Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ
Their Information Needs
Decisional Executive Role 2 Phases
1. Identification of problems andor opportunities
2. The decision of what to do about them
Flow Chart and Information Flow Figure 11.1
Use Phases to Determine the Executives’ Information Needs
Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ
Information Needs
Wetherbes Approach [1991] Figure 11.2 1. Structured Interviews Table 11.2
– IBMs Business System Planning BSP – Critical Success Factors CSF
– EndsMeans EM Analysis
2. Prototyping
Watson and Frolicks Approach [1992]
– .Asking interview approach – .Deriving the needs from an existing information
system – .Synthesis from characteristics of the systems
– .Discovering Prototyping
• Ten methods Table 11.3
Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ
Structured Interviews
Method Sample Interview Questions
1. The executive interview portion of IBMs Business System Planning
BSP: Specify problems and decisions
a. What are the major problems encountered in accomplishing the purposes of the organizational unit
you manage?
b. What are good solutions to those problems? c. How can information play a role in any of those
solutions? d. What are the major decisions associated with your
management responsibilities? e. What improvements in information could result in
better decisions? 2. Critical success factors CSF:
Specify critical success factors a. What are the critical success factors of the
organizational unit you manage? Most managers have four to eight of these.
b. What information is needed to ensure that critical success factors are under control?
c. How do you measure the specific CSFs? For example: prompt shipment of orders a CSF is measured by
the percentage of time shipments are delivered on schedule.
3. Endmeans EM analysis: Specify effectiveness criteria or outputs and
