Decision support engineering: a DSS development methodology

Current DSS research has demonstrated the viability of DSSs which provide active support, are knowledge based, promote creativity, and could act as tools for organizing thoughts. Very few of these promising approaches have been tried out in practice for real-life situations. One of the important reasons for this gap in state-of-the-art DSS research and practice is the need for a comprehensive DSS development methodology. This paper presents a comprehensive methodology based on a life cycle model and encompassing an engineering approach to DSS development. This approach assumes that functionality of a DSS is a process of negotiation between the user and the builder, and focusses on the support provided by a DSS, as this is the basic reason for DSS development. As an engineering approach, it establishes the standard for the level of support to be provided by the proposed DSS in terms of task effectiveness and resource requirements. This engineering approach has been used in a number of DSS development projects and has produced successful DSS products