Ch. 4
Designing and Developing Decision Support Systems

Diagnosis of decision-making should be followed by additional initiation and diagnostic activities and preparation of a feasibility study of the technical and economic prospects related to developing a DSS. This study should occur prior to actually committing resources to developing a proposed DSS. What should be included in a DSS Feasibility Study? This is a common question. An outline for an extensive feasibility study report is included at the end of this chapter. The outline has 15 sections on topics like DSS Scope and Target Users, Anticipated DSS Impacts, Benefits, Risks and Mitigating Factors. Shorter, less comprehensive studies and reports are usually prepared for small scope DSS projects.

At this point a decision is made between purchasing an application package and in-house development. Packaged DSS applications are often quite versatile and are usually less expensive to implement than in-house development. Packaged solutions are also often faster to implement.