Project Management | Decision Support System | Knowledge Based Systems | Applications | Decision Management Components

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM

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 (usually mid and higher management) and help people make decisions about problems that may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance—i.e. Unstructured and Semi-Structured decision problems. Decision support systems can be either fully computerized, human-powered or a combination of both.

1.     DSS tends to be aimed at the less well structured, underspecified Problem that upper level managers typically face;

2.     DSS attempts to combine the use of models or analytic techniques with traditional data access and retrieval functions;

3.     DSS specifically focuses on features which make them easy to use by non-computer-proficient people in an interactive mode; and

4.     DSS emphasizes flexibility and adaptability to accommodate changes in the environment and the Decision Making  approach of the user.

KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS

DSSs include knowledge-based systems. A properly designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended to help decision makers compile useful information from a combination of raw data, documents, and personal knowledge, or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions. The knowledge management component, like that in an expert system, provides information about the relationship among data that is too complex for a database to represent. It consists of rules that can constrain possible solution as well as alternative solutions and methods for evaluating them.

Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present includes:

·         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.

Applications

One example is the clinical decision support system for medical diagnosis. There are four stages in the evolution of clinical decision support system (CDSS): the primitive version is standalone and does not support integration; the second generation supports integration with other medical systems; the third is standard-based, and the fourth is service model-based

DSS is extensively used in business and management. Executive dashboard and other business performance software allow faster decision making, identification of negative trends, and better allocation of business resources. Due to DSS all the information from any organization is represented in the form of charts, graphs i.e. in a summarized way, which helps the management to take strategic decision.

DSS are also prevalent in forest management where the long planning horizon and the spatial dimension of planning problems demands specific requirements. All aspects of Forest management, from log transportation, harvest scheduling to sustainability and ecosystem protection have been addressed by modern DSSs. In this context the consideration of single or multiple management objectives related to the provision of goods and services that traded or non-traded and often subject to resource constraints and decision problems. The Community of Practice of Forest Management Decision Support Systems provides a large repository on knowledge about the construction and use of forest Decision Support Systems

A specific example concerns the Canadian National Railway system, which tests its equipment on a regular basis using a decision support system. A problem faced by any railroad is worn-out or defective rails, which can result in hundreds of derailments per year. Under a DSS, the Canadian National Railway system managed to decrease the incidence of derailments at the same time other companies were experiencing an increase
                                         
                                            Data Management Component

 The data management component performs the function of storing and maintaining the information that you want your Decision Support System to use. The data management component, therefore, consists of both the Decision Support System information and the Decision Support System database management system. The information you use in yourDecision Support System comes from one or more of three sources:

-Organizational information; you may want to use virtually any information available in the organization for your Decision Support System. What you use, of course, depends on what you need and whether it is available. You can design your Decision Support System to access this information directly from your company’s database and data warehouse. However, specific information is often copied to the Decision Support System database to save time in searching through the organization’s database and data warehouses.

-External information: some decisions require input from external sources of information. Various branches of federal government, Dow Jones, Compustat data, and the internet, to mention just a few, can provide additional information for the use with a Decision Support System.

-Personal information: you can incorporate your own insights and experience your personal information into your Decision Support System. You can design your Decision Support System so that you enter this personal information only as needed, or you can keep the information in a personal database that is accessible by the Decision Support System.