Organizational Decision Support System For Managing The Doe Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program

Organizational Decision Support Systems (ODSS) are a form of DSS that provide support for multiple decision-making processes in an organization. These systems differ from other forms of DSS in that several functionally distinct decision-making tasks are supported. In this paper, we describe an ODSS, the EM50-ODSS, that was designed to support the Department of Energy\u27s (DOE) hazardous waste clean up efforts. The cleanup effort is to take place over a 30-year period and the process must integrate the activities of academic institutions, consultants, outside contractors and the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM), a subdivision of DOE. The Office of EM was formed to organize and monitor the cleanup effort, apply available technology to waste problems and make investment decisions with regard to developing new technologies to address unmet waste resolution needs. A system was needed to integrate many resources from various divisions in DOE and outside parties and provide support for multiple decision-making processes within the different functional areas of EM. This system is described in terms of an ODSS taxonomy and framework. A description of the design issues involved in developing the EM-50 ODSS is provided