multicriteria
evaluation of alternatives (WSA, TOPSIS, ELECTRE I, PROMETHEE I, II and
MAPPAC). All the methods need the knowledge of the weights of the criteria. ELECTRE
and PROMETHEE class methods require specification of some additional parameters. A
brief characteristics of the available methods is following:
WSA
The WSA method is based on linear utility function. This method computes the global
utility of the alternatives as the weighted sum of no rmalised criterion values. The method
provides complete ranking of alternatives according to their global utilities.

MS Excel based system for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives

96

TOPSIS
The TOPSIS method is based on the computation of global utilities of alternatives
according to their closeness to the ideal criteria values and distance from the nadir criteria
values. Analogous to the WSA the TOPSIS method provides complete ranking of
alternatives according to their global utilities.
ELECTRE I
The basic output of the ELECTRE I method is the split of the set of alternatives into two
disjoint subsets of efficient and inefficient alternatives. Except the criterion matrix and
weights of the criteria the user must specify a concordance and discordance thresholds. The
final result of the evaluation (subset of efficient and inefficient alternatives) is often very
sensitive on the above mentioned thresholds. The user can repeat the calculation with
different sets of thresholds and compare the results.
PROMETHEE I and II
The PROMETHEE methods need the knowledge of criterion matrix, weights of the criteria
and preference functions of criteria with their parameters for measuring the strength of the
preference of the pairs of alternatives with respect to the given criterion. SANNA uses the
same types of preference functions as proposed by authors of the method in [1].
PROMETHEE I method provides partial ranking of alternatives, PROMETHEE II method
offers complete ranking according to the net flow values.
MAPPAC
The MAPPAC method works with the criterion matrix and weights of the criteria only.
The method splits the alternatives into several preference groups. The evaluation of
alternatives by this method can be very long for problems with several tens of alternatives
comparing to other supported approaches.

5. Report wizard.
The successfully completed evaluation by any of the methods adds a new sheet into the
active worksheet with basic information about the results. By report wizard the user of the
application can build his own output sheet with the results in the user-defined form. The

MS Excel based system for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives

97

user selects required items for the report from the set of items associated to the current
method (including simple graph presentations of results). The basic window of the report
definition for TOPSIS method is presented on Fig. 3.
6. Help.
SANNA contains simple help window that can be activated from the SANNA menu or by
the appropriated button on the SANNA toolbar.

Using the application

The application can solve multicriteria decision problems with maximum 100 alternatives

and 50 evaluation criteria. Typical sequence of steps in processing a decision problem by

SANNA is as follows:
1. Building the new data set. The user works with any existing spreadsheet file and calls the
command Data-New data set. This command displays the dialogue window Parameters of
the problem (Fig. 1) and the user must specify number of alternatives and criteria. Then a
new sheet data containing the table for input/edit of the problem is added into the active
worksheet. The data sheet for a problem with 6 alternatives and criteria is presented on
Fig.2. Except the basic form of the data sheet fig.2 shows the basic menu of SANNA and
its set is control buttons. Once the worksheet with the data sheet is created it can be
saved and used at any time.

Fig. 1 SANNA Specification of parameters of the problem.

2. Test of non-dominance of the set of alternatives and possibly reduction of the set of
alternatives by removing of dominated ones.
3. The weights of criteria can be inserted either directly into the data sheet or by means of
one of the available methods. The results of calculation of weights are placed into new

MS Excel based system for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives

98

sheet that is added in to the worksheet (this sheet is named in accordance with the name of
the method used). After the weights are calculated they can be transmitted into the data
sheet by command Weights-Apply weights. For this command the sheet with results of
weights calculation must be active. Weights contained in the data sheet are used as
inputs for all of the available multicriteria evaluation methods.

Fig. 2 SANNA Data sheet.

4. Application of any of the available multicriteria evaluation methods. WSA, TOPSIS and
MAPPAC methods need the knowledge of weights of criteria only. In addition ELECTRE
I requires specification of concordance and discordance thresholds and PROMETHEE
method need input of types of preference functions and their parameters. The basic results
of calculations are placed in new sheets named according to the appropriate method.
5. By the command Report wizard the report definition window is displayed and the user can
define the form of the created report. The standard form of the report definition window is
presented on Fig.3 (the example is for PROMETHEE method). Before the Report wizard is
activated any sheet with results of the evaluation must be active. The created report is
placed into the new separate sheet.

MS Excel based system for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives

99

Fig. 3 SANNA Report wizard.

The advantage of SANNA consists in the possibility to solve one problem (defined in the
data sheet) by several methods or by one method by using several weights vectors. All the
results for one problem are placed into separate sheets of the active worksheet and in this way
they can be very simply compared. SANNA is building in user- friendly MS Excel
environment. That is why it can be used without problems on all computers (with Excel) and
no special installation is required.
The time of evaluation of a multicriteria decision problem of the limiting size (100
alternatives and 50 criteria) by all the methods except MAPPAC is in seconds (several tens of
seconds for PROMETHEE class methods). For the MAPPAC method the same time in in
several minutes. Naturally the time depends on the computer performance the presented
values hold for PIII/450MHz.
SANNA is created as the modular system. That is why it should not be difficult to extend
its possibilities e.g. by adding new methods for multicriteria evaluation or improving outputs
(graphical presentation of results). It will be our effort in the future.

References
1. Brans,J.P, Mareschal,B.: The PROMCALC and GAIA decision support system for
multicriteria decision aid. University of Brussels, 1991.
2. Fiala,P., Fbry,J.: SYMCA System for Multicriteria Analysis. CEJORE 2(1993), no.2,
pp.177-183.
3. Jablonsk,J.: Multicriteria modelling by means of the LINGO system. In: Methods and
applications of operational research II, Katowice 1998, pp. 63-71.

MS Excel based system for multicriteria evaluation of alternatives

100

4. Jablonsk,J.:Mathematical Programming Modelling and Optimization Systems. CEJORE

6(1998), no. 3-4, pp.279-288.

Doc. Ing. Josef Jablonsk, CSc.

University of Economics Prague,
Department of Econometrics,
W. Churchill Sq. 4, 130 67 Praha 3, Czech Republic,
e-mail: jablon@vse.cz, www: http://nb.vse.cz/~jablon/