Abstract
Decision-making support systems (DMSS) are computerbased information systems designed to support some or all phases of the decision-making process (Forgionne, Mora, Cervantes, & Kohli, 2000). There are decision support systems (DSS), executive information systems (EIS), and expert systems/knowledge-based systems (ES/KBS). Individual EIS, DSS, and ES/KBS, or pair-integrated combinations of these systems, have yielded substantial benefits in practice. DMSS evolution has presented unique challenges and opportunities for information system professionals. To gain further insights about the DMSS field, the original version of this article presented expert views regarding achievements, challenges, and opportunities, and examined the implications for research and practice (Forgionne, Mora, Gupta, & Gelman, 2005). This article updates the original version by offering recent research findings on the emerging area of intelligent decision-making support systems (IDMSS). The title has been changed to reflect the new content.
TopBackground
Decision-making support systems utilize creative, behavioral, and analytic foundations that draw on various disciplines (Sage, 1981). These foundations give rise to various architectures that deliver support to individual and group DMSS users. The architectures, which are summarized in Table 1, include (a) classic systems (Alter, 1996) such as decision support systems (DSS), expert and knowledge-based systems (ES/KBS), executive information systems (EIS), group support systems (GSS), and spatial decision support systems (SDSS) and (b) new systems (Forgionne, 1991; Forgionne, Mora, Cervantes, & Gelman, 2002a; Gray & Watson, 1996; Mora, Forgionne, Gupta, Cervantes, & Gelman, 2003; Power, 2002; Turban & Aronson, 1998) such as management support systems (MSS), decision technology systems (DTS), integrated DMSS, data warehouse (DW)-based and data mining (DM)-based DMSS (DW&DM-DMSS), intelligent DMSS (i-DMSS), and Web-based DMSS or knowledge-management DMSS.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS): A computer-based system composed of a user-dialog sub-system, a geographic/spatial database sub-system, a decision model sub-systems and a set of analytical tools, which enables decision makers to analyze situations involving spatial (geographic) data.
Web-DMSS & Knowledge Management (KM)-DMSS: Computer-based system composed of an user-dialog sub-system, a text and multimedia document storage subsystem, and publishing/retrieval subsystem to preserve and distribute knowledge in intranet-supported organizations.
Management Support Systems (MSS), Decision Technology Systems (DTS), or Integrated Decision Making Support Systems (I-DMSS): Systems that integrate DSS, EIS and ES/KBS to offer full support to the decision maker in all phases of the decision making process.
Data Warehousing-Data Mining (DW-DM) DMSS: Computer-based system composed of an user-dialog sub-system, a multidimensional database subsystem, and an online analytical processing (OLAP) component enhanced with knowledge discovery algorithms to identify associations, clusters, and classifications rules intrinsic in a data warehouse.
Executive Information System (EIS): A computer based system composed of a user-dialog system, a graph system, a multidimensional database query system and an external communication system, which enables decision makers to access a common core of data covering key internal and external business variables by a variety of dimensions (such as time and business unit).
Group Support System (GSS): An integrated computer based system composed of a communication sub-system and model-driven DMSS (DSS), to support problem formulation and potential solution of unstructured decision problems in a group meeting.
Decision Making Support System (DMSS): An information system designed to support some, several or all, phases of the decision making process.
Expert System/Knowledge Based System (ES/KBS): A computer-based system composed of a user-dialog system, an inference engine, one or several intelligent modules, a knowledge base and a work memory, which emulates the problem-solving capabilities of a human expert in a specific domain of knowledge.
Decision Support System (DSS): An interactive computer-based system composed of a user-dialog system, a model processor and a data management system, which helps decision makers utilize data and quantitative models to solve semi-structured problems.
Intelligent Decision Making Support Systems (i-DMSS): Computer based system composed of an user-dialog sub-system, a multidimensional database and knowledge base subsystem, and a quantitative and qualitative processing sub-system enhanced with AI-based techniques, designed to support all phases of the decision making process.