Descriptive Analysis for Computer-Based Decision Support

This article studies the issue of descriptive analysis for Decision Support Systems (DSS). Much of the DSS research literature concentrates on the procedural aspects of building support systems rather than on the substantive issues of their content. If we are to expand our knowledge of DSS, however, it is important to complement our understanding of the process of their development with a means for describing and differentiating DSS. In particular, a descriptive mechanism should pay careful attention to those features of DSS that determine the effects a support system has on the decision making processes of its users. A three-tiered approach to describing DSS is proposed, consisting of the following sequence of analytical levels: functional capabilities, user views of system components, and system attributes (restrictiveness, guidance, and focus). Moving from the first through the third tiers, increasing attention is paid to examining DSS in their entirety and to considering their effects on decision making processes.