Multicriteria analysis: Managing complexity in selecting a student-information system

Seattle University recently decided to replace three separate, computerized student-information systems with a single, integrated system. The complexity of this decision was managed with a multicriteria method which was used to evaluate alternative systems. The method took into account the many and sometimes conflicting concerns of the people who would use whatever system was finally selected. Multicriteria analysis not only provided a way of managing a large amount of information, but apparently reduced people's resistance to change. The method is simple in structure and can be adapted to different kinds of decisions and decision-making processes encountered by institutional researchers.Presented at the Twenty Eighth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Phoenix, Ariz., May 1988.