User-centered DSS design and implementation

Methodologies for DSS design have traditionnally put the emphasis on the Decision, or the System, or the Support part of these systems. Illustrating it with two opposite case studies, this article tries to propose a rationale for a User-centered approach to DSS design and implementation. It stresses the importance of considering design, development and user participation as strongly related activities because DSS projects are change as well as learning processes, and communication is becoming paramount in a view of decision making taking place in more group-oriented and informal settings.