Empowering system developers through alternate methods and technologies: testing the efficacy of GDSS (group decision support systems)

Substantial changes are occurring in systems development. In response, attempts are being made to empower system developers through technology. The predominant response being CASE. Even if CASE were an accepted enabling technology, it is not a sufficient technology. CASE focuses on the technical aspects of system development work. System developers need complementary technology to help with the social aspects. Eventually these two types of technology will need to be combined into a more complete system development support environment. But first, technology to support the social aspects of system development work needs to be sought out or developed. One social aspect is the necessary involvement of groups in nontrivial systems development situations. One class of social support technology is GDSS. The authors describe a laboratory experiment designed to test the efficacy of using GDSS to support an aspect of system development work. Results show small but significant differences in quality and quantity outcomes in favour of GDSS when novice system developers performed the same system development task twice, under controlled laboratory conditions, once with GDSS support and once without.<<ETX>>