Multi-Attribute Decision Analysis (MADA) is one way of differentiating between early projects with little information, and showing relative merit. Many companies employ MADA as a method to qualitatively assess projects where little or no real quantitative knowledge is available.
There are many facets to MADA; one frequently used variant is to define categories, and then score each project from 1 to 5 on how well they fulfill the criteria for each category. The scores can be added together to create an overall score or ranking of projects. The scoring can also potentially inform quantitative assumptions such as cost, timelines, revenue, and risk. Some companies have quantitative early project templates based on their score in the MADA categories.
A success factor for MADA is to have very well-defined categories and criteria for all the different scores.
