Decision Support System (DSS):

A decision support system (DSS) is a computerized system that gathers and analyses
data, synthesizing it to produce comprehensive information reports.
A decision support system differs from an ordinary operations application, whose
function is just to collect data.
Decision support systems bring together data and knowledge from different areas and
sources to provide users with information beyond the usual reports and summaries.
This is intended to help people make informed decisions. Typical information a
decision support application might gather and present include the following:
 Comparative sales figures between one week and the next;
 Projected revenue figures based on new product sales assumptions; and
 The consequences of different decisions.

Decision support system components

A typical DSS consists of three different parts:
 Knowledge database,
 Software and
 User interface.
Knowledge base:
A knowledge base is an integral part of a decision support system database,
containing information from both internal and external sources.
It is a library of information related to particular subjects and is the part of a DSS that
stores information used by the system's reasoning engine to determine a course of action.
Software system:
The software system is composed of model management systems. A model is a
simulation of a real-world system with the goal of understanding how the system works and
how it can be improved.
Organizations use models to predict how outcomes will change with different
adjustments to the system.
For example, models can be helpful for understanding systems that are too
complicated, too expensive or too dangerous to fully
User interface:
The user interface enables easy system navigation. The primary goal of the decision
support system's user interface is to make it easy for the user to manipulate the data that is
stored on it.
Businesses can use the interface to evaluate the effectiveness of DSS transactions for
the end users. DSS interfaces include simple windows, complex menu-driven interfaces and
command-line interfaces.
Characteristics Of DSS:

Interactive:
DSSs provide an interactive interface that allows users to manipulate data, adjust
parameters, and explore different scenarios. Users can engage with the system in real-time
and receive instant feedback.
Support for Decision-Making:
The primary purpose of a DSS is to assist decision-makers in making informed
choices. DSSs provide relevant data, analyses, and insights to facilitate decision-making.
Modeling and Analysis:
DSSs incorporate various models, algorithms, and analytical tools to process data and
generate insights. These tools aid in predicting outcomes, identifying trends, and evaluating
alternatives.
User-Friendly Interface:
DSSs offer user-friendly interfaces that make it accessible to non-technical users.
These interfaces often include visualizations and easy-to-understand reports.

DATA WAREHOUSE:
DATA:
“Data is distinct pieces of information, usually formatted in a special way”.
Data is measured, collected and reported, and analysed, whereupon it is often
visualized using graphs, images or other analysis tools.
Raw data (“unprocessed data”) may be a collection of numbers or characters before
it’s been “cleaned” and corrected.
Data warehouse:
Data warehouse architecture is a method of defining the overall architecture of data
communication processing and presentation that exist for end-clients computing within the
enterprise.
A data warehouse is a central repository of information that can be analyzed to make
more informed decisions. Data flows into a data warehouse from transactional systems,
relational databases, and other sources, typically on a regular cadence.
The decision support database (Data Warehouse) is maintained separately from the
organization’s operational database.
It is an architectural construct of an information system which provides users with
current and historical decision support information which is difficult to access or present in
the traditional operational data store.
A Data Warehouse works as a central repository where information arrives from one
or more data sources. Data flows into a data warehouse from the transactional system and
other relational databases.
Data may be:
 Structured
 Semi-structured
 Unstructured data
The data is processed, transformed, and ingested so that users can access the
processed data in the Data Warehouse through Business Intelligence tools, SQL clients, and
spread sheets.
A data warehouse merges information coming from different sources into one
comprehensive database.
Components of Data warehouse
There are four components of Data Warehouse, they are:
1.Load manager:
Load manager is also called the front component. It performs with all the operations
associated with the extraction and load of data into the warehouse.
2.Warehouse Manager:
Warehouse manager performs operations associated with the management of the data
in the warehouse.
It performs operations like analysis of data to ensure consistency, creation of indexes
and views, generation of denormalization and aggregations, transformation and merging of
source data and archiving and baking-up data.
3.Query Manager:
Query manager is also known as backend component. It performs all the operations
related to the management of user queries.
The operations of this Data warehouse components are direct queries to the
appropriate tables for scheduling the execution of queries.
4.End-user access tools:
This is categorized into five different groups like
1. Data Reporting
2. Query Tools
3. Application development tools
4. EIS tools,
5. OLAP tools and
6. Data mining tools.
ARCHITECTURE OF DATA WAREHOUSE:
Data Warehousing hierarchy:
A hierarchy is a many-to-one relationship between members of a table or between
tables. A hierarchy basically consists of different levels, each corresponding to a dimension
attribute.
In other words, a hierarchy is a specification of levels that represents relationships
between different attributes within a hierarchy.
For example, one possible hierarchy in the date dimension
is Year > Quarter > Month > Day.
There are four major types of hierarchies that are supported by the workbench:
 Balanced Hierarchies:
In balanced hierarchies, the branches of the hierarchy all descend to the
same level, with each parent of a member at the level immediately above the
member.
 Unbalanced Hierarchies:
Unbalanced hierarchies include levels that have a consistent parent-child
relationship, but have logically inconsistent levels. The hierarchy branches can also
have inconsistent depths.
 Ragged Hierarchies:
In ragged hierarchies, the parent member of at least one member of a
dimension is not in the level immediately above the member.
 Parent-Child Hierarchies:
A parent-child hierarchy is a hierarchy with multiple levels that track the
relationships within the hierarchy.