A hybrid neutrosophic multiple criteria group decision making approach for project selection

The project selection is one of the most important phases of a project life cycle. The project selection is considered as a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problem. This research aims to study the integration between Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) into Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) under neutrosophic environment to provide a new technique for making a decision regarding the choice of appropriate project (project selection) as one of the most important phases of the project life cycle. Projects are selected by comparing them against many criteria. Criteria are evaluated based on expert's opinion. Sometimes experts cannot give reliable information due to the non-deterministic environment. The neutrosophic set theory will be used to handle and overcome the ambiguity or lack of confirmation of information. The criteria are weighted by DEMATEL, then the best project alternative is selected using TOPSIS. In the proposed model, each pairwise comparison judgments is symbolized as a trapezoidal neutrosophic number. Experts will focus only on (n - 1) judgments for n alternatives to overcome the difficulties of [(n *(n - 1))/2] consistence judgments in case of increasing number of alternatives. A numerical example is developed to show the validation of the suggested model in the neutrosophic environment. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.