Conceptual design of decision support systems utilizing management science models

A conceptual design for decision support systems (DSS) employing management science models is presented. The motivations for the research include a marked increase in the use of management science models in recent years and the limited success achieved to date in providing user-friendly model access to the decisionmaker, a capability which is essential to the basic notion of a decision support system. The design presented supports a "model management" approach to the problem, which is contrasted with the more common and traditional "meta-language" approach. Relevant software systems in the DSS include three physically and logically independent systems for data-base management, model-base management, and dialogue management, as well as a fourth coordinating entity, the problem processing system. Included are descriptions of the component parts that comprise the DSS conceptual model, discussions of associated personnel roles, operational considerations related to impiementability, and an illustrative example application.