Multiattribute Evaluation

Evaluation is rapidly becoming Big Business. Questions like "Is this plan wise?" "Should I choose option A or option B?" "At what funding level should this program be supported?" How well is this program doing?" have been asked of social programs since long before we were born . But the idea that one could answer such questions systematically and in a manner other than simply looking at the object of evaluation and making an intuitive judgment is a development of the 1960s and 1970s . As inflated costs and less-inflated program budgets come into steadily escalating conflict, the task of weeding out the programs worthy of support from those that are not, and of providing guidance for programs in existence, will continue to grow in importance-as will the resources and attention devoted to developing satisfying methods of performing that task .