What makes a decision support system successful




















The negative side is that he or she may end up choosing the inappropriate software. Moreover, they may make mistakes unknowingly when developing a decision support system because of the lack of technical expertise. This approach is very rarely used.

Project management is an additional overhead. No one understands the importance of project management until they get punched in their face. The entire process, beginning from DSS conceptualization, development and implementation needs to be closely overseen, in order to:.

Projects are chaotic in nature. And when technology is involved, chaos quadruples. Generally, employees resist change. They fear technology. As a business, you must hire a DSS project manager, in order to carry out the whole process as smoothly and hassle-free as possible.

A decision support system development is a comprehensive project that requires diverse skills and capabilities. To Know more, click on About Us.

The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link s to ManagementStudyGuide. Instead, researchers developed the concept of using executive information systems to analyze organizational data and produce concise executive information to support decision-making.

Over time, and as computer capabilities improved, this approach was expanded to include the use of sophisticated software that modeled business processes, allowing users to evaluate the outcomes of various scenarios. In this way, it was possible to assess which of several alternatives offered the best business return. Decision support systems operate at many levels, and there are many examples in common day-to-day use.

For example, GPS route planning determines the fastest and best route between two points by analyzing and comparing multiple possible options.

Many GPS systems also include traffic avoidance capabilities that monitor traffic conditions in real time, allowing motorists to avoid congestion. Farmers use crop-planning tools to determine the best time to plant, fertilize and reap. Medical diagnosis software that allows medical personnel to diagnose illnesses is another example.

Most systems share a common attribute in that decisions are repetitive and based on known data. However, they aren't infallible and may make incorrect or irrational decisions, something many early GPS users discovered. Historical data analysis, used in every facet of business and life, is well-developed and mature.

Although such information is not always directly actionable, it's an important part of DSS because it reports past performance and highlights areas that need attention. Some examples include:.

Numerous manual techniques exist that support decision-making. These include activities such as the SWOT analysis where teams determine their organization's strengths and weaknesses as well as identifying threats facing the organization and potential opportunities for further growth. The outcomes of a SWOT analysis are actionable decisions for moving the organization forward.

Other manual tools include decision matrixes, Pareto analyses and cost benefit analyses. Hybrid DSS solutions include the use of spreadsheet analyses that tap into the capability of Excel to compute, analyze, compare options and evaluate what-if scenarios. Create a personalised content profile.

Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. A decision support system DSS is a computerized program used to support determinations, judgments, and courses of action in an organization or a business. A DSS sifts through and analyzes massive amounts of data, compiling comprehensive information that can be used to solve problems and in decision-making.

Typical information used by a DSS includes target or projected revenue, sales figures or past ones from different time periods, and other inventory- or operations-related data. A decision support system gathers and analyzes data, synthesizing it to produce comprehensive information reports. In this way, as an informational application, a DSS differs from an ordinary operations application, whose function is just to collect data.

The DSS can either be completely computerized or powered by humans. In some cases, it may combine both. The ideal systems analyze information and actually make decisions for the user. At the very least, they allow human users to make more informed decisions at a quicker pace. The DSS can be employed by operations management and other planning departments in an organization to compile information and data and to synthesize it into actionable intelligence.

During this phase, the decision maker may find that supplementary knowledge is required. This leads to a return to the intelligence stage to clarify the problems before continuing with the design activity [ 6 ]. During the choice phase, the decision maker selects one of the proposed alternatives that have been explored in the design phase. It may be that none of the alternatives are satisfying return to the design phase , that several competing alternatives gain high scores, or that the state of the context has changed dramatically after analysis of alternatives return to the intelligence phase.

However, one option must be chosen for implementation [ 21 ]. The fourth and final step is implementation. This phase includes a set of chosen solutions that need to be approved by stakeholders and put into action over time [ 20 ]. The resolution must then be monitored to guarantee that the problem has been corrected.

If the problem has been rectified, then the decision-making procedure is finalized [ 22 ]. Generally, the outcome of successful implementation is solving the real problem while any failure results in returning to a former phase of the process [ 2 ].

There is a variety of decision types which can be classified based on specific factors. An appreciation of decision types can assist decision makers understand what knowledge and knowledge manipulation features would be required in decision support system [ 6 ]. Simon argued that decisions could be placed along a spectrum from highly structured to completely unstructured [ 23 ]. Decisions may also be further classified as single-stage and multiple-stage, with either risk, certainty or uncertainty of outcome.

Structured decisions are made when well-known procedures can be readily applied to all the phases of decision-making to provide standard solutions for repetitive problems. They are characterized by definite decision criteria, a limited number of precise alternatives whose consequences can be worked out without any complexity [ 24 ]. A semi-structured decision is made when some, but not all, of the phases of decision-making are structured.

While some standard solution procedures may be applicable, human judgment is also called upon to develop decisions which tend to be adaptive in nature [ 1 ]. When none of the phases of decision-making are structured, the resulting decisions are classified as unstructured. Lack of clear decision criterion and the difficulty in identifying a finite set of alternatives and high levels of uncertainty concerning the consequences of the known alternatives at most of the decision levels, are all symptoms of this unstructuredness [ 25 ].

Semi-structured and unstructured decisions are made when problems are ill-defined ill-structured. Srinivasan et al. Table 1 demonstrates the characteristics of structured and unstructured decisions. Engineering or management decisions are generally made through available data and information that are mostly vague, imprecise, and uncertain by nature [ 26 ]. The decision-making process in bridge remediation is one of these ill-structured occasions, which usually need a rigorous approach which applies explicit subject domain knowledge to ill-structured adaptive problems in order to reformulate them as structured problems.

Multi-attribute decision-making MADM is an efficient tool for dealing with uncertainties. A standard feature of multi-attribute decision-making methodology is the decision matrix with m criteria and n alternative as illustrated in Figure 4. In the matrix C1,…,Cm and A1,.. The score aij describes the performance of alternative Aj against criterion Ci. It has been conventionally assumed that a higher score value means a better performance [ 27 ].

The decision matrix. As shown in Figure 4 , weights W1,…,Wm are assigned to the criteria. Weight Wi reflects the relative importance of criteria Ci to the decision, and is assumed to be positive.

The weights of the criteria are typically defined on subjective basis. Generally, higher ranking value represents a higher performance of the alternative, so the item with the highest ranking is the best action item [ 27 ]. In addition to some monetary based and elementary methods, the two main families in the multi-attribute decision-making methods are those founded on the MAUT and Outranking Methods.

These elementary approaches are characterized by their simplicity and their independence to computational support. They are suitable for problems with a single decision maker, limited alternatives and criteria which can rarely occur in engineering decision-making [ 28 ]. Maximin and Maximax methods, Pros and Cons analysis, Conjunctive and Disjunctive methods and the Lexicographic method are all in this category [ 29 ]. The alternative, for which the score of its weakest criterion is the highest, is preferred.

For example, a weight of one is given to the criterion which is least best achieved by that choice and a weight of zero to all other criteria. The strategy with the maximum minimum score will be the optimum choice. In contrast to the Maximin method, The Maximax method selects an alternative by its best attribute rather than its worst.

This method is particularly useful when the alternatives can be specialized in use based upon one attribute and decision maker has no prior requirement as to which attribute this is [ 30 ]. Pros and Cons analysis is a qualitative comparison method in which positive and negative aspect of each alternative are assessed and compared.

It is easy to implement since no mathematical skill is required [ 29 ]. The conjunctive and disjunctive methods are non-compensatory screening methods.

They do not need criteria to be estimated in commensurate units. These methods require satisfactory rather than best performance in each attribute, i. In Conjunctive method, an alternative must meet a minimal threshold for all attributes while in disjunctive method; the alternative should exceed the given threshold for at least one attribute.

Any option that does not meet the rules is deleted from the further consideration [ 28 ]. Decision trees provide a useful schematic representation of decision and outcome events, provided the number of courses of action, ai, and the number of possible outcomes, Oij, not large. Decision trees are most useful in simple situations where chance events are dependent on the courses of action considered, making the chance events states of nature synonymous with outcomes [ 25 ].

Square nodes correspond to decision events. Possible courses of action are represented by action lines which link decision events and outcome chance events. Circular nodes differentiate the outcome events from the decision events in order to underline that the decision-maker does not have control when chance or Nature determines an outcome [ 1 ].

The expected value for each course of action is achieved by summing the expected values of each branch associated with the action [ 25 ]. A decision tree representation of a problem is shown below as an example.

Three strategies courses of action are investigated See Figure 5 :. A decision tree for selecting the best remediation strategy of a bridge.



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