Soft Computing Evaluation Logic

1.4Introduction to Professional Quantitative Evaluation

This chapter contains an introductory survey of the area of professional quantitative evaluation based on the soft computing evaluation logic and the LSP decision method. Our motivation for development of the LSP method has three components: (1) the frequency and importance of complex evaluation problems in various application areas, (2) the disappointment with obvious shortcomings of simple scoring methods, and (3) the need to provide professional evaluation methodology that is consistent with observable logic properties of human intuitive evaluation reasoning. These objectives are the point of departure for the development of LSP method for modeling human evaluation reasoning and for building professional evaluation models.

At the point of departure, rational travelers first look at the road ahead and identify all activities that are necessary to reach the final destination. In our case, the final destination is the ability to solve evaluation decision problems with techniques and tools that have industrial strength and applicability. In this survey, we first define the fundamental types of evaluation problems. Then, we survey the areas of application of evaluation methods and itemize typical professional evaluation problems. Finally, we provide a short survey of main components of professional evaluation techniques. Our goal is to introduce the most important topics that we cover in subsequent parts of this book.