Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Computers and Information- Department of Operations Research and Decision Support

Decision making is about selecting the best choice from a range of possible options. Based on the number of the participants in the decision making process, it is classi{uFB01}ed into indi- vidualandgroupdecisionmaking. Groupdecisionmakingpresentsanumberofchallenges thatneedtobehandledbyatoolthatfacilitatescommunicationanddeliberation. Anum- ber of models and frameworks have been proposed to handle speci{uFB01}c types of problems due to their limited features. Therefore, there are problems that require the use of more than one model due to the limitations that an existing single model would impose, such as shortage in communications between participants, disallowing participants from adding new alternatives or criteria, or providing no statistics about the problem. The main con- tribution of the thesis is to build a robust model that can be used over a wide range of problem scenarios by integrates the key features from the models and frameworks that ad- dressed the issues that related to group decision making. The proposed model makes use of a trust and delegation feature to manage the communications among the participants and handle the di{uFB00}erences in their levels of expertise

Issued also as CD