CONSTRUCTING A DECISION

SUPPORT SYSTEM:
CHAPTER 5
OBJECTIVES:

The development process in creating a DSS. Student will

be able to differentiate between different strategies in
developing a DSS. Know type of developer involved in the
creating of a DSS.
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
 In developing a DSS, it is a complicated process. Several issues have to address such
as technical selection and networking, behavioral issues, impact of DSS on individual
and groups.
 Since there is no best approach in constructing a DSS, several development strategies
can be employed:
 Writing customized DSS using general-purpose programming language
 Using Fourth-generation language (Fortran, ALGOL, and COBOL)
 Using DSS Generator such as MS-Excel
 Use Domain-specific DSS Generators which is designed to build highly structured system
 By using CASE tools (Computer-Aided Software Engineering)
 Or by integrating all the above strategies.
DSS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

 By using any of the above strategies as a tool to develop a DSS,

generally, the development process follows a common path:
 Planning Phase: Need assessment and problem diagnosis of the DSS system that
going to be develop
 Research Phase: Identifying users needs and available resources (such as
hardware, software, vendors, systems, studies, reviews of relevant research).
 Analysis and Conceptual Design Phase: The determination of the best approach
and specific resources required to implement a DSS.
 Design Phase: Detail specifications of the system components, structure and
features.
 Construction Phase: It is the technical implementation of the design.
 Implementation Phase: It is consists of: testing, evaluation, demonstration,
orientation, training and deployment.
 Maintenance Phase: Planning for ongoing support of the system and its user
community. Documentation for using and maintaining the system is develop at this
phase.
 Adaptation Phase: Iterative process of earlier phases on a regular basis based on
user changing needs.
THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: LIFE CYCLES VERSUS
PROTOTYPING

 A life cycle approach is also known as the SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFE

CYCLE (SDLC).
 SDLC is a systematic process for constructing large information systems in an
effective manner. The process involve project initialization, system analysis and
design, system development, implementation and post implementation.
 Prototyping is a strategy in system development tin which a scaled down system or
portion of a system is constructed in a short time, tested, and improved in several
iterations. Retyping combine analysis, design, development and implementation as a
single stage.
 Short Shorter reaction Improved users’
development time (feedback) understanding of
time from users the system

Low
development
cost

ADVANTAGES OF IMPLEMENTING PROTOTYPING:

DISADVANTAGE OF PROTOTYPING APPROACH:

Some information might be lost such as detail

understanding of the system’s benefits, costs, information
needs
TEAM-DEVELOPED VERSUS USER-DEVELOPED DSS

 Team-developed DSS are systems constructed by a team compose of the

users, intermediaries, DSS builders, and technical support experts.
 User-developed DSS only came about in the 1980s due to the
development of microcomputer (PC), compute network and
communication links between PCs and minicomputer/mainframe. Not
only on hardware development, but also with increasing user-friendly
software for PC, the reduction in both hardware and software and the
increase of PC’s processes power.
TEAM-DEVELOPED DSS
Since the team-developed DSS is a complex, lengthy and costly process, therefore it
needs extensive planning and organization. The planning and organization depends on
the specific DSS, the organization where it will be used and etc. However the planning
and organization have the following:
 Forming the DSS group: A group of people to build and manage the DSS
 An Action Plan
 Planning for a DSS Generator and the specific DSS
 Representation (the ability to provide representations such as visual), operations (the ability to
provide operations to analyze and manipulate the representations), memory aids (to assist the user
in linking representations and operations) and control mechanism (used to control and operate the
entire system)
 Flexibility in DSS: the flexibility to solve, to modify, to adapt, to evolve
END-USER COMPUTING AND USER-DEVELOPED DSS

 End-user computing refers to the development and use of computer-based

information systems by people outside the formal information system
areas. Those people are CEO, secretary, scientist, and researcher.
 End-user can be in any level of the organization, in any functional area.
End-user computing can be classified according to the extent and method
of use, type of application, training requirements and required support.
ADVANTAGES OF USER-DEVELOPED DSS:

1. Delivery time is short

2. Formal user requirements specifications are eliminated
3. Implementation problems transferred to the correct user
4. Cost is very low
RISK OF USER-DEVELOPED DSS:

1. Final product is of poor quality due to lack of practice or

skills in development process
2. Selection of potentially wrong tool for DSS construction
DSS GENERATORS
A program that combine the ability to do several general-purpose applications.
General capabilities of a DSS Generator:
 Should be easy to use
 Should provide access to wide variety of data sources
 Should provide access to analytical capabilities

Objective of DSS Generator:

 To permit quick and easy development of wide variety of specific DSS
 To be flexible and adaptive enough to facilitate the iterative design process,
 Must also facilitate communication and interaction between the user and the builder
SELECTION OF A DSS GENERATORS AND OTHER SOFTWARE
TOOLS

Several issues need to be addressed before choosing any DSS

Generators:
1. Which generator(s) to use
2. Which hardware to run
3. Which Operating System to use
4. Which network(s) to run it on
SELECTING THE TOOLS AND THE GENERATOR IS A COMPLEX
PROCESS FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1. During the selection process, the DSS requirement and outputs are not known
2. There are hundreds of software packages to choose from
3. Price of the tools/generators changes frequently
4. Several people with different opinion may involve in the evaluation process
5. Technical and management issues need to be considered
6. Evaluation by magazines or journals might be one-sided.
SOFTWARE SELECTION GUIDELINES:

1. Relational database facilities

2. Graphics generation languages
3. Modeling languages
4. General-purpose statistical data analysis languages
5. Special languages for simulation
6. Programming languages
7. Object-oriented programming tools
8. Networks
9. Expert system building tools
10. CASE tools
DEVELOPING DSS IN THE WINDOWS ENVIRONMENT

Reasons why MS-Windows environment is acceptable for constructing the DSS:

 Users are accepting the software as a standard
 Development stage is not conducted (which refers to software creation from the basic
level)
 Having GUI capability to run sophisticated multimedia programs. In turn, it makes
specific DSS very interactive to users
 Developing simple systems can be done by the end-user in Windows environment
 Windows Dynamic Data Interchange (or OLE-Object Linking and Embedding) feature
that can be combine several DSS development tools and applications to create powerful
DSS rapidly and inexpensively.