Introduction to Project Management


Decision Support Systems

In addition to the CPM, GANTT, NETDRAW, and PM procedures, which are the major tools for the traditional functions associated with project management, SAS/OR software has several procedures that can be used to create a many-faceted Decision Support System. Traditional CPM/PERT techniques form only one part of effective project management and may be considered as a specialized application of Decision Support Systems (Williams and Boyd 1990). SAS/OR software contains several mathematical programming procedures that can be used to design effective systems for solving inventory control, transportation, network flow, transshipment, product-mix, cutting stock problems, and so on. These procedures are discussed in detail in SAS/OR User's Guide: Mathematical Programming.

Decision analysis is another important tool that is receiving recognition as a component of project management. The next section briefly describes PROC DTREE and the role it can play in making important decisions in project management.