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DSS News
by D. J. Power
February 3, 2002 -- Vol. 3, No. 3
A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
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Check the article by David Hamil, MESA Solutions
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Featured:
* DSS Wisdom
* Ask Dan! - What are the "hot" DSS research topics?
* What's New at DSSResources.COM
* DSS News Stories
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This newsletter has more than 750 subscribers from
50 countries. Please forward this newsletter to people interested in
Decision Support Systems or suggest they visit DSSResources.COM.
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DSS Wisdom
In 1958, Professor James Bright concluded from his research that "Under
automation, therefore, it becomes a job of management to create superior
teamwork. Automation is literally integration of the physical plant.
Its counterpart for management is integration of the organization. The
plant and its people may no longer be unrelated elements, each
proceeding with little regard to the other's actions. An effective
automation design team that knits together the requirements, plans, and
adaptations of marketing, sales, product design, process design,
purchasing, and manufacturing personnel to the total business goals is
the first management step toward successful automation. The creation of
an operating team to sense the need for change and plan the
changes--rapidly--is the second." (p. 234)
Bright, James R. Automation and Management. Boston: Division of
Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard
University, 1958.
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Call for Papers: Decision Support Systems mini-track at
AMCIS 2002-Dallas. Deadline 03/15/2002.
Check URL http://www.misprofessor.com/dsscfp.html
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Ask Dan!
What are the "hot" DSS research topics?
Academic research in the U.S. often seems as susceptible to trends and
"hot" topics as other segments of our culture. For the past 10 years
Decision Support has not been a "hot" topic in information systems
research. Rather the focus of research narrowed and shifted. Related
technologies like data warehousing and data mining captured the interest
of the more technically inclined researchers and Strategic Information
Systems, e-commerce and e-business, the Internet and ERP were the focus
of more behaviorally and organizationally-oriented information systems
researchers.
The research needs and questions associated with decision support have
not diminished; rather they have grown in importance. Some people seem
to think that the technology issues associated with DSS were solved by
integrated spreadsheets and simple query tools, they are wrong. Some
think that managers are more informed now and have better computing
skills and hence there are no behavioral or organizational issues
related to design, development and implementation of DSS -- Get a
powerful project champion and use rapid prototying and you'll build an
effective DSS. That view is wrong.
Decision Support research may not seem "sexy" or "trendy", but it
remains important. Perhaps we need to package it as Knowledge
Management research or Supply Chain Integration, but many how, when,
what, who, where and why questions related to decision support remain
unanswered or in dispute.
Swanson & Ramiller (1993) provided a good inventory of IS research
themes that included some DSS topics. Their overview remains a good
starting point for finding "hot" DSS topics.
In terms of Communications-Driven DSS, Swanson & Ramiller suggest
contrasting the processes and outcomes of computer-supported and
conventional interaction. We can do much more to examine the effects of
various conditions on the use of and outcomes of using
Communications-Driven DSS technologies, especially the Internet and Web
technologies. There remains a need to apply psychological and
sociological theory to investigating and designing Communications-Driven
DSS technologies. Researchers still need to explore causal variables
like the nature of the leadership or moderator role, anonymity, goal
ambiguity, and capabilities of the technology. Managers are now
sophisticated enough to know that their responses are not really
anonymous. So perceptions of privacy may be more important than claims
of anonymity in influencing decision participant behavior. We still have
much to learn about dependent variables like the content and patterning
of communication and group member attitudes and perceptions associated
with Web-based DSS.
Fifty years of research by Management Scientists have led some to
conclude that we know all we need to know about Model-Driven DSS. Such a
conclusion neglects the increased complexity in our companies and in the
world and the increased expectations for visual models and simulations.
Model-Driven DSS should be a "sexy" topic. We have much more to learn
about the management of models and we need new model components to
advance the state of the art. Model management in distributed computing
environments is now a requirement and not just a possibility. The
behavioral issues associated with model-driven DSS have often been
avoided by relying on specialists and intermediaries to use complex
models for analyses. Models still need to be distributed more widely in
organizations and they need to be packaged as model-driven DSS used by
managers and staff. Our understanding of how that diffusion of
technology can happen is based more on personal experience than
empirical research.
Knowledge-Driven DSS (KDSS) and management expert systems applications
seem more practical today than 10 years ago. We can conduct field
studies of emergency management personel or medical doctors using
handheld computers with Knowledge-Driven DSS. Did the number of
questioned or inaccurate prescriptions decrease significantly when an MD
used a handheld-based KDSS to write prescriptions? What is the best
method and approach, what overall architecture works and how should we
measure performance when a manager uses a KDSS? How do we reconcile the
knowledge of multiple experts? We can study distributed KDSS.
Providing data doesn't mean one has created a Data-Driven DSS. Providing
a query capability doesn't necessarily mean managers will have the
information they want when they want it. Many years ago, Gordon Davis
said that we want management information systems that are "decision
impelling". Too many DSS and especially Data-Driven DSS fail that test.
We have many issues that can be investigated. For example, how can we
improve the effectiveness of database modeling and database design for
DSS. The "best practices" for transaction systems are not generally
appropriate for building a decision support data store. We have
unresolved policy issues on error removal, data quality, privacy and
data distribution. Management practice hasn't really changed to make
effective use of DSS and especially Data-Driven DSS. We don't want to
overload managers with data and yet we expect "fact-based" decision
making. We aren't certain about the "how to" or "who should" questions
when DSS designers need to identify critical success factors for
monitoring or controlling company performance.
Document-Driven DSS are a reasonably new frontier to many, but they have
been used for more than 25 years (cf., Swanson and Culnan, 1978). What
has changed is that document-driven DSS are now more accessible, more
powerful and less expensive to develop and deploy. We still have many of
the same questions to answer that we were struggling with 25 years ago.
Well, I'm working on a longer overview paper on major research issues
related to decision support systems with Hemant Bhargava and Merrill
Warkentin for the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS
2002) August 9-11, 2002 in Dallas so I'll save some of my steam for that
paper. There are certainly major issues related to the DSS development
process, DSS user interface design, DSS performance evaluation, DSS
security and control, interorganizational DSS and diffusion of these
technologies that could be discussed.
Hemant, Merrill and I are co-chairing the AMCIS 2002 minitrack on DSS
and we invite you to submit a paper and/or dialog with us on the current
"hot topics" in DSS. Check the Call for Papers for our minitrack at
http://www.misprofessor.com/dsscfp.html. We invite papers that address
DSS issues. We also need reviewers, discussants and session chairs. The
deadline for submitting papers for AMCIS 2002 is March 15, 2002.
Swanson, E. B., and M. J. Culnan, "Document-Based Systems for Management
Planning and Control: A Classification, Survey, and Assessment," MIS
Quarterly, December 1978.
Swanson, E.B. & Ramiller, N.C. "Information Systems Research Thematics:
Submissions to a New Journal, 1987-1992," Information Systems Research,
4(4), 1993, pp. 299-330.
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What's New at DSSResources.COM
01/27/2002 Posted article by Hamil, D. L. "Your Mission, Should You
Choose to Accept It: Project Management Excellence", DSSResources.COM,
01/27/2002, URL http://dssresources.com/papers/dssarticles.html.
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DSS News Stories: January 16 to January 31, 2002
01/31/2002 J. D. Edwards announced demand consensus module with
flexible, collaborative forecasting capabilities.
01/30/2002 Naval Air Depot Jacksonville now fully operational on new
repair & overhaul software from Western Data Systems.
01/29/2002 MapInfo announced Homeland Security Program leveraging
Location Intelligence.
01/29/2002 Business Objects selected by Volkswagen AG as its global
business intelligence standard.
01/29/2002 American Automobile Association selected Viva Intelligence
Portal.
01/28/2002 ChannelWave provides real-time visibility across demand chain
with Crystal Decisions.
01/28/2002 SAS achieves compatibility with leading Java Standard, J2E.
01/25/2002 Morningstar creates Risk Analyzer tool to help investors
assess overall portfolio risk.
01/25/2002 Subimo selected by PacifiCare Health Systems as a partner for
delivering decision support tools to members.
01/25/2002 Atlantic Health System selects McKesson to provide physicians
with remote access to patient information.
01/24/2002 Survey identifies need for supply chain design solutions and
strategic inventory realignment.
01/23/2002 Sybase signs data warehousing deal in China with Nanjing
local tax bureau.
01/22/2002 SAP Portals and Compaq announce strategic alliance to deliver
enterprise portal solution.
01/22/2002 eTForecasts report indicates that PDA-Phones will revitalize
the PDA market.
01/16/2002 Insightful launches StatServer® 6.0 Analytics software.
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