Decision support system concepts in expert systems: An empirical study

Abstract This paper reports on a survey carried out on 67 ES to investigate whether they employ DSS concepts. The author examines several DSS frameworks and proposes a questionnaire model to conduct the survey. The survey data are analysed and the paper concludes that the three fundamental DSS issues: semi-structured task, support, and effectiveness are explicitly applied in ES. It shows also that although both DSS and ES have similar aims, they accomplish them in completely different ways. The differences are in the boundary of problem space and the way to tackle problems.