IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orinte/v46y2016i2p183-195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Magnum Opus to Mea Culpa: A Cautionary Tale of Lessons Learned from a Failed Decision Support System

Author

Listed:
  • Michael F. Gorman

    (University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio 45469)

Abstract

In this article, I present a case study of a failed decision support system (DSS) and describe the creation and collapse of a decision support project conducted with a client over a number of years. I provide insights and advice on organization, systems, data, and ongoing management and software support, as gleaned from mistakes made during the course of the project. The insights should prove useful for researchers, developers, and students of OR/MS-based decision support systems and the organizations that implement them.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael F. Gorman, 2016. "From Magnum Opus to Mea Culpa: A Cautionary Tale of Lessons Learned from a Failed Decision Support System," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 46(2), pages 183-195, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:46:y:2016:i:2:p:183-195
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.2015.0818
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.2015.0818
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/inte.2015.0818?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael F. Gorman & Dharma Acharya & David Sellers, 2010. "CSX Railway Uses OR to Cash In on Optimized Equipment Distribution," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 5-16, February.
    2. Hugo P. Simão & Abraham George & Warren B. Powell & Ted Gifford & John Nienow & Jeff Day, 2010. "Approximate Dynamic Programming Captures Fleet Operations for Schneider National," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 40(5), pages 342-352, October.
    3. Michael F. Gorman, 2010. "Hub Group Implements a Suite of OR Tools to Improve Its Operations," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 40(5), pages 368-384, October.
    4. Kalyan S. Pasupathy & Alexandra Medina-Borja, 2008. "Integrating Excel, Access, and Visual Basic to Deploy Performance Measurement and Evaluation at the American Red Cross," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 38(4), pages 324-337, August.
    5. Thomas Olavson & Chris Fry, 2008. "Spreadsheet Decision-Support Tools: Lessons Learned at Hewlett-Packard," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 38(4), pages 300-310, August.
    6. Robert E. D. Woolsey, 1973. "A Novena to St. Jude, or Four Edifying Case Studies in Mathematical Programming," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 4(1), pages 32-39, November.
    7. Amar Kumar Narisetty & Jean-Philippe P. Richard & David Ramcharan & Deby Murphy & Gayle Minks & Jim Fuller, 2008. "An Optimization Model for Empty Freight Car Assignment at Union Pacific Railroad," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 89-102, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael F. Gorman & John-Paul Clarke & Amir Hossein Gharehgozli & Michael Hewitt & René de Koster & Debjit Roy, 2014. "State of the Practice: A Review of the Application of OR/MS in Freight Transportation," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 44(6), pages 535-554, December.
    2. Ruhollah Heydari & Emanuel Melachrinoudis, 2017. "A path-based capacitated network flow model for empty railcar distribution," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 253(2), pages 773-798, June.
    3. Zu, Yue & Heydari, Ruhollah & Chahar, Kiran & Pranoto, Yudi & Cheng, Clark, 2022. "A railcar re-blocking strategy via Mixed Integer Quadratic Programming," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    4. Mercedes Esteban-Bravo & Jose M. Vidal-Sanz & Gökhan Yildirim, 2014. "Valuing Customer Portfolios with Endogenous Mass and Direct Marketing Interventions Using a Stochastic Dynamic Programming Decomposition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(5), pages 621-640, September.
    5. Andrew G. Clark & Susan Cholette & Ozgur Ozluk, 2011. "UCSF Increases Consumer Value Through Optimal Vendor-Show Scheduling," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 41(4), pages 327-337, August.
    6. Mauro Falasca & Christopher Zobel & Cliff Ragsdale, 2011. "Helping a Small Development Organization Manage Volunteers More Efficiently," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 41(3), pages 254-262, June.
    7. Michael F. Gorman, 2023. "Case Article—Louisiana Branch Lines," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 139-143, May.
    8. Diana Sánchez-Partida & Rodolfo Rodríguez-Méndez & José Luis Martínez-Flores & Santiago-Omar Caballero-Morales, 2018. "Implementation of Continuous Flow in the Cabinet Process at the Schneider Electric Plant in Tlaxcala, Mexico," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 48(6), pages 566-577, November.
    9. Michael F. Gorman & Dharma Acharya & David Sellers, 2010. "CSX Railway Uses OR to Cash In on Optimized Equipment Distribution," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 5-16, February.
    10. Kirschstein, Thomas, 2018. "Rail transportation planning in the chemical industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 142-160.
    11. Ilya O. Ryzhov & Martijn R. K. Mes & Warren B. Powell & Gerald van den Berg, 2019. "Bayesian Exploration for Approximate Dynamic Programming," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 67(1), pages 198-214, January.
    12. Alexandra Medina-Borja & Konstantinos Triantis, 2014. "Modeling social services performance: a four-stage DEA approach to evaluate fundraising efficiency, capacity building, service quality, and effectiveness in the nonprofit sector," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 221(1), pages 285-307, October.
    13. Michael F. Gorman, 2021. "Contextual Complications in Analytical Modeling: When the Problem is Not the Problem," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 245-261, July.
    14. Long Gao & Jim (Junmin) Shi & Michael F. Gorman & Ting Luo, 2020. "Business Analytics for Intermodal Capacity Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 310-329, March.
    15. Scheffler, Martin & Neufeld, Janis S. & Hölscher, Michael, 2020. "An MIP-based heuristic solution approach for the locomotive assignment problem focussing on (dis-)connecting processes," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 64-80.
    16. Sangpil Ko & Pasi Lautala & Kuilin Zhang, 2020. "Data-Driven Study on the Sustainable Log Movements: Impact of Rail Car Fleet Size on Freight Storage and Car Idling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-15, June.
    17. Thomas A. Grossman & Vijay Mehrotra & Mouwafac Sidaoui, 2016. "A Student-Centered Approach to the Business School Management Science Course," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 42-53, January.
    18. Geursen, Izaak L. & Santos, Bruno F. & Yorke-Smith, Neil, 2023. "Fleet planning under demand and fuel price uncertainty using actor–critic reinforcement learning," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    19. Rempel, M. & Cai, J., 2021. "A review of approximate dynamic programming applications within military operations research," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 8(C).
    20. Wang, Xinchang, 2016. "Optimal allocation of limited and random network resources to discrete stochastic demands for standardized cargo transportation networks," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 310-331.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:46:y:2016:i:2:p:183-195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.