The art of decision making is the process of selecting the proper alternative under the condition of uncertainty and with limited resources. While taking any decision, we concentrate on weighting alternatives that fulfil a set of desired goals. The problem is to select the alternative that meets all the goals to a maximum level. In the strong competition and complexity of decision problems, there is an increasing need for methods that allow making rational decisions. Managers, who solve multifaceted problems, try to grasp them at once using only one criterion that would aggregate all important consequences of a given problem. In such case, they deal with only one-criterion analysis, in which all potential variants are judged against one, selected a priori criterion, i.e. the company's profit. There is an array of methods to solve such a problem, including linear programming, parametric, stochastic, non-linear, margin analysis, econometric methods, theory of games, to name but a few examples. Such procedure is reasonable only in certain cases.

One has to realize, however, that the one-criterion analysis is neither fully reliable, acceptable nor exhausted. In other words, it does not possess characteristics that a common group of criteria should p. Multicriteria decision making remains therefore in contrast with the one-criterion analysis, in the sense that it aims at expressing the common group of goals as an instrument of understandable, acceptable and exhausted communication, which should enable to create, substantiate and transform preferences in decision making process. In the field of solving multicriteria problems, there is a variety of methods described in the literature. Among these methods, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) are the most widely applied, and in our opinion, the best ones. Although they are not perfect, no better methods have been created so far.

Both AHP and ANP were developed by professor Thomas L. Saaty from the University of Pittsburg in early 70's. Professor L. Saaty developed the AHP based on his work at the U.S. State Department's Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He recognized that the current techniques for resolving problems were deficient in both mathematical logic and relevance to real world decision making.