Decision Support Systems Failure

Abstract

The development of any decision support system (DSS) is a risky affair. The volatile task\renvironment and dynamic nature of managerial work means that DSS projects are prone to\rfailure. This chapter explores a number of aspects of DSS failure, first by considering the\rdefinition of success and failure and then by developing a set of critical success factors\r(CSFs) for DSS. This CSF set is used to understand two DSS project failures: one a small\rscale personal DSS, and the other a large enterprise-scale data warehouse with business\rintelligence applications. In addition to understanding DSS failure ex post, the CSF set\rcould be used during a project to provide early warning of potentially fatal problems