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DSS News
D. J. Power, Editor
June 6, 2004 -- Vol. 5, No. 12
A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
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Check the article by Dunnigan "The Operations Research
Revolution Rolls On, To Where?" at DSSResources.COM
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Featured:
* Ask Dan! - What is a Planning Support System?
* What's New? at DSSResources.COM
* DSS News Releases
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2004 Crystal Ball User Conference, June 17-18, Denver, CO
URL http://www.decisioneering.com/cbuc/
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What is a Planning Support System?
by Dan Power
Reading the trade press, academic articles and web sites forces those of
us interested in computerized support for decision making to make some
sense of a wide array of buzzwords. Henry Morris is now arguing for
"decision-centric BI" with the acronym DCBI; Julie Hall is pushing BI
for CRM; and Richard Hackathorn is promoting eXtreme Data Warehousing or
X-DW (see DM Review, June 2004). Much of the challenge to us comes from
consultants and vendors trying to find a new product niche and create
interest in a technology development. Some of the challenge comes from
drawing ever narrower distinctions and creating narrow categories
related to the purpose of computerized support. This Ask Dan! moves up
to a broad category of computerized systems -- Planning Support Systems.
The acronym PSS is sometimes used for these systems, but I have also
seen the acronym PDSS used for Planning and Decision Support System.
Working on the new PlanningSkills.COM website has forced me to
investigate the PSS and PDSS for an evolving content channel on planning
technologies. So what is a PSS? Is a PSS different than a DSS?
Computerized planning support systems are a sub-class of decision
support systems (DSS) that serve a special purpose, assisting a person
in completing planning analyses and tasks. Some general planning tasks
that can be supported using software and computerized systems include
gathering planning relevant information, evaluating courses of actions,
preparing plans and monitoring results and evaluating contingencies.
For many years, Planning Support Systems were primarily model-driven
DSS, but some data-driven DSS were also used for situation monitoring
and control and for processing ad hoc database queries to obtain
information needed during a planning process. In some situations
communications-driven DSS are useful in supporting distributed planning
activities. Also, a number of software vendors have attempted over the
years to develop knowledge-driven DSS to support specific planning
domains like strategic business planning. So far, knowledge-driven DSS
for planning support have been unsuccessful. Finally, building
document-driven DSS for supporting planning tasks is a major opportunity
that has not been adequately explored and exploited.
Specialized planning support systems and software have been developed
for project management, budget planning and management, operations and
supply chain optimization, resource allocation and scheduling.
The targeted user for a planning support system of whatever type DSS is
a planner. A person in filling a planning role may be a line manager and
decision maker or a staff specialist. Staff specialists in finance or
marketing who have a planning role may use a planning support system and
they may develop more customized computer support as part of a special
study.
>From my perspective the classic book about planning support and
computerized planning special studies was written by Professor Tom
Naylor and published in 1979. Naylor's book Corporate Planning Models
developed a theory of corporate planning modeling, reviewed the state of
practice up to 1978, and "outlined a systematic approach to the design,
development, and implementation of corporate planning models (p. iv)."
Naylor reviewed financial planning models, marketing forcasting models,
econometric marketing models, production planning models, and an
integrated corporate planning model. His book also included 4 case
studies and a discussion of SIMPLAN, a planning and modeling system.
Naylor's case studies describe model-driven, computerized planning
support at Hammermill Paper Company, Dresser Industries, CIBA-GEIGY, and
Tennesse Valley Authority (TVA). Often planning situations involve
development of computer support for a special study rather than
development of a planning support system for ongoing analysis and use.
Currently, the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), an
initiative within University College London, focuses on emerging
computer technologies in several disciplines that deal with geography,
space, location, and the urban environment. The Director of CASA is
Michael Batty, Professor of Spatial Analysis and Planning at University
College London. The CASA website (http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk) notes
"Planning support systems (PSS) was popularised by Britton Harris in the
late 1980s as he sought to link GIs to the constellation of techniques
of modelling and optimisation which had emerged to support the planning
process since the 1960s. One of our best examples of PSS and SDSS is in
our PROPOLIS project where we are building GIS interfaces to land use
transport models."
A Netherlands natural resources research group, The International
Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation called ITC
encourages the use of planning support systems. The ITC website
(http://www.itc.nl) notes "Development, evaluation and selection of
proper policy, plans, scenario, project or interventions are among the
very important decisions in the natural resource and environmental
management. Planning in such an environment, which includes a variety of
complex social, ecological, economical, and cultural processes, requires
proper tools/method/procedures integrated in a system called a 'Planning
Support System' (PSS). PSS's, are aiming at rationalizing planning and
its related decision making processes. It aims at providing necessary
support to systematically analyze the information, finding and
formulating the problems, structuring and formulating the alternative
options, policies, scenarios, and plans, assessing and evaluating their
impacts (considering objectives of the relevant stakeholders), and
finally selecting and recommending a proper solution."
On the commercial side, Skymark (http://www.skymark.com) sells a
software package called PathMaker. They claim it should be your
Strategic Planning Software. The website claims "PathMaker is designed
to provide the infrastructure for systematic planning, review, and the
movement of ideas through hierarchies. The tools for evaluating a
purpose, or for reaching consensus, are built in. The project pathway
provides a facility for reference, sharing, and documenting. There is
also a pathway template for Strategic Planning, which is a fairly
generic synthesis of the various steps recommended by different
experts."
Another PSS package is GroupMind Express
(http://www.groupmindexpress.com). GroupMind Express helps a user
structure a set of steps into a planning process. "Move from divergent
to convergent thinking, develop a result from diverse input, yet with
solid buy-in." GroupMind according to the website, "lets you hold online
meetings, build project workspaces, and create quick intranets, all with
built in interaction between people." GroupMind Express seems very
similar to GroupSystems (http://www.groupsystems.com/) and other
model-driven group DSS, but it is specifically target for planning
support. Vendors should send me information about other commercial
off-the-shelf Planning Support Systems.
Computers have gotten faster, the user interfaces have improved
tremendously, planning support is more accessible to managers and
planners, and the development software is more powerful and easier to
use, but the basic theory, the database technologies and the range of
possible planning models has remained largely unchanged. Planning
support systems help managers and planners in anticipatory decision
making situations --> planning situations.
References
Naylor, T. H., Corporate Planning Models, Readings, MA: Addison-Wesley,
1979.
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Check http://PlanningSkills.COM
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What's New? at DSSResources.COM
05/28/2004 Posted article by James F. Dunnigan, "The Operations Research
Revolution Rolls On, To Where?".
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Put your ad here! Reach hundreds of people
interested in DSS with information on your product
Email power@dssresources.com for details
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DSS News - May 24 to June 4, 2004
Read them at DSSResources.COM and search the DSS News Archive
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06/01/2004 Documentum delivers next-generation business process
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05/26/2004 Oracle builds world's largest Linux-based development
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05/25/2004 Information Builders announces new visual BI capabilities.
05/24/2004 Microsoft announces advances in enterprise tools and
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05/24/2004 Interwoven delivers powerful collaborative document
management capabilities optimized for BEA WebLogic platform.
05/24/2004 Intergraph and Optech leverage advanced airborne data capture
technology to offer cost savings and production efficiency.
05/24/2004 ServiceWare to provide knowledge-powered support to EADS
TELECOM Customer Support Center.
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DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2004 by D. J. Power. Please send your questions to
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