A FRAMEWORK FOR GROUP DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEMS - COMBINING AI TOOLS AND OR TECHNIQUES

Work on the implementation of Group Decision Support Systems has to ex ploit recent advancements of computer science. Existing frameworks for single-user Decision Support Systems, based on well-established Opera tions Research methods such as Multicriteria Decision Making technique s, have to be integrated with successful technical developments in ele ctronic communication and computing. Starting from the presentation of the related Operations Research background, this paper proceeds by di scussing challenges coming from the areas of Computer-Supported Cooper ative Work and information Systems on the World Wide Web platform. Bas ed on this discussion, a framework for an 'open', computer-mediated Gr oup Decision Support System is proposed. The term 'open' is related to a platform-independent system, which can efficiently support alternat ive types of goals and control protocols between its users. (C) 1997 E lsevier Science B.V.