DECISION-SUPPORT FOR PLANNING

Planning, in general, is the process by which the long term goals of an agent are translated into short term tasks and objectives, subject to the resource constraints facing the agent. In contrast to ''decision making'', planning has a distinct temporal dimension and calls for a sequence of temporally separated, inter-dependent decisions to be made over a period of time. This enables the explicit incorporation of the learning necessary during the complex iterative process of achieving a goal or moving towards a solution. This paper explores issues in the design of decision support systems for supporting planning processes in real world environments. The results of implementing a decision support system for planning in the complex financial domain of mergers and acquisitions are reported.