Q. What are the major shortcomings of multi-criteria analysis (MCA)?

A.
The major shortcomings of MCA arise when some option would be better against one criterion but worse against another in the matrix. This is a question of trade-off which occupies a central place in decision-making having multi-dimensional aspects. Weighting or ranking becomes necessary to handle such cases, but with their own associated methodological difficulties. This becomes a really critical issue to which no fully satisfactory answer is available. Multi-criteria analysis is also weak with regard to making inter-temporal comparisons. Impacts during the project construction phase are not distinguished from impacts during the operational phase. Multi-criteria analysis has no analytical technique like discounting to compare impacts (benefits and costs) occurring in different years.