Decision Support Systems: A Knowledge-Based Approach is organized into five major parts. Part One, Decision Making and Knowledge (Chapters 1-4), furnishes a contextual knowledge-oriented platform for understanding the issues and possibilities of computer-based decision support. Part Two, Foundations of Decision Support Systems (Chapters 5-8), examines the nature of decision support systems and how they are developed. Part Three, Knowledge Management Techniques for Decision Support (Chapters 9-11), surveys the important objects and processing methods for thirteen knowledge management techniques used in decision support systems.

Part Four, Artificially Intelligent Decision Support Systems (Chapters 12-15), provides a thorough introduction to decision support systems that embody concepts from the field of artificial intelligence, focusing especially on DSSs that represent and process knowledge in the form of rules. Part Five, Multiparticipant and Executive Decision Support Systems (Chapters 16-19), explores the nature of DSSs intended to support multiple participants engaged in decision making, plus those specifically oriented toward supporting the decisions of top level executives.

Each chapter begins with the description of a DSS. These real world application cases, called DSS Insights, offer practical illustrations of concepts covered in the chapters that they introduce. They can also be used as suggestive starting points for students in developing their own prototype decision support systems. Further guidelines for student projects, along with detailed examples, are given in the case studies that conclude Parts II-IV. In addition to application descriptions, relevant news items are placed throughout the book to emphasize the practical and topical importance of the material covered.

The text has been carefully designed to promote a unified understanding of important concepts. We have made a concerted effort to avoid producing a book that reads like a collection of lists, consists of a loosely related collection of essays on various topics, or attempts to be a DSS encyclopedia. Aside from the unique knowledge-based perspective that forms the book's unifying theme, a variety of special learning aids are incorporated into each part and each chapter.

For each part, the learning aids include:

Keynote. A brief keynote quotation kicks off each part, setting the tone and establishing the significance of its chapters' contents.

Preview. A short preview helps orient readers by indicating the scope of the part and highlighting the contents of each of its chapters.

Case Study. Each of the first four parts concludes with a case study that illustrates and integrates topics covered in its chapters. These can be used to stimulate class discussion about those topics and to guide student projects that involve hands-on development of decision support systems.

For each chapter, the learning aids include:

Outline. An initial chapter outline helps orient readers by showing the flow of concepts to be covered.

DSS Insights: Real World Application. An opening description of a computer system that has been developed to support decision makers gives a practical, real world context for appreciating the chapter's contents. It introduces and illustrates some of the main ideas covered in the chapter. It also gives a sense of actual DSS features and usage in a particular organizational setting.

Learning Objectives. Objectives that readers should meet upon completing a chapter are briefly and explicitly stated at the beginning.

Special Interest Boxes. Boxes are sprinkled throughout a chapter's main body of text to highlight presented ideas or point out issues of special interest that are related to presented ideas.

News Items. Most chapters contain news items from newspapers and magazines. These are scattered about in the main body of text to stress that presented ideas are relevant to what is happening in the workplace.References to more recent news items are posted on this web site.

Summary. The summary at the end of a chapter serves to remind readers of the main concepts that have been presented.

Important Terms. There is a list of important terms that should be understood upon completing the chapter. Definitions of these terms appear in the glossary.

Application Exercises. There is a set of exercises asking the reader to apply what was learned in the chapter to an analysis of the real world application that opened the chapter.

Review Questions. Review questions at the end of a chapter can help in a self-evaluation of what has been learned or be used for student testing. Answers to these questions can be found through a careful reading of the chapter.

Discussion Topics. Each chapter's discussion topics are designed to help exercise what has been learned by stimulating thinking beyond what was explicitly covered in the chapter. They can be used as a basis for class discussion or serve as essay questions for student testing. While the text provides a basic background for addressing the discussion topics, considerable thought and insight are also required. In many cases, there is no single correct position. Consideration of these topics encourages students to develop, express, and justify viewpoints.