The utilization of expert opinion in decision‐making

Abstract

Abstract This is a review of the state‐of‐the‐art of rational and primarily quantitative approaches to the utilization of expert opinion in the inexact sciences, among which the engineering sciences must be included. Of primary concern is the decision‐maker's utilization of one or more experts, and the criteria and scoring rules used to evaluate their performance. Also reviewed are certain game‐theoretic strategies used by experts to maximize their own goal satisfaction. With this review, it is hoped that chemical engineers, when acting as decision‐makers, will be able to utilize expert opinion more effectively and will better understand the function of experts when it is necessary for them to adopt such roles themselves.