criteriawide

Criteriawide refers to a methodological approach that emphasizes broad inclusion of evaluation criteria in decision-making, particularly in fields such as procurement, policy analysis, product development, and research. The aim is to capture a comprehensive view of stakeholders' needs and potential outcomes, preventing decisions based on a narrow set of metrics.

The term is not a standardized technical label; it appears as a descriptive neologism in academic and industry discourse. It signals an orientation toward breadth of criteria rather than a fixed or limited metric set, and is often used to contrast with narrow-criteria approaches that overweight a small number of factors.

Typical implementations involve assembling a wide set of criteria across economic, social, environmental, technical, and ethical dimensions; applying transparent scoring or weighting schemes; conducting sensitivity analyses to test robustness; and engaging diverse stakeholders to elicit criteria and validate judgments.

Critics note that criteriawide evaluation can be more complex and data-intensive, with a risk of ambiguity if criteria are poorly defined or inconsistently weighted. Proponents argue that broader criteria improve legitimacy, equity, and traceability by making assumptions explicit and justifiable.

See also: multi-criteria decision analysis, MCDA, decision support systems.