Context in Decision Support Systems Development

IntroductIon Finding appropriate decision support systems (DSS) development processes and methodologies is a topic that has kept researchers in the decision support community busy for the past three decades at least. Inspired by Gibson and Nolan's curve (Gibson & Nolan 1974; Nolan, 1979), it is fair BLOCKINto BLOCKINcontend BLOCKINthat BLOCKINthe BLOCKINfield BLOCKINof BLOCKINDSS BLOCKINdevelopment is reaching the end of its expansion (or contagion) stage, which is characterized by the proliferation of processes and methodologies in all areas of decision support. Studies on DSS development conducted during the last 15 years BLOCKINhave BLOCKINidentified BLOCKINmore BLOCKINthan BLOCKIN30 different approaches to the design and construction of decision support methods and systems (Marakas, 2003). Interestingly enough, none of these approaches predominate and the various DSS development processes usually remain very BLOCKINdistinct BLOCKINand BLOCKINproject-specific. BLOCKINThis BLOCKINsituation can BLOCKINbe BLOCKINinterpreted BLOCKINas BLOCKINa BLOCKINsign BLOCKINthat BLOCKINthe BLOCKINfield BLOCKINof BLOCKINDSS development should soon enter in its formaliza-tion (or control) stage. Therefore, we propose a unifying perspective of DSS development based on the notion of context. In this article, we argue that the context of the target DSS (whether organizational, technological, or developmental) is not properly considered in the literature on DSS development. Researchers propose processes (e. for end-user computer), and frameworks, but often fail to explicitly describe the context in which the solution can be applied.