Introduction

Abstract

Tradeoffs: it is a cliché that they have to be made in nearly all personal, business, and governmental problems. People, firms, and government agencies have many objectives, goals, criteria, attributes, or performance indices that they use to judge possible courses of actions. The problem is that it is frus-tratingly rare that all of these desiderata can be met or maximized by one alternative. Instead, some options will be good in some criteria, and other alternatives will do better in others. Choosing an alternative means that priorities must be set; accomplishing some goals means sacrificing others. Setting priorities is hard for an individual to do, and even more difficult when there are many people involved in a decision, each with their unique perspective and values. Confronting a decision consists of understanding how well different options might perform on the objectives, and the uncertainties involved; of eliciting the values and priorities of the stakeholders in the decision, and perhaps helping the stakeholders to form those values; of applying those values to the options, resulting in recommendations; and of clarifying how values shaped the recommendations.

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decideNAPOLEON I, Maxims (1804-1915)

Alternatives and particularly desirable alternatives, grow only on imaginary treesSAUL BELLOW, Dangling Man (1944)