Glossary
Short definitions used in ANP Studio. Each entry points to a guide page when useful.
Alternative
An option you are ranking or choosing among; often collected in an alternatives cluster. See Concepts and Structure.
BOCR / BCR
Benefits / Opportunities / Costs / Risks (or Benefits / Costs / Risks) control structures whose subnetwork scores are combined by a synthesis formula. See Structure (Formula).
Cluster
A group of related nodes on the Structure canvas. See Structure.
Cluster matrix
Matrix of weights showing how strongly clusters influence each other; used to scale the unscaled supermatrix. See Calculations.
Connection
A directed link meaning a node influences a destination cluster. See Connections.
Global priorities
Priorities of all nodes derived from the limit matrix. See Calculations.
Inconsistency
A measure of how much pairwise judgments disagree with themselves; high values suggest revisiting comparisons. See Pairwise comparing.
Influence
Analysis of how changing a row’s priorities moves alternative scores. See Calculations.
Perspective
Alternative scores when a factor’s row-sensitivity parameter p approaches 1 (evaluated near 1, not at exactly 1); shown as a matrix with one column per node. See Calculations.
Invert
Treating a priority or score so that higher raw values mean lower preference (common for costs). Used in synthesis contexts; see network Formula and subnetwork settings in Structure.
Limit matrix
Long-run influence matrix from powers (or decomposition) of the scaled supermatrix. Methods: Calculus, New Hierarchy, Sinks—set in the Structure Inspector. See Calculations.
Node
One element inside a cluster (criterion, alternative, stakeholder, …). See Structure.
Pairwise
Judgment mode that compares items two at a time under a parent (wrt). See Pairwise comparing.
Ratings
Judgment mode that assigns each item a level on a scale. See Ratings.
Scale
Ordered set of rating categories with ideal or priority values used to turn votes into local priorities. See Ratings.
Scaled supermatrix
Weighted, column-stochastic form of the unscaled supermatrix after applying the cluster matrix. See Calculations.
Sensitivity
How alternative scores change as a parameter p varies for a chosen row or globally. See Calculations.
Subnetwork
A nested network owned by a node (common under BOCR/BCR control nodes). See Structure.
Synthesis
Combining subnetwork (or control) results into overall alternative scores—additive, multiplicative, or a custom expression. See Structure and Calculations.
Unscaled supermatrix
Block matrix of local priorities from pairwise/ratings, before cluster weighting. See Calculations.
Wrt
“With respect to”—the parent node that defines the judgment context (a column in the unscaled supermatrix). See Connections and Pairwise comparing.