College of Information Technology
United Arab Emirates University
COURSE SYLLABUS
BUSA 386: Decision Support Systems
Prerequisite
Co-requisite
ITBP220
Achieving 15
credit hours
Offered in
Semester
Credit Hours
Contact Hours
3 Hrs
4 hours
Instructors
Dr. Hazem El Khatib
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
This course aims at an introduction to the decision support systems (DSS) and their
use in supporting the decision making process in different organizations. It includes
DSS components-DSS technology levels DSS analysis and design, managerial
cognitive styles-development languages-Applications.
TEXTBOOK
Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E.
Aronson, Sixth Edition, Prentice Hall.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is intended to introduce students to:
1. Management Support Systems (MSS) and Technologies.
2. The concept of decision support systems.
3. A framework for decision support.
4. The process of managerial decision making and modeling.
5. Databases, data warehouses, data analysis, and visualization.
6. The process of developing DSS.
7. The integration and implementation of MSS.
8. MSS organizational and societal impacts.
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College of Information Technology
United Arab Emirates University
TOPICS AND COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEKS
CLASSROOM SESSIONS
Topic
Part1: Decision Making and Ch1&2
Computerized Support
1,2,3
•
4,5,6,7
•
Part2: Decision Support Systems
8,9,10
•
Part3:
Collaboration, Ch7,8,9
communication, enterprise decision
support systems, and knowledge
management.
11, 12, 13
•
Part6, Implementation, integration, Ch18, 19
and impacts
Sources
Ch3, 4, 5, 6
COURSE PROJECT
Each student will focus on one of the following DSS software vendors in preparing a DSS
vendor report:
1. Arbor
2. Business Objects
3. Cognos
4. Comshare
5. Equifax (National Decision Systems)
6. Expert Choice
7. Gentia
8. Information Advantage
9. Information Builders
10. Knowledge Based Systems
11. Lumina
12. Microstrategy
13. Pilot Software
14. SAS
15. Speedware
16. SAP
17.Accrue
I)
Download the software, install it, and test it. You may need to download the demo
from the vendor's Web site.
II)
Write a report (5-10 pages) on your findings and comments regarding the software.
This report will form the basis for a brief in-class presentation. Your report should include the
following:
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College of Information Technology
United Arab Emirates University
1. A brief overview of the company (e.g., age, size, customer base, history).
2. Discuss the vendor's products for decision support including:
a. How is the product relevant to decision support?
b. What are its main features?
c. What are the requirements for using this product?
d. What is the product cost?
e. How widespread is use of this product?
f. What benefits does it provide and what are its limitations?
3. A description of services the vendor provides (e.g., training, customer support, consulting).
4. Examples of how the company's products (and services) have been used.
III)
Do a 15 minutes in-class presentation, which should include an explanation of why
the software is appropriate for assisting in decision making, a hands-on-demonstration of
selected important capabilities of the software, and your critical evaluation of the software.
Try to make your presentation interesting and instructive to the whole class. The main
purpose of the class presentation is for class members to see as much DSS software as
possible, both in breadth (through the presentation by other groups) and in depth (through the
experience you have in exploring the ins and outs of one particular software product).
ASSESSMENT
Assignments & quizzes
20%
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Project
20%
Midterm
25%
3
Final
35%
Total
100%
2003/10/05