THE MAGIC OF THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS (AHP)

Dr. Thomas Saaty developed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the underlying goal of making it simple and accessible to the lay user. In Saaty’s own words, the AHP is based on how “ordinary people process information” and “express the strength of their judgments” (Saaty, 1994, p. 37). Because he was successful in developing the AHP in accordance with these goals, when decision makers use the AHP their experience can feel magical as they find pairwise comparisons natural and can relate to the final priorities. Careful investigation of the axioms, theorems, and proofs shows that the AHP is more than just magic and provides scientific justification of the highest order. Five important components of the AHP and some background into the history of its development are summarized and highlighted from Saaty’s article, “How to Make a Decision: the Analytic Hierarchy Process” (Saaty, 1994). https://doi.org/10.13033/ijahp.v9i3.519