AN ANALYSIS OF CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR A PUBLIC SECTOR DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM

the lower Mississippi River. Designed to assist vessel operators navigate a treacherous inland waterway, this decision support system (DSS) informs mariners of known traffic and provides other pertinent assistance. As employed in this postimplementation review, the critrcal success factor approach objectively measures the effect of the decision support system on organizational performance by ascertaining whether the public sector DSS achieved a significant reduction in vessel casualties. As their name implies, decision support systems (DSSs) arecomputer-based information systems that are designed to sup-port decision making and decision implementation. A vessel traffic system is a public sector DSS encompassing the technologies, equip-ment, and personnel employed to coordinate vessel movements in or approaching a port or waterway. They are operated by a local, state, or federal government agency for the public welfare. Such a system attempts to reduce the probability of vessel collisions, rammings, and groundings so as to protect lives, property, and the environment in general while expediting the movement of vessels. A vessel traffic system should provide mariners with accurate and timely information to aid in navigating vessels. It may also coordinate traffic movements to mini-mize accidents. To determine whether or not a decision support system implementa-tion is a success, critical success factors should be identified that indicate achievement of organizational objectives. To measure the effectiveness of maritime decision support systems, several critical success factors ar