Exploiting Qualitative Information for Decision Support in Scenario Analysis

The development of scenario analysis (SA) to assist decision makers and stakeholders has been growing over the last few years through mainly exploiting qualitative information provided by experts. In this study, we present SA based on the use of qualitative data for strategy planning. We discuss the potential of SA as a decision-support tool, and provide a structured approach for the interpretation of SA data, and an empirical validation of expert evaluations that can help to measure the consistency of the analysis. An application to a specific case study is provided, with reference to the European organic farming business

A DATA-DRIVEN USER INTERFACE GENERATOR FOR A GENERALIZED MULTIPLE CRITERIA DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM

Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Decision Support Systems: Issues and Challenges; Proceedings of an International Task Force Meeting, June 23-25, 1980

This book reports on a three-day meeting on Decision Support Systems held at IIASA. IIASA's interest in sponsoring the meeting was spurred by several factors. First, the term DSS clearly is used in a wide range of contexts; we hoped to develop a deeper understanding of the term and the new field to which it refers. Second, we felt that ongoing work in the DSS field would be enhanced by interaction between professionals who had been working on such systems and people from fields that function as "resource disciplines" for DSS. Finally we wished to bring professionals from several nations together, from the east as well as the west, to share experiences and to assess the viability of the DSS concept in different cultures. The broad objectives set for this meeting were realized in a number of ways. Virtually all the participants testified that they had gained a deeper understanding of DSS, the role it can play in asssisting managers in organizations, and the need for further development in key areas

DSN human factors project

The project plan was to hold focus groups to identify the factors influencing the ease of use characteristics of software and to bond the problem. A questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate those factors which were more appropriately measured with that method. The performance oriented factors were analyzed and relationships hypothesized. The hypotheses were put to test in the experimental phase of the project. In summary, the initial analysis indicates that there is an initial performance effect favoring computer controlled dialogue but the advantage fades fast as operators become experienced. The user documentation style is seen to have a significant effect on performance. The menu and prompt command formats are preferred by inexperienced operators. The short form mnemonic is least favored. There is no clear best command format but the short form mnemonic is clearly the worst

An Experiment to Apply Some Substance-Theories to the Development of an ODSS in a Small Company

The focus of this research is on the appropriateness of the Substance-Theory-Oriented approach to the implementation of an Organizational Decision Support Systems in a small company. An ODSS is a general-purpose, multiple-user, large-scale system that has a relatively definite, continuous and organized position in the planning and decision making processes of an organization and which are designed for a variety of organizational decisions. We constructively show by means of a real case how the substance theories can be used to determine the actual contents of an ODSS. We have tested design guidelines and implementation strategies that can be exploited in small business companies in general. The main idea of the proposed approach is that the managerial substance-theories should be utilized at each phase of the development process, beginning from the initial problem review and ending with the use and the evolution of the developed system. It is assumed that only these theories can direct the design and development process in the right direction and carry appropriate information and knowledge into the organization. By applying the proposed approach small companies are able to decide the contents of an ODSS, manage the development process, increase their managerial knowledge, and finally, make more structured and better decisions

USER INTERFACES FOR DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW

Information Systems Working Papers Serie

A REVIEW AND CRITIQUE OF DSS

Information Systems Working Papers Serie