SYST 542: Paper Review
You are required to find, read, and perform a critical review of a published
paper on decision support. The most common type of paper chosen is an
application paper describing a decision support system that was implemented
and fielded. A good sources for such papers is the journal Interfaces,
which is published by the INFORMS society. You are not limited to this
type of paper. Your paper may be more theoretical in orientation.
However, you may not choose a paper that is purely methodological or
purely software or systems engineering, without special permission from the
instructor and a prior agreement on how you are going to relate your paper
review to the course.
If you choose an application oriented paper, your review should cover the
following:
- What was the problem for which support was needed?
- Describe as best you can the DSS development process, with special
attention to requirements definition and stakeholder involvement in the process.
- Describe the data, model, and dialogue subsystems. How did each
of these components address the problem addressed by the system? To
the extent appropriate for your problem, describe alternative solutions and
how they compare with the approach taken.
- Describe how the system was evaluated and the results of evaluation.
Each student will give an in-class presenation of about 15-20 minutes. A
written review is due one week after the in-class presentation. Students
may request an extension by sending a written request to the instructor via
email stating a justification for why additional time is needed and a date
when the review will be handed in. The words "Paper Review" and the
student's name must appear in the subject line of the email message. Instructor
will respond within 24 hours (48 hours if request is received between 5PM
on Friday and 9AM on Sunday) with notification of whether the request is
granted. Typical reviews are expected to be about 5 pages in length; no more
than 10 pages is permitted.