How to Create a Decision Matrix
1.List the design objectives 
•Use the Objectives Tree
•The initial list might have been changed
2.Rank order these from most to least important
•A rank order is a list from most important to least. Pair-wise comparison may help in ordering them (see lecture 3).
•Rank ordering is an example of and ordinal scale.
3.Assign relative weighting to these objectives
General Procedure:
•Some objectives are much more important than others. These should be on the interval scale which usually is not a linear scale.
• Interval Scale 1-10 or 1-100
• Shared value list
• Objective tree based relative weightings
Interval scale
A
4
D
5
6
C
7
E
2
3
1
8
9
B
10
Shared value list
A
15
D
18
C
25
E
7
B
35
l1.0
l1.0
lO1
l0.7
l0.7
lO11
l0.3
l0.3
lO12
l0.18
l0.6
lO122
l0.12
l0.4
lO121
In groupthink cohesiveness is valued more than good decisions.  Decisions are made based on pressures OTHER THAN evaluating facts and finding the best answer.  Challenger example is taken from the textbook, page 125.
In the Challenger disaster, it was determined that failure of the O-rings due to freezing temperatures caused the explosion.