An intelligent group decision-support system and its application for project performance evaluation

Purpose In any organization there are main goals, with lots of projects designed to achieve these goals. It is important for any organization to determine how much these projects affect the achievement of these goals. The purpose of this study is to develop a Fuzzy Multiple Attribute-based Group Decision Support System (FMAGDSS) to evaluate projects’ performance in promoting the organization’s goals utilizing Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) algorithm and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) algorithm. The proposed FMAGDSS deals with choosing the most appropriate fuzzy ranking algorithm for solving a given Fuzzy Multi Attribute Decision Making (FMADM) problem with both qualitative and quantitative criteria (attributes), and uncertain judgments of decision makers. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, a Fuzzy Multi Attribute Group Decision Support System (FMAGDSS) model is designed to determine scores and ranks of every project in promoting the organization’s goals. In the first step of FMAGDSS model, all projects are assessed by experts based on evaluation criteria and the organization’s goals. The proposed FMAGDSS model will then choose the most appropriate fuzzy ranking method to solve the given Fuzzy Multi Attribute Decision Making (FMADM) problem. Finally, a sensitivity analysis system is developed to assess the reliability of the decision making process and provide an opportunity to analyze the impacts of “criteria weights” and “projects’ performance” on evaluating projects in achieving the organizations’ goals, and to assess the reliability of the decision making process. In addition, a software prototype has been developed on the basis of FMAGDSS model that can be applied to solve every FMADM problem that needs to rank alternatives according to certain attributes. Findings The result of this study simplifies and accelerates the evaluation process. The proposed system not only helps organizations to choose the most efficient projects for sustainable development, but also helps them to assess the reliability of the decision making process, and decrease the uncertainty in final decisin caused by uncertain judgment of decision makers. Research limitations/implications Future studies are suggested to expand this system to evaluate and rank the project proposals. To achieve this goal, the efficiency of the projects in line with organization’s goals, should be predicted. Practical implications The proposed FMAGDSS model has been implemented into a software tool for projects’ performance evaluation. This software is dynamic to the numbers and the types of criteria (qualitative and quantitative), the number of alternatives and decision makers, and decision making subjects, so it is applicable for a large variety of decision making environments. Originality/value This study contributes to the relevant literature by proposing a FMAGDSS model to evaluate projects in promoting organization’s goals. The proposed FMAGDSS has ability to choose the most appropriate fuzzy ranking algorithm to solve a given FMADM problem based on the type and the number of attributes and alternatives, considering the least computation and time consumption for ranking alternatives.