Decision Science

Decision science (ds) originated in Great Britain during World War II, when mathematical or quantitative approaches were used to solve logistic problems during military operations. Since then, it has evolved to be applicable to the management of all aspects of a system, product, or service. It is now considered an important input to decision-making in a wide variety of applications in business, industry, and government. The growing complexity of management since the 1940s has necessitated the development of sophisticated mathematical techniques for planning and decisionmaking. DS involves the quantitative evaluation of alternative policies, plans, and decisions and has become centered in the structured decision-making process cycle. It may also be called Operations Research (OR, American), Operational Research (OR, United Kingdom), Systems Science, Mathematical Modeling, Industrial ...