The purpose of this project was to conduct a brief survey and analysis of three operational Decision Support Systems (DSS) in the private sector and one experimental system which lead to 15 applications in the public sector. The three public sector DSS were RCA IRIS, Gould Corp. WINS, and First Chicago EIS. The methodology selected was to examine each system in terms of (1) the operational environment in which the system was developed, (2) the major events, individuals and actions that influenced systems design and implementation, (3) system architectures (User-Software-Hardware), and (4) major operational characteristics (i.e., Internal Security, Training, Maintenance and Support). It was concluded that a number of similarities were exhibited in all of the four systems examined: (1) three to four years were required for development and implementation, (2) each system had the strong support of the senior management or Chief Executive Officer when development was initiated, (3) all systems had a 'broker' who coalesced user, technical and management interests for common support for development and implementation, and (4) all systems had a capability for evolution or 'architectural adaptability'.
