A10: STANDARDS**

...finding VALUES is not always straightforward. Having a clear picture might take longer than the time available.

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Frequently, a decision maker would need to quantify intangibles. However, that is hard, and the quantification is usually arbitrary.

Especially for non-profits, there are various metrics that the stakeholders care about, and most of them are indirect values that have a low impact. However, they are important, and a product should deliver those. For instance, the LEED certification system of EPA scores buildings based on the environmental and health performance. For a platinum certificate, a building needs 80 points or higher. It does not matter if it is 80 points or 100 points; what’s important is whether the platinum performance was delivered or not.

Standards are sometimes tied to the givens in the frame. Any ethical consideration can be used as a standard to evaluate alternatives. For instance, you can say that you would not follow any alternative that might lead to loss of lives or damage to the environment even if it brings you higher value (See Abbas and Howard, 2015, p.784 for more discussion on this topic).

Therefore:

• Find a level for the intangibles over which the preference would not change to set as a standard.
• Use these standards to capture complexity without front-loading your analysis.
• Standards can be used to check whether an alternative satisfies the requirements for intangibles.
• If needed, have multiple levels for an intangible value (i.e., similar to the LEED certification).

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Once you clarify the standards, you can check ALTERNATIVES to see if they meet these standards. Using standards will make it easier to create alternatives by limiting the search set and having a more informed search for alternatives.

References:

Abbas, A. E., & Howard, R. A. (2015). Foundations of Decision Analysis. Pearson Higher Ed.