An approach to development of decision support systems for a public sector administration

Abstract

The decision making process in complex domains involves inconsistent, incomplete and uncertain information and a lack of established models or theories. These characteristics influence the nature of approach to be used in the development of any decision aids to support the process. This paper presents an approach adopted in the development of a DSS to support complex decision making in a Public Sector body. The approach incorporates the use of Soft System Methodology (SSM). The role of SSM in Information Systems in general and in the development of DSS in particular is not well understood. This paper attempts to enhance this understanding by presenting the role of SSM in the development life cycle. SSM was found to be useful especially at the initial stage of DSS development, namely in understanding the problem area, as well as in identifying models and information to be used as inputs to the DSS design.