Most DM software focuses on ranking, prioritizing or choosing from among alternatives characterized on multiple criteria or attributes.
DM software can assist decision-makers "at various stages of the decision-making process, including problem exploration and formulation, identification of decision alternatives and solution constraints, structuring of preferences, and tradeoff judgements.
"[4] The purpose of DM software is to support the analysis involved at these various stages of the decision-making process, not to replace it.
"[8] DM software frees users "from the technical implementation details [of the decision-making method employed], allowing them to focus on the fundamental value judgements".
"[9] As mentioned earlier, most DM software is based on multi-criteria decision making (MCDM).