Group decision support systems in value management

Value management (VM) practitioners often encounter problems of lack of active participation and insufficient time and information in decision analysis. The use of a group decision support system (GDSS) is proposed to overcome the above problems by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of VM studies. In order to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing GDSS in VM studies, an experimental study was conducted to simulate the use of GDSS in VM studies, and then a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect the views of the participants. Factor analysis was used to explore the underlying critical success factors, and the results indicated that certain requirements must be met for the successful application of GDSS in VM studies. In particular, a VM team with an appropriate computer skills mix, and GDSS with good utility were believed to be the most significant underlying factors. Besides these, two other factors, system capabilities and experimental settings, should be also considered in order to achieve a successful application of GDSS in VM studies.