Information systems that also project into the future

Abstract

We study requirements to make information systems used for decision-making support effective. Lacking today is support for projection within these systems: the action that a decision maker initiates has effects in the future, and these must be assessed. Information systems however, focus on the past, and leave projection to be performed either by the decision makers intuition, or to a variety of tools that are not well integrated. After enumerating needed functions, we present concepts needed for an adequate infrastructure. We then describe some research that has demonstrated a capability for integrating output from spreadsheets and other simulations into information systems. We close by indicating research and development direction that should be pursued to make the vision of information systems that can also project into the future a reality.