HORSES FOR COURSES - A STAKEHOLDER APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF GDSSS

Evaluation of the performance of GDSSs has been dominated by an experi mental and laboratory based approach. Other writers have argued for ev aluation to be based in the ''real-world'' of decision making teams. T he evaluation criteria have tended to ignore many of the issues that w ould be paramount for some of the stakeholders in the evaluation proce ss. This article seeks to explore the criteria that might be used by a wide variety of stakeholders, including developers, facilitators, cli ents, key actors, vendors, as well as academics. By drawing together t he criteria associated with all of the stakeholders we discover a broa der, and possibly more thorough, framework for evaluation. The evaluat ion of any particular GDSS in relation to other GDSSs can then be seen in the context of contingent weighting applied to each of the criteri a where each GDSS is able to be seen in its best light and in relation to its declared aims. This article argues for a more eclectic and con tingent approach to the evaluation of GDSSs which will encourage their future development to be clearer about purpose and the boundaries of their use.