Decision Support Systems - The Significance of Hybrid Communication Facilities for Operations Research Consultancy

Abstract

In this paper the significance of suitable combinations of analogue and digital communication facilities in the design and implementation of Decision Support Systems (DSS) will be discussed within the context of practical Operations Research consultancy. It will be pointed out that the individual user's cognitive style and knowledge base play an important role in the design process. Therefore a user-oriented design, based on prototypes will be proposed. For the Operations Research consultant -in the role of both user and designerthe use of hybrid communication facilities is significant if he is not only interested in building models but also implementing them. The design of a DSS for Box-Jenkins time-series modelling will be used as a practical illustration.