3/19/12

Wha ' an E ec i e S ppo S

em

d
Wha if...? c

dc

Wha ' an E ec i e S ppo S

Wha '
..

em?

p?

..

Wha ' a ESS? A ESS (or DSS more in general) is a software system under control of one of many decision-makers that assists in their activity of decision making by providing and organised set of tools intended to impart structure to portions of the decision making situation and to improve the ultimate effectiveness of the decision outcome". Sharing the same concepts of a DSS, an ESS focuses more in the end-user requirements of maximum interactivity and user-friendlyness. An ESS can be understood as a friendly, fully customised and interactive DSS to be mostly used by top executives and policy-makers to get permanent and updated assessment in relation to key questions (information and knowledge). While a complete DSS will have efficient links to external large databases and advanced models, an ESS focuses only on interactive and executive assessment tools, those which can be used personally by end-users. An ESS requires a previous expert work filtering information and knowledge into meaningful indicators and tools. Because of ESS definition, its design and implementation must integrate future users as much as feasible, since a ESS represents both a challenge and an opportunity to improve their working processes. Although software development play an integral role in any Executive Support System design
.mc i .com/a embling/a emb_cen al/Wha ESS.h m 1/5

3/19/12

Wha ' an E ec i e S ppo S

em

(and more in general in the Decision Support System world) the analysis of ESS and DSS is about how people think and make decisions Anyway a ESS will induce organisational changes which can not be succesful in complex institutions unless they are clearly preceived and desired since the begining. Recent developments on ESS and DSS tend to integrate the multiple decisions being taken by the institution, so they become Organisational DSS. An ODSS is therefore a participative process, instead of a mandatory product. In the figure, the green circle represents the domain area of a typical Executive Support System. S ppo ing deci ion-making p oce e Ra ional deci ion b "comp e " Start with the data: Almost free from prejudicies. Rational formulation Large volums of information Inductive in-depth analysis Specialised: Sectorial analysis Large volums of calculations, slow conclusions Optimisation strategy from all possible solutions Emo ional deci ion-make ("people") Start with a provisory solution to be validated and modified Adaptative behaviour Limited access to information Intuitive-deductive search for "patterns" Global: Multisectorial synthesis Rapid expression of personal perceptions Satisfying strategy based on "acceptable" possibilitie

Deci ion-making app oache FUNCTIONALECONOMIC economic efficiency ake allocating scarce resources maximum marginal social benefit-cost maximize users (travelers) utility and minimize externalities sectorial political interest STRATEGIC-POLITICAL

create social consensus and social mobilization

pa amo n objec i e

goal

maximize voters perception multi-sectorial long-term in theory,

.mc i .com/a

embling/a

emb_cen al/Wha ESS.h m

2/5

3/19/12

Wha ' an E ec i e S ppo S

em

iming

basically short-term cost-benefit quantitative results

short-term in most cases

f ame o k

multi-party negotiation

pe iod

an po p oj ec Military Roads and Ports

de elopmen pa adigm

deci ion-making goal Permanent territorial control

deci ionmaking leade hip MilitaryReligious imposition Private iniciative

Pre-Industrial

Colonization

1800-1900 Early Industrialization 1900-1975 Mass Industrialization

Firsts Canals and Railways Developing National Transportation Networks Managing the existing transport capacity International and Local Networks Development

Exogenous in National scale Exogenous International scale

Short-term private interest

Long-term development strategy

Political iniciative

1975-1985 Industrial Crisis

Close endogenous

Short-term socialeconomic rationality Permanent environmental and development negotiation

Bureaucratic rationality

>1985 Post Industrialization

Open endogenous

Social agreement

SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS Evaluation Models (e.g. CBA, Multicriteria...)

EXPERT ANALYSIS

POLICY ANALYSIS

Explanatory Models Forecast Models (e.g. 4Steps) Backcast Model Conceptual Models Statistic Models (e.g. Linear regression) Policy Indicators

Concep al

e of an DSS (implica ion fo an ESS)

Despite the particularities of each ESS, they share with more general DSS some fundamental elements: -Information system: Databases with consistent structure -Models to generate unknown information (e.g. Impacts of alternative decisions). In an ESS model should ideally be interactive and their results linked to policy relevant indicators. -Knowledge basis to put in a political context information and model's outcomes, and evaluate them. Policy actions are the result of adding purposes and goals to knowledge. User-Interfaces The users of the ESS must ideally get friendly and
.mc i .com/a embling/a emb_cen al/Wha ESS.h m 3/5

3/19/12

Wha ' an E ec i e S ppo S

em

customised access to information, models and knowledge (policy relevant indicators), according to their needs). Interactivity is a requirement to make "reinforcing learning" possible. Each module, and the links between them, require specific software and hardware solutions, which should be designed together by system s experts and end-users. Info ma ion componen : Giving structure to policy-relevant Data descriptors and indexes. Model componen : Predicting impacts of policy actions in different overall scenarios to produce meaningful and consistent indicators to evaluate alternative policy actions. Kno ledge componen ESS knowledge-base could integrate few major elements: -Policy indicators monitoring the impacts and needs of EU policies (calculated in the model base) -Knowledge-based tools (e.g. Interactive models supporting policy evaluation). -All other fuzzy knowledge elements which can not be encapsuled within strict "scientific methods"

Architectures

U e -f iendl in e face componen User-Interfaces must be adapted to end- users: -ESS for top decision makers (which require already-made analysis in a friendly manner, but as well proper connections to other elements in the DSS) -Experts (which requiere access to both data and models to carry on the analysis, but as well links to modelling tools and raw data in order to check and understand models formulation and data sources reliability). An ESS does not have "experts" as main target users.

Mo e info ma ion: For additional to ESS, DSS and ODSS issues click the following key reference books: Ame ican NTS Ini ia i e G.M.Ma aka "Decision Support Systems in the 21th Century",1999 G.M. Ca e , M.P.M a , R.G. Walke , W.E.Walke "Building Organisational Decision Support Systems", 1992 T ban E. & A on on J.E. "Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems", 1998"Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems", 1998
.mc i .com/a embling/a emb_cen al/Wha ESS.h m 4/5

3/19/12

Wha ' an E ec i e S ppo S

em

.. .. We welcome your Feedback.

.mc i .com/a

embling/a

emb_cen al/Wha ESS.h m

5/5