Towards a Design Methodology for Decision Support Systems

The authors propose the use of process models for DSS design. The kind of process models suggested are task structures and decision structures with simple graphical syntax and semantics. The process models form the basis for a coherent DSS design methodology, based upon the bounded rationality paradigm. The history of DSS and DSS design is discussed to form a theoretical position. The resulting methodology has been tested and evaluated in a laboratory experiment. The results of this evaluation will be used for continuous improvement of the methodolog

Decisional guidance for computerised personal decision aid (ComPDA)

Recently, the existence of many computerized decision aids which support personal decision making have drawn massive attention to study how these aids really help the decision makers.Helping decision maker makes a particular decision has always been the major aim of decision aids.However, designing an effective decision aid is more than meet the eyes.Guidance portion of the interface design in decision aid cannot be taken lightly as it can influence the outcomes.This study acknowledges the needs to make sure the design of personal decision aids adhere to systematic investigation to achieve the sole goal of a ComPDA.In this paper eight ComPDAs were identified and comparedto extract the decisional guidance components for ComPDA. Accordingly, comparative analysis of the tools is further explained and illustrated

Conceptualization and Typology of Guidance in Information Systems

Organizations use intelligent systems, a special kind of information system, to provide knowledge and guidance for their employees in their daily work. Concepts of guidance have been researched in the Information Systems community and related communities for decades. But due to the missing of a common concept and typology of guidance it is hard to compare the findings of the existing research streams. This paper extensively reviews and analyses the work on decisional guidance, explanations and on decision aids conducted in the last 20 years of research. Building on and grounded by the analyzed literature, a conceptualization and typology of guidance is proposed and discussed. In addition, the findings on positive and negative effects of guidance are outlined. This research contributes to both, research and practice. Researchers’ will be enabled (1) to describe their own work on guidance by using a set of terms predefined for the Information Systems research community and (2) to compare various research on guidance. Practitioners will be provided with a set of design guidelines in order to implement intelligent systems using various guidance effects in order to improve their processes and systems

Higher education decision making and decision support systems

The authors illustrate several issues in decision support and decision support systems (DSS), state of the art research in these fields, and also their own studies in designing a higher education DSS. The final section contains our contribution in outlining the modules of the DSS, involving the present systems and databases of FSEGA and UBB, results and activities belonging to FSEGA students, teaching and research staff, to assist decisions for all the actors implicated in the processes, in various specific situations.decision support, decision support systems (DSS), higher education institutions, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

PERSUASIVE DECISION SUPPORT: IMPROVING RELIANCE ON DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS

The primary role of a decision support system is to guide and support a decision maker. As reliance on a decision support system is largely discretionary the persuasiveness of the system becomes critically important. In this paper characteristics thought to affect systems persuasiveness are examined. This paper asserts that the target and source of a decision support message, along with the design of the message itself, act to influence the persuasiveness of the decision support provided. Using a purpose built experimental platform with seventy subjects the research finds that the persuasiveness of a decision support message is varied by the perceived difficulty of the task being undertaken, and the perceived usefulness of the decision support provided. The type of decisional guidance provided also affects persuasiveness of the system; in particular, providing suggestive decisional guidance is shown to significantly improve system persuasiveness. The implications of these findings relate to the appropriate design of decision support systems, and the contexts within which a decision support system can be expected to persuade decision makers to reply on the support provided

Designing Effective Decision Support Using Decisional Guidance

This study explores the decision outcomes achieved by 122 subjects using a DSS for an insolvency decision making task. Decision quality improvements occur as a result of collaboration between the decision maker and the DSS at two crucial points in the decision making process. Firstly when the decision maker initially interacts with the DSS to generate a recommendation, and secondly when the decision maker decides whether to incorporate that recommendation into their decision. Good technology design will assist a decision maker to generate a high quality recommendation; however the ensuing acceptance or otherwise of the recommendation is what ultimately affects the decision outcome. The study encompasses exploration of DSS use, and how decision outcomes are subsequently impacted. The results show that providing decisional guidance, in particular suggestive guidance, helped novice decision makers produce higher quality recommendations; and that adoption of those recommendations improved decision quality. The results are consistent with the theoretical premise that a key design issue is providing appropriate guidance to fit the task and individual, rather than simply guidance per se. The results show decision performance is a function of both how the technology is designed and used; and whether the user incorporates the recommendation received into their final decision. DSS use is a necessary, but not sufficient, precursor to improved decision outcomes

Construct validation of a school principal decision-making styles scale

Whereas substantial research in decision-making styles has focused on the theoretical and conceptual definitions, relatively less empirical attention has been paid to the development of its measures. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop and validate a measure of school principal decision-making styles based on Vroom and Yetton’s (1973) theoretical framework. The researcher initially developed a 40-item pool of the Principal Decision-Making Styles Scale (PDMSS), and then these 40 items were reduced to 27 items after experts’ examination of its content validity. These 27 refined items were administered to 120 primary school principals in the northern states of Malaysia. In order to examine the construct validity of the PDMSS, a factor analysis employing principal component extraction procedures with varimax rotation was used. The factor analysis resulted in a 19-item instrument that measures three extracted decision-making styles, namely, autocratic, participative, and delegation. Additionally, the item analysis showed acceptable internal consistency reliability for the overall and the three specific sub-scales of PDMSS. Moreover, the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the three identified styles indicate a good model fit