Abstract
Over the four decades of its history, decision support systems (DSSs) have moved from a radical movement that changed the way information systems were perceived in business, to a mainstream commercial information technology movement that all organizations engage. This interactive, flexible, and adaptable computer-based information system derives from two main areas of research: the theoretical studies of organizational decision making done at the Carnegie Institute in the 1950’s and early 1960’s as well as the technical work on interactive computer systems which was mainly performed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Keen & Morton, 1978).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Decision Support Systems (DSSs): An interactive, flexible, and adaptable computer-based information system, especially developed for supporting the solution of a non-structured management problem for improved decision making. It utilizes data, provides an easy-to-use interface, and allows for the decision maker’s own insights
Sensitivity analysis: Running a decision model several times with different inputs so a modeler can analyze the alternative results.
Use Case: A collection of possible sequences of interactions between the system under discussion and its users relating to a particular goal ( Tian et al., 2005 ).
Knowledge Management: The distribution, access, and retrieval of unstructured information about human experiences between interdependent individuals or among members of a workgroup.
Business Intelligence (BI): A system of technologies for collecting, reviewing, and hoarding data to assist in the decision-making process.
Software Agent: A program that performs a specific task on behalf of a user, independently or with little guidance ( Bui & Lee, 1999 ).