Trade-off

Trade-off means an exchange of one quality or thing for another. Thus, in comparing alternative configurations for transport aircraft, it may be possible to trade off speed for payload and still maintain the same total transport capability per month in the system. In value analysis and decision theory the concept of tradeoffs in the decision maker 'S preferences is used extensively as a basis for establishing MULTIATTRIBUTE VALUE FUNCTIONS and MULTIATTRIBUTE utility functions. See: value , utility (IIASA)