Teams need to come to consensus about which design they choose to build. Many times this process can lead to conflict within a team. It is important that students remain mature and open to all ideas when deciding on the best idea to build. Sometimes students invest a lot of time an energy during the research, design and development of idea phases of the engineering design process and become attached to their design ideas. A decision matrix is the best way to look at all of the contributed designs in an unbiased way using criteria.
A decision matrix is a tool to help you decide between multiple options by scoring them against different criteria. Using a decision matrix can help your team effectively and efficiently make tough decisions.
There are two ways to do this, a simple decision matrix and a weighted objective tool.
A decision matrix is a tool to help you decide between multiple options by scoring them against different criteria. Using a decision matrix can help your team effectively and efficiently make tough decisions.
There are two ways to do this, a simple decision matrix and a weighted objective tool.
Decision Matrix
The steps to completing a Decision Matrix are:
1. Create a table and list all of the criteria along the top as the column headings.
2. List the design ideas along the left as the row headings.
3. Score each on a scale from 1 (poor) to 4 (very good). Yes or no question get a 2 (yes) or 1 (no).
4. Add up the row of scores when the table is complete and the row with the highest score is the winning design.
1. Create a table and list all of the criteria along the top as the column headings.
2. List the design ideas along the left as the row headings.
3. Score each on a scale from 1 (poor) to 4 (very good). Yes or no question get a 2 (yes) or 1 (no).
4. Add up the row of scores when the table is complete and the row with the highest score is the winning design.
Weighted Objective Tool
A weighted objective tool weights the criteria so that some are worth more than others. In the example below, a scale of 1-10 was used which was then multiplied by the weight for that criteria. Make sure your teams decides on a scale and weighting before beginning to fill out the weighted objective tool. There is more on this in the VEX Curriculum on the Engineering Design Process.