Journal of Management Information Systems

Volume 1 Number 2 1984 pp. 72-79

DSS Mechanisms for Judgemental Flexibility: An Exploratory Survey

Farwell, David C

ABSTRACT: The building of a decision support system (DSS) calls for a balance to be struck between the computer's calculation and logic capabilities and the freewheeling judgment of its human operator. This paper reports on a survey which was conducted to determine how DSS builders create this balance. The survey results confirm definition of five mechanisms employed by DSS builders in the construction of fifteen different DSS: process dependence, total passthrough, model functional reversal, model judgmental, and trial and error. The paper documents these mechanisms and reports on the survey.

Key words and phrases: decision support systems, system flexibility, user-system interface