an optimist's approach to choosing among management alternatives under uncertainty by (a) noting the attribute with the best value for each alternative and (b) comparing these attributes across alternatives to choose the one with the best value —note to determine the attribute with the best value for each alternative and follow this decision rule, a very high degree of comparability is needed among attributes within each alternative and among alternatives —see maximin, minimax regretThis definition last updated 07/14/2008