An Assessment of the Concept of Decision Support Systems as Viewed by Senior-Level Executives*

This article describes a study performed to (1) investigate senior executives’ perceptions of decision support systems concepts, and (2) identify executives’ needs and desired benefits related to decision support systems. A series of indepth interviews was conducted with senior-level industrial executives. The findings suggest three guidelines for the design of effective decision support systems: (1) executive users should be directly involved in the development and evaluation of the initial design concept, (2) if possible, a prototype should be built before developing the full-scale system, and (3) the decision support system should provide capabilities for complexity coping, conflict resolution, and uncertainty reduction.