International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 63– No.9, February 2013 17 Ample Study and Review on Decision Support System with a Newly Proposed Model of DSS in Agriculture Sector Puja Kadam Asst. Professor, Computer Science, Uka Tarsadia University, Bardoli, Gujarat, India. Sapan Naik Asst. Professor, Computer Science, Uka Tarsadia University, Bardoli, Gujarat, India. ABSTRACT Decision Support system is an application program based on computer that helps organizations and businesses to make decisions and help them to achieve their goals. In this paper we have described characteristics, capabilities, components and classifications and tools of decision support system. Apart from these we have proposed a new model of decision support system in the agriculture sector. This paper will be useful for the new comers who want to work in the field of DSS. Keywords Decision Support System, Agriculture sector, GIS. 1. INTRODUCTION Decision support system is the area of Information system that focuses on the improvement and supportive managerial decision making for organizations and businesses. In late 1950s TPS came into existence and many clerical works like payroll, inventory was done using TPS. In 1960 the new emerging technology MIS came into existence. Since 1970 the study of Decision support system had aroused and day by day it is advancing and had become a routine use for business and organizational purposes. The key applications where decision support systems are used are E-commerce, agriculture, Education, disaster management, knowledge management, Human Resource Management, Hospitality, Risk Management, Business Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence etc. There are different types of decision support systems. Some of the well-known decision support systems are as follows [2]: DSS – Decision Support System GDSS – Group Decision Support System KMBDSS – Knowledge Management Based Decision Support System. IBDSS – Intelligent Based Decision Support System. The future scope of decision support system is in robotics, artificial intelligence, business intelligence, data mining etc. This paper is organized as follows: In section 2 we have given brief introduction of characteristics, and components of DSS. In section 3 we have included classification of DSS. In section 4 we have described about the tools that are used in decision support system and some emerging collaboration tools used for GDSS. In section 5 we have proposed a new model which shows how DSS is used in agriculture sector. Finally in section we have given conclusion and future work. 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF DSS The major characteristics of decision support system by Alter are [10] 1. To facilitate decision processes DSS are specifically designed. 2. DSS should support rather than automate decision making, and 3. Quickly respond to the changing needs of decision makers. 2.1 The major characteristics and capabilities of decision support systems are as follows: 1. Supports semi structured and unstructured problems. 2. Supports to managers at all levels. 3. Supports individuals, groups of an organization. 4. The decisions may be interdependent or sequential. 5. Supports all phases of decision making process. 6. Supports different styles and processes of decision making. 7. DSS are adaptable and flexible to the changing environment. 8. Different tools should be supported for decision making. 9. Easy to use and interactive. 10. Efficiency and effectiveness should be maintained. 11. The process should be controllable by humans. 12. Easy development by end users. 13. Data access. 14. Web based and stand-alone integration. 2.2 COMPONENTS OF DSS: The major components of decision support system are as follows: