DSS

“A decision Support System (DSS) is a computer-based information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities.  DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance” (1).  The purpose of decision support systems is to collect data, analyze it, and shape it.  Decision support systems gather significant data and there are many different types of them.  “Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present are:  inventories of information assets (including legacy and relational data sources, cubes, data warehouses, and data marts), comparative sales figures between one period and the next, projected revenue figures based on product sales assumptions” (1).

There are many different types of decision support systems, which include cooperative decision support systems, the Model Driven DSS, Communications Driven DSS, Data Driven DSS, Document Driven DSS, and a Knowledge Driven DSS.  “A cooperative decision support system is when data is collected, analyzed and then is provided to a human component which then can help the system revise or refine it.  It means that both a human component and computer component work together to come up with the best solution” (2).  This type of decision support system benefits businesses because it is useful in terms of completing various difficult tasks.

“Model Driven DSS is when decision makers use statistical, simulations or financial models to come up with a solution or srtategy” (2).  These decision support systems do not have to be filled with data intensely.

Communications Driven DSS “are targeted at internal teams, including partners. Its purpose are to help conduct a meeting, or for users to collaborate. The most common technology used to deploy the DSS is a web or client server. Examples: chats and instant messaging softwares, online collaboration and net-meeting systems” (3).  This model can be used in various locations including an office environment or on the Internet.


“Decision support systems are gaining an increased popularity in various domains, including business, engineering, the military, and medicine. They are especially valuable in situations in which the amount of available information is prohibitive for the intuition of an unaided human decision maker, and in which precision and optimality are of importance” (4).  Decision support systems can help people with deficiencies by providing various types of useful information, helping people with the process of decision making, and providing a great deal of knowledge.  “They can also support choice among well-defined alternatives and build on formal approaches, such as the methods of engineering economics, operations research, statistics, and decision theory” (4).


1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_support_system
2. http://www.tech-faq.com/decision-support-system.html
3. http://www.gdrc.org/decision/dss-types.html

4. http://www.pitt.edu/~druzdzel/abstracts/dss.html