A Context-Based Approach to the Development of Decision Support

After more than three decades of research, the Decision Support Systems (DSS) community is still looking for a unified and standardized DSS development methodology. In this paper, we argue that the existing solutions remain too distinct and project-specific because they fail to properly consider the context of the target DSS in their processes. This paper describes a new approach, whose goal is to formalize the notion of context in the study of DSS development. The proposed approach is based on the concept of value-based software engineering. It is structured around two techniques called the benefits-realization approach and the realization feedback process. An example is provided to illustrate how an impractical, context-free DSS development life cycle can be turned into a context-based life cycle focusing on the most success-critical aspects of the target DSS.