Decision Support System

1.     Term Project: Development of a Decision Support System

Each student will get “hands-on” experience with the development of a decision support system. Each group will decide the topic and scope of their project. While the project teams will decide on the specific functions built into the system, theoretically, the system would be available to help both novice and experienced users, with a wide range of issue preferences.

The system must be able to accommodate a variety of decision making styles in these choices. These systems must include some “intelligence.” That is, the system must be able to make some decisions on its own as a function of its “knowledge” of the user and/or its “knowledge” about the customer’s interests. Students may (and are encouraged) to fabricate (or invent) any other data they need for the system; they are not expected to collect it. Groups are not required to use the provided information and may re-formulate information into other databases.

Systems and Final Reports: The groups will provide a disk or URL with the working system that they write as well as a report justifying their system. This paper must identify and justify the system characteristics. It must include a discussion of what the system does, and why your group elected to implement the system in the fashion chosen. This includes:

1. A description of the decision process

2. A justification for how the process would be improved with this system

3. The goals/objectives of the DSS

4. A discussion of how those goals/objectives meet the needs of the users

5. A discussion of how the DSS might be integrated into normal work processes

6. An explanation of what types of information will the system require, and how will that information be maintained

7. An explanation of what type(s) of modeling the DSS will use

Format, Guidelines and Due Date: This project is to be done using MS Word and presented in class. It should consist of between 10 – 20 pages, double spaced with 1” margins.