Evolutionary systems design, group support systems, and application generators

Abstract

ABSTRACT Evolutionary Systems Design (ESD) is a methodology for defining and solving decision problems. ESD requires information technology to implement it. This paper utilizes several complementary software tools including group decision support, application generation, and multicriteria decision making to implement the ESD framework. The synergy between problem solving methodology and information technology thus created provides an effective operational capability for systems development. An example of the development of a specific decision support system points out the characteristics of the new synthesized methodology, and the roles ESD and the various software tools play in it.