UTilités Additives DIScriminantes (Additive Utility Sorting)
UTADIS (UTilités Additives DIScriminantes (Additive Utility Sorting)) is a sorting multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method introduced by Devaud, J. M., Groussaud, G., Jacquet-Lagrèze, E. in 1980. It turns a decision matrix of alternatives scored on multiple criteria into a structured, reproducible result.
Read the full method
Sign in with a free account to read this section.
When to use it
UTADIS sorts alternatives into Q ordered classes (best-to-worst) by learning piecewise-linear marginal utilities u_i and Q−1 class thresholds u_k from a labelled reference set with known class assignments. The LP (Eqs.(21)-(27)) minimises the total classification error F = Σ_{a∈C_1} σ⁺(a) + … + Σ_{a∈C_Q} σ⁻(a). σ⁺(a) is the LOWER-BOUND violation slack (alternative's U(a) is below the lower threshold of its class); σ⁻(a) is the UPPER-BOUND violation slack (alternative's U(a) is above the upper threshold of its class). Reference set must be labelled (DM's prior classification given). Output: U(a
Strengths & limitations
- Follows a transparent, reproducible computational procedure that can be audited step by step.
- Handles multiple criteria of differing scales and units within a single decision matrix.
- Assumes full compensation — a strong score on one criterion can offset a weak score on another.
Sources
- Devaud, J. M., Groussaud, G., Jacquet-Lagrèze, E. (1980). UTADIS: Une méthode de construction de fonctions d'utilité additives rendant compte de jugements globaux. European Working Group on MCDA, Bochum link ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 2). UTilités Additives DIScriminantes (Additive Utility Sorting). ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/decision-making/utadis