Decision Support System

Decision Support System
Decision support systems are a class of computer-based information systems including knowledge based systems that support decision making activities.DefinitionsBecause there are many approaches to decision-making and because of the wide range of domains in which decisions are made, the concept of decision support system (DSS) is very broad. A DSS can take many different forms. In general, we can say that a DSS is a computerized system used for supporting rather than automating decisions. A decision is a choice between alternatives based on estimates of the values of those alternatives. Supporting a decision means helping people working alone or in a group gather intelligence, generate alternatives and make choices. Supporting the choice making process involves supporting the estimation, the evaluation and/or the comparison of alternatives. In practice, references to DSS are usually references to computer applications that perform such a supporting role.The term decision support system has been used in many different ways (Alter 1980, Power, 2002) and has been defined in various ways depending upon the author's point of view. Finlay and others define a DSS rather broadly as "a computer-based system that aids the process of decision making." Turban defines it more specifically as "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."Other definitions fall between these two extremes. For Little, a DSS is a "model-based set of procedures for processing data and judgments to assist a manager in his decision-making." For KeenA, a DSS couples the intellectual resources of individuals with the capabilities of the computer to improve the quality of decisions ("DSS are computer-based support for management decision makers who are dealing with semi-structured problems"). Moore and Chang define DSS as extendible systems capable of supporting ad hoc data analysis and decision modeling, oriented toward future planning, and used at irregular, unplanned intervals. For Sprague and Carlson, DSS are "interactive computer-based systems that help decision makers utilize data and models to solve unstructured problems." In contrast, Keen claims that it is impossible to give a precise definition including all the facets of the DSS ("there can be no definition of decision support systems, only of decision support"). Nevertheless, according to Power, the term decision support system remains a useful and inclusive term for many types of information systems that support decision making. He humorously adds that every time a computerized system is not an on-line transaction processing system (OLTP), someone will be tempted to call it a DSS. As you can see, there is no universally accepted definition of DSS. A brief historyIn the absence of an all-inclusive definition, we focus on the history of DSS (see also Power0. According to Keen, the concept of decision support has evolved from two main areas of research: the theoretical studies of organizational decision making done at the Carnegie Institute of Technology during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the technical work on interactive computer systems, mainly carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s. It is considered that the concept of DSS became an area of research of its own in the middle of the 1970s, before gaining in intensity during the 1980s. In the middle and late 1980s, executive information systems (EIS), group decision support systems (GDSS), and organizational decision support systems (ODSS) evolved from the single user and model-oriented DSS. Beginning in about 1990, data warehousing and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) began broadening the realm of DSS. As the turn of the millennium approached, new Web-based analytical applications were introduced.It is clear that DSS belong to an environment with multidisciplinary foundations, including (but not exclusively) database research, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, simulation methods, software engineering, and telecommunications.DSS also have a weak connection to the user interface paradigm of hypertext. Both the University of Vermont PROMIS system (for medical decision making) and the Carnegie Mellon ZOG/KMS system (for military and business decision making) were decision support systems which also were major breakthroughs in user interface research. Furthermore, although hypertext researchers have generally been concerned with information overload, certain researchers, notably Douglas Engelbart, have been focused on decision makers in particular.Sumber : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_support_system