Simulation Modeling: A System Designed to Enhance Decision Making

This book is intended to serve as a guide for students in Computer information systems, researchers, IT practitioners, business administration professionals as well as the general public interested in research and acquiring useful knowledge in the areas of decision support systems, simulation modeling, programming, and systems analysis and design in decision making. Despite a rich history of application in science, simulation is a seldom used methodology for data gathering and hypothesis testing in information systems research. Much can be gained from a research perspective by increasing the utilization rate of simulation as a research method. This research presents a methodology that can be used to gather data for, and test hypotheses involving, decision making. The methodology is implemented through a simulation model that furnishes dynamic, interactive and complete domain knowledge. The study illustrates how such technology enhances the decision making process and outcome by reducing lead time, eliminating the interruption of the flow of decision making steps, reducing knowledge search time, and intermediate knowledge storing.