ORESTE
Updated 2026-08-11
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
ORESTE is a multi-criteria decision method that operates on ordinal information. The analyst ranks the criteria by importance, expressing only which matters more than which, and for each criterion ranks the alternatives by performance. The method aggregates these rankings into a comprehensive ordering of the alternatives, so no cardinal weights or precise performance scores are required. Its design assumption is that decision makers can often produce a reliable ordering while being unable to defend specific numeric weights, and that forcing numbers in that situation manufactures false precision. It also assumes the criteria are independent.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Use ordinal weights: ask which criterion matters more rather than how much more. - Use per-criterion ranking: order the alternatives within each criterion instead of scoring them. - Use aggregation: combine the orderings into a single ranking without inventing numeric weights.
Anchor fast decisions
Precise weights are hard to elicit and easy to dispute, while orderings are comparatively easy to produce and defend. Working only with ranks removes the need for a common numeric scale across criteria, which is where many multi-criteria methods become fragile. The aggregation step then combines the criterion rankings into a comprehensive ordering, so the output preserves the information the decision makers actually supplied. The cost is granularity: because only order is retained, differences in magnitude are invisible to the result.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1016/0895-7177(89)90367-1verified
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