Decision Making with Criteria and Weight

If you need to make an important decision, the following can help:

  1. Identify the criteria
  2. Identify the weighting of each criteria
  3. Rate your options against the criteria and multiply by the weightings

For example, when I was giving input on hiring our PUM, I identified the following criteria:

  • Microsoft Experience
  • patterns & practices Experience
  • Attract the right talent
  • Execution
  • Customer-connection
  • Engineering Competence
  • Business Competence
  • Political Competence

I then assigned a weighting.  For example:

  • Microsoft Experience - (2)
  • patterns & practices Experience - (3)
  • Attract the right talent - (3)
  • Execution - (3)
  • Customer-connection - (3)
  • Engineering Competence  - (2)
  • Business Competence - (2)
  • Political Competence - (2)

I rated the candidate against each criteria and then multiplied by the weighting.  This gave me a quick frame to compare different candidates as well as have more meaningful dialogues with others.  The actual numbers were less important than testing and clarifying criteria.