May 2013 – BPMSG

Updated AHP Excel Template Version 8.5.2013

In this latest update I followed the several requests to extend the number of participants (decision makers); you now can use the template for up to 20 participants. In addition the weight of individual participants can be adjusted for the aggregation of individual judgments (AIJ). For example, if you have one expert in the group, you might want to give him/her evaluation a x-time higher importance than the rest of participants. Then you simply change the weight in the input sheet from 1 to x. The calculation is done using the weighted geometric mean:

with c_ij = element of the consolidated decision matrix, a_ij(k) element of the decision matrix of participant k.

Kindly let me know in case you find any problem with this new version. Feedback is appreciated always! You can download this latestes version from my AHP template download page.

Welcome to BPMSG – May 2013

Concepts, Methods and Tools to manage Business Performance

Dear Friends, dear Visitors,

time for an update on my BPMSG welcome page! Being quite busy the last half year, I didn’t work so much on major articles or videos, but at least I tried to keep my site current with some regular updates.

Related to the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), you might find information about the consistency ratio (CR). CR is one of the most critical issue in the practical application of AHP, as it seems to be difficult for many decision makers to fulfill Saaty’s “ten-percent rule-of thumb”. The way out: either you accept higher ratios (up to 0.15 or even 0.2), modify the judgements in the pair-wise comparisons, or you use the balanced scale instead of the standard AHP 1 to 9 scale. All three can be done in my updated AHP template from Februar 2013.

As I received many requests to extend the number of participants to more than 10, here the detailed procedure, how you can do it by yourself. Extending the number of criteria beyond 10 is more complex and not recommended by me. If you actually have more than 10 criteria please try to group in sub-groups. At the moment I don’t have any planes to extend the number of criteria to more than ten.

I also started a new topic: Diversity. Triggered by some business related questions, I found out that the concept of diversity – as applied in ecology – is very universal, and can be applied in many business areas. You can watch my introduction as video:

Diversity as Business KPI – The Concept of Diversity, and
Diversity as Business KPI – Alpha and Beta Diversity.

I already applied the concept in several areas, and even developed a new consensus indicator for group decision making based on the partitioning of the Shannon entropy. A paper is submitted for the ISAHP conference in June, and after the event I will place a copy of the paper on my site for download.

For those of you, interested in the topic of diversity and the partitioning in alpha (within group) and beta (in-between group) components my free BPMSG Diversity Calculator could be a useful tool.

Now please enjoy your visit on the site and feel free to give me feedback –
it’s always appreciated.

Klaus D. Goepel,
Singapore, May 2013

How to extend the AHP Excel Template for more Participants?

As I received many requests to extend the number of participants in my AHP excel template, here a short information how to use it for more than 20 participants. There are two possibilities

Use my AHP online Software.
Use several templates, each of them for up to 20 participants, and then combine the consolidated results in an additional summary template.
Modify the template.

As the template is quite complex, I strongly recommend to use the first possibility. But if you really want to modify the template itself, follow the step-by-step instruction below. This instruction does not include the AHP consensus indicator calculation.

Unprotect sheet In20; create a copy of the sheet In20 and rename to In21.
Go to “Formulas – Name Manager” and delete name Matrix20 with scope In21.
Mark matrix cells of the decision matrix in In21 (C79:L88), and define new name Matrix21 with scope workbook.
Go to Sheet multInp, unprotect sheet. Add additional matrix, e.g. copy/paste from matrix 20 (2 matrices per rows, same structure as for matrix 1-10).
Mark content cells of new matrix and define new name “m_p21”
Set it {=Matrix21} ( {} = array function, see below).
Mark the consolidated matrix (B9:K18), and modify the formula
{=(M9:V18*B22:K31* …*B74:K83)^(1/N4)} to include the added participant’s matrix.
Go to sheet Summary, unprotect sheet.
Mark matrix starting at line 38, and add new matrix m_p11 in the formula: {=IF(p_sel>0;CHOOSE(p_sel; m_p1; m_p2; … ; m_p20; m_p21);MatrixC)}.
Select field C7 (number of participants). Menu “Data – Data Validation”:
change range from 1 to 20 to 1 to 21.
Continue in the same way for additional participants.

Note: {} is the Excel array function: mark cell area, and use Ctrl-Shift-Enter.

All matrices in the input sheets are named Matrixn, n = 1 to max. number of participants. (Matrix1, Matrix2, etc.)
The matrices in the multInp sheet are named “m_pn” (m_p1, m_p2, etc.)

Diversity as Business KPI – Alpha and Beta Diversity – Video

a-b-diversity The video explains partitioning of Shannon diversity into two independent components: alpha (within group) and beta (in between groups) diversity. It helps to understand beta diversity as a measure of variation between different samples of data distributions. Some practical applications in the field of business analysis are shown.

Enjoy watching!