Concept & definition
A Data-driven Decision Support System (DDSS) refers to “a category or type of decision support system that emphasizes access to and manipulation of a time-series of internal company data and sometimes external data” (Power, 2002, 2008). A decision support system “[is] a class of computerized information system that supports decision-making activities”.
A DDDS can consequently be understood as a class of computerized information system that support decision-making activities via the access to and manipulation of internal company data and sometimes external data. The concept was originally defined from a private sector point of view, and not from a public administration perspective.
Public administration perspective on DDSS
In a public administration context, specific reference can be made to internal public administration data and external data. Public administration data can refer to data originating from within the public administration that will take a particular decision, but can also refer to data originating from other public administration actors. External data would, in the context of public administrations, refer to non-public administration data (e.g. data from private sources or other stakeholders).
For example, a local Digital Twin can include data of various sources:
- Data originating from the administration itself (local police, environmental department etc.)
- Data originating from other public administrations, think of neighbouring local administrations, the Flemish public administrations, the federal public administration etc.
- Data originating from non-public administration actors, such as private companies or citizens.
Other types of decision support systems
As Power (2002, 2008) and Kozielski et al. (2021) indicate, a DDSS is only one type of decision support system. Other types of decision support systems are the following:
- Communication driven
- Data driven
- Document driven
- Knowledge driven
- Model driven.
Relevant in this regard is specifically the Knowledge-driven decision support system , which “is a blanket term for systems built using artificial intelligence technologies. Equipped with specialized problem-solving expertise, they are used to suggest or recommend actions to managers, using tasks that would otherwise require a human expert. Knowledge-driven [decision support system] are often paired with data mining to sift through large amounts of data to identify the content relationships within.” (Lee, 2021; Power, 2002, 2008).