Developing Spreadsheet-Based Decision Support Systems
Saturday, October 23, 8:30am-5:00pm, Fee: $75.00 – sign up when you register for the meeting

Workshop Organizers
Ravindra K. Ahuja and Michelle M. Hanna
University of Florida, Gainesville

Decision Support Systems

The need to teach decision support system development skills to industrial engineering, operations research and business school students has been felt by many universities. A decision support system (DSS) uses the data residing in spreadsheets and/or databases, models it, processes or analyzes it using problem-specific methodologies, and assists the user in the decision-making process through a graphical user interface. Our students are frequently being employed in positions requiring developing DSS that are gaining widespread popularity. Indeed, imparting DSS development skills, which combine OR skills with IT skills, will make students highly sought after in the modern workplace.

Spreadsheet-Based Decision Support Systems

We have developed material for one DSS development course using spreadsheets. Spreadsheets allow data analysis, mathematical modeling, optimization and simulation, and have emerged as one of the most popular software package engineers and managers use in their work. Spreadsheet modeling courses have become standard courses in the IE/OR department and business school curriculum. A need is now felt for the next level course that will allow us to build decision support systems (DSS) using spreadsheets. Microsoft Excel is the most popular spreadsheet package and has a built-in programming language called Visual Basic Applications (VBA) for Excel. Excel combined with VBA for Excel provides a complete environment for building a DSS. VBA for Excel provides a mechanism for data analysis, implementing optimization and simulation models as well as for building graphical user interfaces. Learning VBA can allow us to develop complete software solutions for many engineering and management decision problems that are also very easy to use by non-technical users.

Workshop Contents

This one-day workshop will be a hands-on workshop where participants will learn Excel extended functionalities, Excel VBA and how these to develop decision support systems. We will also provide some guidance on how to offer courses using this material. The workshop participants are encouraged to bring their laptops and learn the material hands-on by working through several examples as the material is being taught. No background or prior experience in Excel VBA is needed. The workshop participants will be given a preprint of the book, “ Developing Spreadsheet-Based Decision Support Systems”, about 15 case studies on developing DSS, PowerPoint presentations for the entire course material and the workshop, examples for entire course and workshop material, and over 25 team projects for students to build DSS. In this workshop, you will get an excellent jump-start to offer a full course on developing a spreadsheet-based DSS or adding some of the material to the existing spreadsheet modeling courses. This workshop is a one-day version of the highly successful three-day workshop we offered at the Amelia Island Plantation, Jacksonville, FL from August 1-4, 2004 (www.ise.ufl.edu/dss).