Talk:Decision support system/Archives/2017

Merge from decision-making software

IMNSHO, there is no notable difference. Both apparently only support decision making.-- Kku 09:48, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

Au contraire, there is a notable difference! IMO, the merging of the article decision-making software with decision support system (as happened a week ago) is a serious error. Decision-making software relates to software used in the field of Decision Analysis, also commonly known as (the field of) Decision Making. In most cases Decision Analysis / Decision Making is short-hand for Multi-Criteria (or Attribute or Objective) Decision Analysis / Decision Making - e.g. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis is synonymous with (and redirects from) Multi-Criteria Decision Making. This recent article by Samantha Oleson discusses the field of (Multi-Criteria) Decision Analysis / Decision Making: https://www.informs.org/ORMS-Today/Public-Articles/October-Volume-43-Number-5/Software-Survey. Indeed most of the software discussed in the original decision-making software article - which has been shifted to decision support system#Comparison_of_decision-making_software - is covered in the "Decision Analysis Software Survey" that accompanies the above-mentioned Oleson article. "Decision support system" is a much broader, all encompassing area; i.e. Decision-making software (or Decision analysis software) is a type of decision support system (DSS), but there are very, very many other types of DSS. Please undo the merging of the article decision-making software with decision support system. Paulwizard (talk) 00:03, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi Paulwizard, thank you for your analysis. Although the theoretical basis that you outline above appears reasonable, I have to emphasize the fact that in the original article the distinction was far from clear; instead the authors tried to make it clear that dms only supported decision making, the nice MCDA theory behind it notwithstanding. Since we are talking about nothing more than software systems, which should be judged primarily according to what they do (it is software tools we are talking about, I do not mind if a tool only provides hammering functionality I do not care if the original inventor put the entire theory of calipers behind it), I would recommend leaving the merge itself untouched and carving out the subtype-relation in the new article. Feel free to rearrange and modify, I will gladly assist you. -- Kku 07:57, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Hi Kku, I have to agree with Paulwizard. As A user of MCDA platforms I think your statement "Since we are talking about nothing more than software systems" shows that you don't really understand MCDA at all. Would you call SAS or STATA software systems, and if you do, why are they not mentioned, as they can be used by the knowledgeable user to support decision making. No in reality you wouldn’t because they don’t support they inform and enrich the knowledge of the user. The MCDA platform allows for decision analysis and preference revelation, a good one will not just support decision making but will facilitate the revelation of new information; just as SAS allows someone to mine information out of data. MCDA platforms (like 1000minds) reveal information that was not originally available to the user, so while it does support decision making it also facilitates the building of a better information package. Crazy data guy (talk) 01:51, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

To make a clearer distinction between the two, could someone go into more detail about what a decision support system entails. The descriptions above make it sound like a larger category of which decision-making software is a part. What other significant types of DSSs are there? --Ronz (talk) 16:39, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

You can get a good idea of the breadth of DSSs from the descriptions of journals in the area, e.g. http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-decision-support-system/1120 and http://www.inderscience.com/jhome.php?jcode=ijdss. You will notice that decision-making software or multi-criteria analysis are a small part of a much bigger picture. Decision-making software (as multi-criteria decision-making software is commonly known) is quite well-defined, so much so that it feels different from a DSS, perhaps as humans are to great apes, or sharks are to fish. The decision-making software page stood well as a distinct subject article with the content and notability to justify its existence. The decision support systems page now feels flooded by the content from that decision-making software page, as if the Fish page talked mainly about Sharks. I think the decision-making software article should be reinstated (are you able to do this for us Ronz?) and the DSS article needs an overhaul from an expert in the field. Franzo (talk) 18:28, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. That confirms the impression I'm getting about the category and subcategory. But what other types of DSSs are there? --Ronz (talk) 00:46, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

I think this conference article endeavours to answer your question: http://www.academia.edu/10794167/Examples_of_software_tools_for_decision_support_system_DSS_based_on_modern_technologies. Clearly there is a wide range of systems that can be categorised in various ways: some examples among many are Planning DSSs, Intelligent Environment DSSs, Negotiation DSSs, Tactical Air DSSs and Spatial DSSs. Franzo (talk) 01:28, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

I may not have the time to unravel the specifics here, so am just going to point out that if WP:N is clearly met, then this decision shouldn't be difficult to make. --Ronz (talk) 17:30, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

To me, from my reading of WP:N, notability is clearly met. Hence a standalone article for "decision-making software" (i.e. its reinstatement or demerging from "decision support system") is warrented. What do others think? Paulwizard (talk) 20:55, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes. Can you please undo the merge Kku? Franzo (talk) 01:34, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi, I am still not very impressed due to the the fact that the real difference is in what they are supposed to be instead of what they are. But I won't stand in the way. Feel free to revert stuff as you deem necessary. I would strongly suggest, however, that instead of a simple revert you focus on the differences from the start. In this respect, I would be best to apply a complete rewrite to decision-making software, which to me in its previous form presented barely any evidence for the distinction. -- Kku (talk) 07:37, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks Kku, I think the decision-making software page stood well as a distinct subject article with the content and notability to justify its existence. I'm very happy to review the article as you suggest in order to situate it better. This DSS article will also need considerable work, indeed I think it always did need work - I imagine if it had been clearer you wouldn't have been so inclined to merge the decision-making software page into it. I will request undeletion of the decision-making software article so that the articles can be reworked together. Franzo (talk) 22:19, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Undeletion?? Request??? Are we talking about the same thing? -- Kku (talk) 07:07, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

I have reverted the merge and redirect of Decision-making software into Decision support system. Next steps are to more clearly articulate why the decision-making software article is different from the DSS article (as sharks are to fish) and to fix this article (so it talks about fish rather than sharks, as it were). Franzo (talk) 05:06, 18 February 2017 (UTC)