DEXi:
A Program for Multi-Attribute Decision Making

Purpose

DEXi is an educational computer program for multi-attribute modelling. It is aimed at interactive development of qualitative multi-attribute decision models and the evaluation of options. This is useful for supporting complex decision-making tasks, where there is a need to select a particular option from a set of possible ones so as to satisfy the goals of the decision maker. A multi-attribute model is a hierarchical structure that represents the decomposition of the decision problem into subproblems, which are smaller, less complex and possibly easier to solve than the complete model.

Description

DEXi supports two basic functions:

the development of qualitative multi-attribute models
the application of models for the evaluation and analysis of options.

The models are developed by defining:

attributes: qualitative variables that represent decision subproblems,
tree of attributes: a hierarchical structure representing the decomposition of the decision problem.
utility functions: rules that define the aggregation of attributes from bottom to the top of the tree of attributes.

In the evaluation and analysis stage, DEXi facilitates:

description of options: defining the values of basic attributes (terminal nodes of the tree),
evaluation of options: a bottom up aggregation of option values based on utility functions,
analysis: what-if analysis and selective explanation of options,
reporting: graphical and textual presentation of models, options and evaluation results.

DEXi differs from other multi-attribute decision support systems (see, for example, Decision Analysis Software) in that it uses qualitative (symbolic) attributes instead of quantitative (numeric) ones. Also, aggregation (utility) functions in DEXi are defined by if-then decision rules rather numerically by weights or some other kind of formula.

In comparison with its predecessor DEX, DEXi has a more modern and more convenient user interface. Also, it has better graphical and reporting capabilities, and facilitates the use of weights to represent and assess qualitative utility functions. On the other hand, DEXi is somewhat less powerful than DEX in dealing with incomplete option descriptions: DEX employs probabilistic and fuzzy distribution of values, while DEXi facilitates only the use of crisp or unknown option values.

Development

DEXi has been developed in collaboration with the:

Department of Knowledge Technologies, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and
University of Maribor, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Kranj, Slovenia.

The development was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia within the Ro (Computer Literacy) Programme (1999-2000).

Availability

DEXi runs under MS Windows operating system. It is implemented in Borland Delphi.

DEXi is available free of charge for non-commercial applications. To obtain a fully functional Slovene version, download DEXi.zip, unpack it to your computer and run DEXi.EXE (this is the DEXi program itself - no installation is required). There is also a help file (in Slovene language) included in the package.

The DEXi User's Manual is available in Slovene language as:
Jereb, E., Bohanec, M., Rajkovič, V.: DEXi: Računalniški program za večparametrsko odločanje, Moderna organizacija, Kranj, 2003.

An English version of DEXi is available in DEXi_ENG.zip. Currently, there are no help files or user manuals available for this version (sorry).

Related software

DEX is the predecessor of DEXi.
JDEXi is an open-source Java library implementing: the parsing of DEXi models and evaluation of options.

Documentation

Jereb, E., Bohanec, M., Rajkovič, V.: DEXi: Računalniški program za večparametrsko odločanje, Moderna organizacija, Kranj, 2003.

Selected Publications

Bohanec, M., Rajkovič, V.: Multi-attribute decision modeling: Industrial applications of DEX, Informatica 23, pp. 487-491, 1999.

Bohanec, M., Zupan, B., Rajkovič, V.: Applications of qualitative multi-attribute decision models in health care, International Journal of Medical Informatics 58-59, pp. 191-205, 2000.

Leben, A., Bohanec, M.: Evaluation of life-event portals: Multi-attribute model and case study, Knowledge management in electronic government (ed. Wimmer, M.A.), 4th IFIP International Working Conference KMGov 2003, Rhodes, Greece, pp. 25-36, 2003.

Mladenić, D., Lavrač, N., Bohanec, M., Moyle, S. (eds.): Data mining and decision support: Integration and collaboration. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.
Chapters:

Bohanec, M.: Decision support. pp. 23-35.
Bohanec, M., Rajkovič, V., Cestnik, B.: Five decision support applications. pp. 177-189.
Moyle, S., Bohanec, M., Ostrowski, E.: Large and tall buildings: A case study in the application of decision support and data mining. pp. 191-202.

Moyle, S., Ostrowski, E., Bohanec, M.: Knowledge development using data mining: A specific application in the construction industry. Leveraging corporate knowledge (ed. Truch, E.), Gower, pp. 181-197, 2004.

Vintar, M., Grad, J. (ur.): E-uprava: Izbrane razvojne perspektive, Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za upravo, 2004.:

Leben, A., Bohanec, M.: Vrednotenje portalov življenjskih situacij, pp. 123-140.
Bohanec, M.: Odločanje in večparametrsko modeliranje, pp. 205-219.

Further Information

For further information about DEXi and its applications contact its primary developer, Marko Bohanec. Any feedback about your experience with DEXi will be greatly appreciated.

DEXi: A Program for Multi-Attribute Decision Making