Abstract
Groups of individuals working together effectively and efficiently are key to successful organizations, and ways in which new technologies can be exploited to support groups at work are being explored. The Decision Support Center (DSC) provides one approach to enhancing group productivity. The DSC consists of a series of networked PCs running software programs (Team Focus) that provide automated support for group communication and decision making. The present evaluation was designed to provide some initial data on the potential benefits that may be realized by utilizing the DSC in the development of new products. Output from traditional methods employed during the requirements phase of the AD/M process was compared to output from a parallel Decision Support Center (DSC) requirements gathering session. The results indicated that the DSC session, in addition to validating already known system requirements, generated a substantial number of new requirements. The results provide sufficient evidence to warrant further exploration of areas in which utilization of the DSC may prove valuable.
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