BUSI 4406 A

Decision Making and Support Systems

Fall 2009
Professor: Dr. Alex Ramírez
Telephone: 520-2600 extension 2397
Email: Alex_Ramirez@Carleton.ca
Office: 1722 Dunton Tower
Class: Tuesdays, 14:35 - 17: 25 Hrs. (Room DT-1728)
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 13:00 – 14:00 and 17:35 - 18:00 Hrs. or by appointment.

Course Prerequisites
Fourth-year standing and BUSI 2400 with a grade of C or higher
The School of Business enforces all prerequisites.

Course Description
BUSI 4406 [0.5 Credit]
Decision Making and Support Systems
Framework, processes and technology components for building decision support systems. Planning and
organizing for DSS, system design and integrating DSS into the organization. Group support systems,
expert systems and artificial intelligence, data warehousing and mining. High-level Modelling languages
are used.
Lecture three hours a week.

This is a fourth year course concerned with major issues in decision making and support systems. It was
designed to help you
become aware of the present state of knowledge in the areas of decision making and support
systems
become familiar with academic and non-academic literature in these fields
develop a personal perspective on emerging theories and their application, current debates and
controversy within these disciplines
develop analytical and critical skills (i.e., help you develop, present and defend arguments)

Approach to be taken in this course

This course introduces a range of methods and modern technologies that aid in decision making,
including decision support systems, group decision support systems, executive information systems,
expert systems, artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering and acquisition, genetic algorithms, neural
networks, data warehouses, data marts, data mining, knowledge discovery techniques, software agents
and bots.

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The instructional approach will include some software demos and illustrate applications of decision
support technologies to problems in finance, marketing, manufacturing, services and healthcare
management, and information systems consulting. Students will have the opportunity to work on a
personal project.

The course introduces recent approaches to managerial decision analysis and support. The student will
be exposed to formal methods and specific computer-based tools. The course deals with advanced
techniques and tools to support decision making processes.

Course Objectives
The main goal of this course is to provide the students with an understanding of management support
capabilities of information technologies, and the development of management support systems. At the
conclusion of this course, students will be able to
demonstrate an understanding of the underlying methods and technologies used in various
types of management support systems
analyse and applied alternate methods for designing, developing and implementing support
systems
evaluate the selected alternative technology used to build a support system
identify and justify opportunities for management support systems development and the
specific considerations which apply in their effective management

Required Textbook
Business Intelligence: A Managerial Approach
Efraim Turban, Ramesh Sharda, Jay E. Aronson and David King
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson — Prentice Hall
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-234761-7 or ISBN-10: 0-13-234761-X

Grading
Your final grade will be composed of the following:

1. Three Assignments 30% (10% each)

2. In Class Mid Term Examination 30%
3. Project 40% = Project Proposal 10% + Final Report 30%
Course Project
This is an individual project!
Choose one of the following topics

Data Warehousing
Data Visualization
Data, Text and Web Mining
Expert Systems
Fuzzy Logic
Intelligent Agents

Within that topic you have to identify a problem and propose a solution as a Decision Support or
Business Intelligence System.

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The school can grant you access to some of the tools we have in our computer labs as part of Academic
Alliances, such as SAP® Business Intelligence, SAS® Enterprise Miner, JESS, LPA’s VisiRule, among others.

First: Prepare a 2-3 pages proposal by November 3, 2009, if approved, then: a final Report of the
project and ALL relevant documentation is due on December 22, 2009.

If your proposal is not approved, you will receive a detailed e-mail message indicating the
reasons your proposal cannot be accepted and indicating a change of scope of the proposal to be
considered; then, you may resubmit the updated proposal, or prepare a new proposal by November 10,
2009.

There is a Web CT site for this course and all communication regarding this course will be conducted
through it. It is extremely important that you log in regularly to find out what’s pending and any
announcement (if any). Assignments are to be uploaded in the site and their grades will be presented to
you through My Grades in Web CT.

Detailed Outline
Session Date Topic/Deadlines Chapter
1 09/15 Welcome – Course Administration – Overview – Decision
Making and Support Systems: A historical introduction
2 09/22 Decision Making, Systems, Modelling, and Support
3 09/29 Decision Support Systems Concepts, Methodologies, and
Technologies: An Overview – Modelling and Analysis
4 10/06 Introduction to Business Intelligence 1
5 10/13 Data Warehousing 2
6 10/20 Business Analytics and Data Visualization 3
Assignment 01
7 10/27 Mid Term Exam
8 11/03 Data, Text, and Web Mining 4
Project Proposal
9 11/10 Business Performance Management 5
10 11/17 Neural Networks for Data Mining 6
Assignment 02
11 11/24 Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems – Advanced
Intelligent Systems
12 12/01 DSS’ Life Cycle – the Future of Support Systems
Assignment 03

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 IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

REQUIRED CALCULATOR IN BUSI COURSE EXAMINATIONS

Starting Fall 2006, only Texas Instruments BA II Plus calculators will be permitted in all 1000-level
business course examinations.

Starting Fall 2007, only Texas Instruments BA II Plus calculators will be permitted in all Business course
examinations.

This calculator is available in the campus bookstore (1st floor, University Centre) and at various
other off-campus retail stores.

GROUP WORK

The Sprott School of Business encourages group assignments in the school for several reasons.
They provide you with opportunities to develop and enhance interpersonal, communication,
leadership, follower-ship and other group skills. Group assignments are also good for learning
integrative skills for putting together a complex task. Your professor may assign one or more
group tasks/assignments/projects in this course. If you have a group assignment you may find
the resources at http://sprott.carleton.ca/academic_programs/groupwork useful.

Before embarking on a specific problem as a group, it is your responsibility to ensure that

the problem is meant to be a group assignment and not an individual one.

MEDICAL CERTIFICATE

Please note that in all occasions that call for a medical certificate you must use or furnish the
information demanded in the standard university form.
http://www.carleton.ca/registrar/forms/Med_Cert_Carleton_University.pdf

ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATION

You may need special arrangements to meet your academic obligations during the term because
of disability, pregnancy or religious obligations. Please review the course outline promptly and
write to me with any requests for academic accommodation during the first two weeks of class,
or as soon as possible after the need for accommodation is known to exist.

Students with disabilities requiring academic accommodations in this course must register with
the Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities (PMC) for a formal evaluation of
disability-related needs. Documented disabilities could include but not limited to
mobility/physical impairments, specific Learning Disabilities (LD), psychiatric/psychological
disabilities, sensory disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and chronic
medical conditions. Registered PMC students are required to contact the PMC, 613-520-6608,
every term to ensure that your Instructor receives your Letter of Accommodation, no later than
two weeks before the first assignment is due or the first in-class test/midterm requiring

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accommodations. If you only require accommodations for your formally scheduled exam(s) in
this course, please submit your request for accommodations to PMC by the last official day to
withdraw from classes in each term.

You can visit the Equity Services website to view the policies and to obtain more detailed
information on academic accommodation at http://carleton.ca/equity/accommodation

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE

Students requesting academic accommodation on the basis of religious observance should make
a formal, written request to their instructors for alternate dates and/or means of satisfying
academic requirements. Such requests should be made during the first two weeks of class, or as
soon as possible after the need for accommodation is known to exist, but no later than two weeks
before the compulsory academic event. Accommodation is to be worked out directly and on an
individual basis between the student and the instructor(s) involved. Instructors will make
accommodations in a way that avoids academic disadvantage to the student.

Students or instructors who have questions or want to confirm accommodation eligibility of a

religious event or practice may refer to the Equity Services website for a list of holy days and
Carleton’s Academic Accommodation policies, or may contact an Equity Services Advisor in the
Equity Services Department for assistance.

PREGNANCY

Pregnant students requiring academic accommodations are encouraged to contact an Equity

Advisor in Equity Services to complete a letter of accommodation. The student must then make
an appointment to discuss her needs with the instructor at least two weeks prior to the first
academic event in which it is anticipated the accommodation will be required.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY – YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!

Using, summarizing or copying directly from another person’s work, without identifying the
name of the original thinker, is considered a form of cheating called “plagiarism”. Plagiarism has
serious consequences and can result in course / assignment failure and /or academic suspension.

When using, and/or summarizing the ideas and words of another, be it from a web site, a written
text, lecture or discussion group, you must identify the source. Should you choose to use the
exact words of another, you must acknowledge these words as such by enclosing them within
quotation marks. However, be aware that it is not acceptable to copy large chunks from a source,
even if you reference it correctly.

Examples of plagiarism and other instructional offences are identified in the Undergraduate
Calendar (section 14, p. 59), parts of which read:

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Examples of plagiarism include

Submitting a take-home examination, essay, laboratory report, or another assignment,

written, in whole or in part, by someone else.
Using ideas or direct verbatim quotations, paraphrased material, algorithms, formulae,
scientific or mathematical concepts, or ideas without appropriate acknowledgements in
academic assignments
Using another’s data or research findings
Failing to acknowledge sources through the use of proper citations when using another’s
works and/or failing to use quotation marks.

Unauthorized Cooperation or Collaboration

…… students shall not cooperate or collaborate in the completion of an academic

assignment in whole or in part, when the instructor has indicated that the assignment is to
be completed on an individual basis. Failure to follow the instructor’s direction regarding
which assignments, or parts of assignments, should be completed by the individual alone
will be considered violation of the standards of academic integrity.
Answering with another students’ clicker is also a violation that can lead to severe
sanctions.

IMPORTANT DATES

Sept. 7, 2009 Statutory Holiday, University closed

Sept. 8-9, 2009 Academic Orientation. All students are expected to be on campus. Class
and laboratory preparations, departmental introductions for students, and
other academic preparation activities will be held.

Sept. 10, 2009 Fall and fall/winter classes begin

Sept. 23, 2009 Last day for registration and last day to change courses or sections for
fall/winter and fall term courses.

Oct. 9, 2009 University Day at Carleton, Undergraduate classes suspended

December examination schedule fall term final and fall/winter mid-terms

available online.

Oct. 12, 2009 Statutory holiday, University closed

Nov. 16, 2009 Last day to withdraw from fall term courses.

Dec. 7, 2009 Last day of fall-term classes

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Dec. 8, 2009 Review day. Some lectures, laboratories, review tutorials, etc. may take
place.

Dec. 9-22, 2009 Including Saturdays. Final examinations in fall term courses and mid-
term examinations in fall/winter courses. It may be necessary to schedule
examinations during the day for classes held in the evening and vice versa.

Dec. 25, 2009 – January 1, 2010

University closed.