QIT3023

Information Systems and Decision Making

CHAPTER 8: GROUP DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS (GDSS)

WHY GDSS NOW?? 2 set of factors have led to the recent explosion in DSS : task-related reasons : have to do with the functional requirements of making a decision organizational reasons : have to do with reflecting peoples desire to be involve in the decision

8.2.1 Organizational Reason for GDSS Growth: management decision require the participation of many people because of: more complex decision environments specialization of decision makers emphasis on time as a competitive resource groupthink the tendency of group members to fall into similar thought patterns and disapprove, implicitly or explicitly, of opinions that do not conform to these pattern. GDSS make it less threatening for group members to violate group norms by stating new opinion or disagreeing with them.

8.2.2 Technical Reasons for GDSS Growth New technological advance make it technically and economically feasible to develop GDSS tools Eg: Wide Area telecommunication link are becoming less expensive, more organization have their own LAN, advance network standards that enable user to share data etc. Mohd. Noor abdul hamid [email protected] 1

QIT3023 Information Systems and Decision Making 8.3 GROUPS VS INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES For individual to accomplish their task in group activities, they must interact with other individuals in the group Why interact?? - knowledge necessary to accomplish a task may be distributed among the group members each members depend on other member to gain knowledge in order to accomplish their task GDSS help to provide information about the group members, their skills and other resources GDSS provide information sharing among the group members Challenges in design and implement GDSS How to motivate group members to cooperate? How to ensure the information truthfulness? DSS may promote competition : giving untruthful information How to ensure that there is no free riding?? Members take for granted a group member may fail to respond to a request, knowing someone to respond sooner or later.

8.4

MEDIA RICHNESS AND TASK TYPES 8.4.1 Media Richness: Potential information-carrying capacity of a data transmission medium The richness measured by the number of available communication channel as well the immediacy of feedback that is provided to decision maker In order to use this richness information classify tasks because different types of media may be appropriate for different types of tasks High Face-to-face Video Audio Real-time electronic chat Electronic Mail Low Figure 1 : Communication Medium Richness

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QIT3023 8.4.2 Task:

Information Systems and Decision Making GDSS designers have use MCGraths classifications (circumplex) frequently to design GDSS to match task requirement Circumplex = 2 dimensions * 4 basic task = 8 classes of task 2 dimensions: - Cooperation to conflict - Behavioral (involve physical actions) to cognitive (involve mental activity & information) 4 basic task types generate, choose, negotiate, execute a) Generating tasks : generating plans (planning tasks) and generating ideas (creativity tasks) b) Choose tasks, include: tasks that have correct answer (intellective task) and involve issues without right answer c) Negotiate tasks, include task where: members need to negotiate to resolve conflicts of viewpoints (cognitive conflict task) and members need to negotiate to resolve conflicts of interest (mixed-motive tasks) d) Execute task involve physical activity.

8.4.3 Task and Media Fit: Media richness theory suggest that groups that are faced with a complex task require rich communication media If the task can be structured low richness is required Unstructured task (need to communicate to correct their divergent interpretations) required high richness

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QIT3023

Information Systems and Decision Making

Generate Generating ideas Generating plans

Cooperation

Solving problems with correct answers

Type 2 : Creativity Tasks

Type 1 : Planning Tasks Execute performance tasks

Type 3 : Intellective Tasks Choose Type 4 : DM Tasks Deciding issues with no right answer Conflict

Type 8 : Performance / psycho-motor Tasks Type 7 : Contests/Battles/ competitive Tasks

Execute

Type 5 : Cognitive conflict tasks

Type 6 : Mixed-motive Tasks

Resolving conflict of power

Resolving conflict of viewpoint

Negotiate

Resolving conflict of interest

Conceptual Figure 2 : Group Task Circumplex

Behavioral

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QIT3023 Information Systems and Decision Making 8.5 TYPES OF GDSS: a) connection management systems: providing a physical mechanism through which people involved in a decision can communicate e.g.: WAN architecture b) communication management: enhance information flow by means of facilities to store, reply, forward etc e.g. electronic mail packages and discussion groups c) content management systems provides intelligent routing the system knows where a document goes after its current user finishes with it, or where the messages should go once it is entered e.g. decision conference systems d) process management considering the content of the information in the flow in deciding what to do with it 8.6 GROUPWARE: computer-based systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and provide an interface to a shared environment e.g. calendar programs calendar program + electronic mail capabilities = it can notify required and optional participants of meetings, schedule conference rooms and other required resources, collect information, generally simplify the process of meeting administrations categories of groupware products include: e-mail and messaging conferencing tools GDSS tools Group document handling tools Workflow tools TIME Different No-tech : physical (cork and thumbtack) bulletin board Low-tech : none High-tech : single-user computer with shared files for non concurrent use No-tech : none No-tech : mail Low-tech : telephone Low-tech : fax High-tech : High-tech : electronic bulletin teleconferencing systems boards, electronic mail Figure 3 Group communication Grid Same No-tech : meeting room Low-tech : overhead projector High-tech : conference room support system 5

Same

PLACE Different

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QIT3023 8.7 GDSS IN USE TODAY 8.7.1

Information Systems and Decision Making

Electronic meeting systems: also known as a electronic boardroom or war room provide same time same place meeting each participant has a microcomputer, connected by a high-speed local network also have a large screen display, located where it can be seen by all participants meeting facilitator guides the electronic aspect of the meeting, can view any participants computer display and show it on a large screen electronic meeting room s/ware tools for planning the session (propose agenda item), during meeting (organize and structure members comments), after meeting (recorded data) three styles of electronic meeting: chauffeured : display screen is control by one person. supported : all group member can write on the blackboard interactive : most highly computerized, hardly anyone speaks Work Flow Systems: can be thought of as intelligent electronic mail, the systems knows what the flow of information in a decision-making situation is supposed to be and routes information accordingly route work using forms and scripts major characteristics of work flow development tools are : they can move various types of objects forms, documents, technical drawings, fax etc they can route information objects automatically from person to person according to a programmed plan information can be processed at any point. Applications developers have flexibility in the type of processing they specify tracking can show who has done what and where things are being held up information moved using electronic mail e.g. BeyondMail, WorkFlo, Cooperation, WorkMAN, TeamRoute, INConcert, Notes facilitate information often associated with image processing

8.7.2

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QIT3023 8.8 GROUPWARE PRODUCTS

Information Systems and Decision Making

8.8.1 Collaborative Authoring: a) Dolphin: From German firm GMD S/ware system that supports collaborative authoring in a distributed or face to face environment Supports the phase of collaborative writing that requires intense meetings Provide multiple cursors to show who is working on part of the shared document Allow member to access a shared workspace from remote sites, exchange annotations and engage in discussions Uses replication to replicate the changes Utilize locking in the transaction-processing sense to control concurrency b) MERMAID (Multimedia Environment for Remote Multiple Attendee Interactive Decision Making) Develop by Nippon Electric Corp (NEC) Supports a wide range of cooperative work in a distributed environment including collaborative authoring Used for technical discussions, s/ware development by groups whose members are distributed, joint system design, joint document editing Can accommodate WAN and multiple LAN using any networking technology Provides multiwindow user interface with pull-down and pop-up menus that can be controlled by using the keyboard and mouse User friendly easy for non-technical office workers using this program Multiple authors can co-edit documents in a real time using the shared document editor while they can have a conversation using the video and audio-enabled conferencing facility. 8.8.2 Lotus Notes from IBM subsidiary Lotus Development Corporation Notes way to organize documents and make them available to groups of people Not a relational database (not allow the user to enter data in a field in one file and then use the same field in another, not automatically update) Can store compound documents and do periodic, but not immediate updates Not suitable for applications that needs instance update airline ticketing Provide many features serial routing and status checking Build around four core technologies security, Mohd. Noor abdul hamid 7 [email protected]

QIT3023

Information Systems and Decision Making compound documents basic component of a d/base, consist many types of information replication development tools allows Notes system to be customized to the needs of a particular organization

8.8.3 InConcert Work Flow work flow management system for complex production-level work flows provides the platform for building specific applications that help groups work together to solve problem uses its object technology to associate an unlimited number of attributes and external data with processes and tasks. Operates in a client/server environment Packages includes the server s/ware, developers kit and the optional tools and add-on modules Code using C++ object-oriented programming language Provides security by restricting access to the users who do not have appropriate access privileges Is a process management system along the horizontal axis of the GDSS hierarchy

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