DSS  Discussion Question 2: Operational Concept

Initial Response due 12:00 AM September 10, 2006


Our objective this week is to achieve consensus on an operational concept for a Plan of Study DSS.  Buede (2000) defines an operational concept as follows:

Operational Concept: vision for what the system is (in general terms), a statement of mission requirements, and a description of how the system will be used.  The shared vision is based on the perspective of the system's stakeholders of how the system will be developed, produced, deployed, trained, operated and maintained, refined, and retired to overcome some operational problem and achieve the stakeholders' operational needs and objectives.  The mission requirements are stated in terms of measures of effectiveness.  The operational concept includes a collection of scenarios; one or more for each group of stakeholders in each relevant phase of the system's life cycle. 

Assume that you work for an organization that has been commissioned to develop the DSS.  You have been provided with the following background information: 

The objective of this week's discussion is to develop:
  1. A vision statement for the DSS.  This should be a one-paragraph description of the vision for the system as agreed upon by the stakeholders.
  2. A set of usage scenarios. I am primarily interested in usage scenarios for the operational phase, but would also like to see at least one usage scenario for training. To keep the problem within bounds, we can ignore other lifecycle phases for now.  Each student should submit one usage scenario.  Among the class, I hope to obtain a nice spectrum of usage scenarios.  A usage scenario is a brief description (1-2 paragraphs) of a user interacting with the system to perform some task.
  3. A set of mission requirements.  The mission requirements should be few in number, ideally no more than six or seven, and should include a description of metrics for establishing whether the requirement has been met.
For examples of operational concepts, see (Students may also want to choose a name for the system.)

Open discussion will be via WebCT.  Please post at least one message during the general discussion period.  Be prepared to discuss the issues raised in the dialogue in class on September 12.  Your final response should address all the questions listed above.  Your final response is due by 5:00 PM September 15  in the submissions area of WebCT or by email to the instructor at klaskey@gmu.edu.  The general policy is that final responses should be less than one page in length, but this week's submission may be up to two pages. Please use the standard file naming and email header conventions.