Technology evaluations can present significant challenges in software engineering practice. In this presentation, we describe how we addressed them in an industrial project. We successfully leveraged and extended the Attribute-Driven Design (ADD) method. To obtain a greater objectivity and finer granularity in prioritization and evaluation of criteria, and to generate the overall evaluation results in sensitivity analyses, we used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In this presentation, we discuss our experiences, in particular

• defining the project scope of the technology evaluation initiative
• designing comparable prototype applications in multiple technologies with a common set of measurements
• balance between efficiency of nominal scales and accuracy of AHP weighting technique
• benefits of AHP for increasing the accuracy and objectivity of technical judgments, delivery of quantitative results, and ease of performing sensitivity analyses

Organizations dealing with the challenges of making technical decisions regarding software technologies may find this approach beneficial.

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PRESENTATION