Goal programming is a branch of multiobjective optimization, which in turn is a branch of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), also known as multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM). This is an optimization programme. It can be thought of as an extension or generalisation of linear programming to handle multiple, normally conflicting objective measures. Each of these measures is given a goal or target value to be achieved. Unwanted deviations from this set of target values are then minimised in an achievement function. This can be a vector or a weighted sum dependent on the goal programming variant used. As satisfaction of the target is deemed to satisfy the decision maker(s), an underlying satisficing philosophy is assumed.Goal programming is used to perform three types of analysis:
- Determine the required resources to achieve a desired set of objectives.
- Determine the degree of attainment of the goals with the available resources.
- Providing the best satisfying solution under a varying amount of resources and priorities of the goals.
Read more about Goal Programming: History, Variants, Strengths and Weaknesses
Famous quotes containing the words goal and/or programming:
“What is done for science must also be done for art: accepting undesirable side effects for the sake of the main goal, and moreover diminishing their importance by making this main goal more magnificent. For one should reform forward, not backward: social illnesses, revolutions, are evolutions inhibited by a conserving stupidity.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)