BRA -Assignment 1: Selecting a decision problem/ 20-02-2012

Sidrat ul Muntaha

FINDING A REASONABLE AND SPEEDY INTERNET SERVICE

1. A Decision Problem: I want to purchase an internet service. I have searched and compare different internet service providers for this matter. My main focused is on charges and speed of internet. To find a reasonable and speedy internet, I have got the following information of the internet service providers which are shown in this table: Alternatives Criteria: Monthly charges 399 399 399 399 429 327 Criteria: Speed 100M/bits 80 M/bits 60 M/bits 80M/bits 60M/bits 100M/bits Criteria: Type Criteria: Bundet 12 months 24months 18 months 18 months 24months 12months

Comhem Telenor Bredbandbolaget Tele2 Telia Behnhof Criteria:

Kabel TV 4G Turbo DSL 4G ADSL ADSL

My criteria for finding the internet services are following: 1. Monthly charges (linear scale): I selected monthly charges to just know the difference between the charges of all other internet service provider which are in my range. 2. Speed (subjective scale): For selecting the internet service, the speed is most important thing. 3. Type (subjective scale): Your choice of internet connection depends upon the budget and on location, faster the internet connection you are using, better will be for your work. 4. Bounded (bandet): (subjective scale) Bundet is agreement between you and ISP; it shows how long you are bounded to use the particular internet service. In the following criteria I will give my first preference to monthly charge which is linear scale I expressed linear scale with negative because it shows cost and cost is negative, then my subjective scales are speed, type and bundet. Speed is my second most preference after monthly charges then type and at last bundet.

BRA -Assignment 1: Selecting a decision problem/ 20-02-2012

Sidrat ul Muntaha

Alternative: My alternatives for internet service providers are: Comhem Telenor Bredbandbolaget Tele2 Telia Behnhof

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

2. How I Solved the Decision Problem with Each Method and How I Elicit the Weight and Values? 2.1Proportional scoring: For solving the problem with proportional scoring, I have to select the best alternative and start moving towards the worst alternative and at the end of the each criteria table I got the (max/min) alternative for each criterion. The best and worst outcome is assigned utility 1 and 0 respectively. Side by side the swing weight table is giving me a choice to change from worst to best alternative for each criterion. For instance my best alternative in monthly charges: For this problem of finding internet service my first criteria is monthly charges which is linear so I have selected my best alternative in this criteria and move downward till my worst alternative. My best alternative in this case is Behnhof whose monthly charges (-327) then I moved downward with my other alternative which are (Comhem, Telenor, Bredbandbolaget, Tele2) with monthly charges (-399) and my at last my worst alternative in this particular case is Telia with (-429).For my other subjective criterion works in the same way I have choose my best alternative and then move downwards till worst alternative. For my subjective criteria I have given Best score with <=100, better with <=70 and worst with <=40. For swing weight: In swing weight table for me I think the most important thing is monthly charges (from worst to best) followed by speed (shown with the 100 and 80score) then a bit important is Type (shown with 60score) and least important is bundet (shown with 40). After entering the weight result table shown the rank, norm and % opt of the alternatives and the highest results indicates the best choice which is (Behnhof with 64%) 2.2 Cardinal Ranking: For solving the problem with cardinal ranking, I have selected my most preferred Alternative and start moving downwards the to my least preferred alternative and at the end I got the sum of each criteria. The swing weight table shows the preference of each criterion (from worst to best). For solving the problem my first criteria which is monthly charges so I have selected my most preferred criteria and moved downward till my least preferred criteria (it was copied

BRA -Assignment 1: Selecting a decision problem/ 20-02-2012

Sidrat ul Muntaha

from scoring table).Then for all subjective criteria, I have given my rank which are according to following expression: For the criteria selection: =equally good >slightly better >>better >>>much better >>> Extremely much better For instance: In speed criteria I have ranked as below: Comhem=Behnhof>>Telenor=tele2>>>Telia=Bredbandbolaget 100M/bits=100 M/bits>>80M/bits=80M/bits>>>60M/bits=60M/bits For this criterion Comhem is equally good Behnhof, Behnhof is better than Telenor, Telenor is equal better Tele 2, tele2 is much better than Telia, Telia is equally good Bredbandbolaget. (All other criterion are expressed in excel sheet). For swing weights: In same way I have shown my swing weight .For the swing weights table I have used following expression: =equally important >slightly more important >>more important >>>much more important >>> Extremely much more important For instance: for me speed(change from worst to best) and monthly charges are equal important, Monthly charges are more important than type and type is much more important than bandet. Finally I got the result of my best preferred alternative which is (Behnhof with 73%) 2.3 Pair wise Ratios: In pair wise ratios, I have compared my best alternative with all other alternatives. I used following expression to show the strength of my alternative with other five alternative. 1=equally strength 3=3 times more strength 5=5 times more strength 7=7 times more strength for instant in my type criteria I have used following expression: Comhem (type is Kabel TV), Telenor and Tele2 has (4G), Bredbandbolaget (Turbo DSL), Telia and Behnhof (ADSL).For my best alternative which is Comhem in type criteria I have compared it with other alternatives such as Comhem is equally strength is compared with Telenor and tele2, and then if I compare Comhem with Bredbandbolaget then it is 3 times more in strength than bredbolaget, atlast when I compared Comhem with Telia and Behnhof and I found Comhem 5 times more in strength in compare of both of them. My each criterion showed the score, norms, C.I and sum for all alternatives.
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BRA -Assignment 1: Selecting a decision problem/ 20-02-2012

Sidrat ul Muntaha

For Swing weight: For weight table, I have compared my each criteria with all other criterion and finally I come up with result and (Behnhof was ranked 1 as a best alternative). 3. Comparison between the results of three methods: I think all three methods differ in numerical results (norm) in all three methods I got the different percentage of my best alternative for example if Behnhof is 64% in scoring then in ranking it is 73 and in ratio the Behnhof is (0.28) 28 %. According my thinking in proportional scoring it is evaluating according best and worst alternative giving score to each alternatives and at the end of each criteria there is (Min/Max) and in swing weight we gives score to our each criterion according to our wish and we can choice any way of scaling which indicates the best alternative . In cardinal ranking it is doing sum at the end of each criteria and each alternative is ranked into steps which is declared with in 10 numerical integers. At the end the result is displayed in same way as proportional scoring. For pair wise ratio I think it is also doing sum at the end of each criteria and comparing all alternative with all other alternatives and display their sum of score, C.I and norm at the end of each criteria which should not exceed 10% and at the end we are getting results in the form of norm, rank and %opt. 4. Efforts put in working with three methods: I felt the proportional scoring is easy to implement at least for numerical attributes level and it linear transformation is very strong which can be unsatisfactory in some cases. The scoring method gives score to the alternatives and at the end you got the result. On other hand in cardinal ranking, work on the criteria and alternative according to steps and I have a particular range of steps expression in which I can express my alternatives. It doesnt need much efforts and I think scoring and ranking are similar in efforts and easiest. Whereas, I found pair wise ratio hardest because of comparing one alternative with all other alternative and you are not allowed to go across the C.I value. This needs more efforts! 5. Trade-off between efforts and precision:
As I mentioned above scoring and ranking need less effort as compared to pair wise ratio

but I think precision is different think to be compared with efforts because as you can seen Pair wise decision problem needs more efforts by comparing one alternative with other alternatives but this method may be good for small size decision problem. I dont think it will give more precise results when there will be medium or large size of data. When there is more comparison the higher likelihood that decision problem will introduce error nous data. It may be good for risk analysis. According to my thinking precision of results depend upon the size of the problem more than efforts.

BRA -Assignment 1: Selecting a decision problem/ 20-02-2012

Sidrat ul Muntaha

6. Easiest method to present: I think proportional scoring is easiest to present to group of top managers because it can be easily understandable, give accurate results and we show our alternative in best and worst ways according to our own choice of scoring. But I will never preferred proportional scoring methods to be applied on risky decisions problems. 7. Method to be used in real life decision problem: The method which I will use in my real life decision problem is cardinal ranking because of two reasons; I will use this method in my real life problem: 1. I will give preference to cardinal ranking because it uses set of ranking expression and I think this is easiest way to express the best and worst alternatives and Its results are more consistence and optimal. 2. Cardinal analysis is more reliable than ordinal analysis.

Reference: www.compricer.se

BRA -Assignment 1: Selecting a decision problem/ 20-02-2012

Sidrat ul Muntaha