Can We Add "Too Many" Criteria?

Yes, although not necessarily from the perspective of Decision Lens functionality. Decision Lens could “handle” hundreds of criteria and multiple tiers of children, grandchildren, etc. However, the work and time investment required by the organization to work through a very large criteria model would become counter-productive and, potentially, prohibitive. Additionally, the stakeholders would find it increasingly difficult to make meaningful comparisons among criteria (keep in mind the "7 +/- 2" rule of thumb).  

Finally, with too many criteria, the meaning and influence of any one criterion would be diluted and the results would not offer very useful insights. Keep in mind the numbers of pairwise comparisons required for criteria weighting (remember (Nx(N-1))/2) – AND – the number of ratings that SMEs will have to provide during the rate alternatives step). Additional impacts of an overall model growing too large (e.g., a large number of criteria, alternatives, participants and budget pools).