Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory
Updated 2026-08-11
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
DEMATEL, the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory, is a structured analysis method developed at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Geneva in the 1970s. Its steps are to build a direct influence matrix from expert judgment of how strongly factors affect one another, normalize that matrix, solve for the total influence matrix covering both direct and indirect effects, compute the prominence and relation of each factor to determine whether it is a cause or an effect, and draw the causal diagram. The method distinguishes cause factors, which influence others, from effect factors, which are influenced, and exposes the causal structure of a system.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Separate cause from effect: identify exactly which factors drive others and which merely respond. - Aggregate the indirect influence: look at the total effects, not only the direct ones. - Visualize the structure: draw the causal diagram so the real intervention points appear.
Anchor fast decisions
A method for revealing the causal relations between factors in a system. From the expert direct influence matrix it computes the total influence matrix and separates the cause factors that act on others from the effect factors that are acted upon, combining graph theory and matrix operations to structure subjective judgment.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2005.09.005verified
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