Toward a distributed satellite scheduling system

A distributed satellite scheduling system (DS3) has been developed for a large state mental health system. The authors have employed an operations-oriented, evolutionary, and prototyping approach to the development of the DS3. The resultant operations information system (OIS) as opposed to a management information system (MIS) is detailed in terms of its data entry, report generation, and system access features. The operations information system encourages the operating staff to ensure data quality in the computerized system as their daily operations have to depend on the data residing in system. In an OIS environment, manual files are maintained only for backup and possibly legal purposes. DS3 is not data-driven but activities- and decision-driven. Scheduling is the driving force behind the type of data entered