Cautious Analysis of Project Risks by Interval-Valued Initial Data

Abstract

One of the most common performance measures in selection and management of projects is the Net Present Value (NPV). In the paper, we study a case when initial data about the NPV parameters (cash flows and the discount rate) are represented in the form of intervals supplied by experts. A method for computing the NPV based on using random set theory is proposed and three conditions of independence of the parameters are taken into account. Moreover, the imprecise Dirichlet model for obtaining more cautious bounds for the NPV is considered. Numerical examples illustrate the proposed approach for computing the NPV.