Decision support system
Contents
Definition
A class of computer based information systems including knowledge based systems that support decision making activities
Purpose & benefits
The purpose of a Decision Support System (DSS) is to improve and support decision making within the organization. It facilitates that automation of routine decisions, and provides useful, supporting information for more complex, non-routine decision making.
Description
Decision support systems (DSS) are a class of computerized information system that support decision-making activities. Decision support systems are designed artifacts that have specific functionality.
Decision Support System types include i) communications-driven, ii) data-driven, iii) document-driven, iv) knowledge-driven, and v) model-driven systems. Communications technologies are central to communications-driven DSS for supporting decision-making.
Data-driven DSS provide access to large data stores and analytics to create information. Document-driven DSS use documents to provide information for decision making. Knowledge-driven DSS are sometimes generically called expert systems or recommender systems. Model-driven DSS use quantitative models for functionality and have been called model-oriented DSS and computationally oriented DSS. The term knowledge management system (KMS) encompasses both document and knowledge-driven DSS.
Variations
Decision Support Systems have evolved/merged into other types of technology solutions, e.g. Big data, Business Intelligence, and (automated) workflow systems.
Implementation guide
See the [Implementation guide] in the Information technology article.
Success factors
See the [Success factors] in the Information technology article.
Common pitfalls
See the [Common pitfalls] in the Information technology article.
