Cloud-Based Collaborative Decision Making: Design Considerations and Architecture of the GRUPO-MOD System

The complexity of many decision problems of today’s globalized world requires new innovative solutions that are built upon proven decision support technology and also recent advancements in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) such as Cloud Computing and Mobile Communication. A combination of the cost-effective Cloud Computing approach with extended group decision support system technology bears several interesting unprecedented opportunities for the development of such solutions. These opportunities include ubiquitous accessibility to decision support software and, thus, the possibility to flexibly involve remote experts in group decision processes, guided access to background information, and facilitation support to direct group decision processes. The architects of such future solutions are challenged by numerous requirements that need to be considered and reflected in an integrated architectural approach. This article presents a thorough analysis of major design considerations for software solutions for collaborative decision making from a broad range of perspectives especially including the business process management perspective and the Cloud Computing perspective. The proposed architectural approach of the GRUPO-MOD system demonstrates how one can address the requirements in one integrated system architecture that supports different deployment options of Cloud Computing. A refinement of the high-level system architecture into a corresponding implementation architecture that builds on widely adopted standards such as OSGi and industry proven technology such as the Eclipse platform is also given in the article.