Question 19.5: Harold’s First Engineering Job—Choosing the Attributes (Base...
Harold’s First Engineering Job—Choosing the Attributes (Based on Example 19.4)
Apply the guidelines for attribute selection to Example 19.4.
The guidelines can be applied as follows:
1. The potential attribute “job uses and builds on B.S. degree” should not be added, since all of the existing alternatives require a B.S. in metallurgical engineering—unless another job possibility that does not require this degree must be considered.
2. The second attribute, promotion outlook, should be adjusted, since it is at least partly a salary attribute.
3. Perhaps a better attribute than promotion outlook would be how interesting the work is.
This would also seem to make the set of attributes more exhaustive. The prospect for future promotion-based salary increases could be included in the salary attribute.
The city attribute could be subdivided into the categories of climate, job prospects for significant other, distance to family, atmosphere, etc., or one of the published ratings of livability could be used. The salary attribute could be decomposed into basic salary, benefits, bonuses, and cost of living (and, perhaps, expected increases). These subdivisions ensure that we consider each attribute more completely, but without the tools found in Section 19.8, subdividing the salary attribute is more confusing than helpful.
4. Harold was able to rate each attribute originally. Subdividing the city attribute could permit more accurate evaluations of the three alternatives on each new attribute. At the same time, the task of assigning priorities to the larger number of attributes would become more difficult.
5. Three attributes are certainly not too many, and they seem to include the most important aspects of the problem.