idsc 13

Decision-making phase

The first part of problem solving, including three stages: intelligence, design, and choice.

Institutional DSS

a DSS that handles situations or decisions that occur more than once, usually several times per year or more. An institutional DSS is used repeatedly and refined over the years.

Geographic information system (GIS)

a computer system capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying geographic information, that is, data identified according to its location.

Programmed decision

a decision made using a rule, procedure, or quantitative method.

Nonprogrammed decision

a decision that deals with unusual or exceptional situations that can be difficult to quantify.

Delphi approach

a decision-making approach in which group decision makers are geographically dispersed; this approach encourages diversity among group members and fosters creativity and original thinking in decision making.

Nominal group technique

a decision-making approach that encourages feedback from individual group members, and the final decision is made by voting, similar to the way public officials are elected.

Group consensus approach

a decision-making approach that forces members in the group to reach a unanimous decision.

Revenue center

a division within a company that generates sales or revenues.

Satisficing model

a model that will find a good—but not necessarily the best—problem solution.

Problem solving

a process that goes beyond decision making to include the implementation and monitoring stages.

Optimization model

a process to find the best solution, usually the one that will best help the organization meet its goals.

Exception report

a report automatically produced when a situation is unusual or requires management action.

Demand report

a report developed to give certain information at someone's request.

Scheduled report

a report produced periodically, or on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or monthly.

Drill-down report

a report providing increasingly detailed data about a situation.

Key-indicator report

a summary of the previous day's critical activities; typically available at the beginning of each workday.

Heuristics

commonly accepted guidelines or procedures that usually find a good solution.

Brainstorming

decision-making approach that often consists of members offering ideas "off the top of their heads."

Semistructured or unstructured problems

more complex problems in which the relationships among the pieces of data are not always clear, the data may be in a variety of formats, and the data is often difficult to manipulate or obtain.

Model base

part of a DSS that provides decision makers access to a variety of models and assists them in decision making.

Highly structured problems

problems that are straightforward and require known facts and relationships.

Group support system (GSS)

software application that consists of most elements in a DSS, plus software to provide effective support in group decision making; also called group support system or computerized collaborative work system.

Model management software

software that coordinates the use of models in a DSS.

Executive support system (ESS)

specialized DSS that includes all hardware, software, data, procedures, and people used to assist senior-level executives within the organization.

Virtual workgroups

teams of people located around the world working on common problems.

Simulation

the ability of the DSS to duplicate the features of a real system.

Monitoring stage

the final stage of the problem-solving process, in which decision makers evaluate the implementation.

Intelligence stage

the first stage of decision making, in which potential problems or opportunities are identified and defined.

Goal-seeking analysis

the process of determining the problem data required for a given result.

What-if analysis

the process of making hypothetical changes to problem data and observing the impact on the results.

Design stage

the second stage of decision making, in which alternative solutions to the problem are developed.

Choice stage

the third stage of decision making, which requires selecting a course of action.