Avägtning

Avägtning is a concept in decision-making and design that describes the process of evaluating competing factors and assigning relative importance to them in order to choose a course of action that balances trade-offs. It appears in fields such as public policy, engineering, product development, and risk assessment, where decisions must satisfy multiple objectives rather than optimize a single metric. The goal is to reach a solution that is acceptable across criteria like cost, benefit, risk, feasibility, and impact.

The term is relatively uncommon and often treated as a variant spelling of avvägning, which literally means weighing or balancing. In practice, avägtning conveys the same idea: identify relevant criteria, determine weights or priorities, and combine them to compare options.

Methods commonly associated with avägtning include multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), cost-benefit analysis, risk-benefit balancing, and constrained optimization. Sensitivity analysis is often used to test how changes in weights affect the outcome.

- In product design, avägtning helps balance cost, performance, and usability.

- In public policy, avägtning helps balance economic impact, social equity, and environmental effects.

- In project management, avägtning balances time, budget, and scope.

See also: avvägning, decision analysis, trade-off, optimization.