Value Analysis: Justifying Decision Support Systems

Managers face a dilemma in assessing DSS proposals. The issue of qualitative benefits is central, but they must find some way of deciding if the cost is justified. A general weakness of the cost-benefit approach is that it requires knowledge, accuracy, and confidence about issues which for innovations are unknown, ill-defined, and uncertain. The benefit of a DSS is the incentive for going ahead. The complex calculations of cost-benefit analysis are replaced in value analysis by rather simple questions about its usefulness.