Abstractions: their purpose and application in telecommunications

The successful deployment of any software system depends on its ability to communicate with its environment. In the case of decision support systems, this means that the computer must be able to communicate with human decision makers. Since humans do not normally communicate in the same cumbersome language as a computer implementation, this means that the issue of finding appropriate abstractions to facilitate this communication is particularly important. We study the nature of such abstractions, and show how they can be used to guide the design of a decision support system. We present three case studies of successful applications of decision support systems in telecommunications, and show the role that abstractions played in their success. The abstractions that proved useful range from the general to specific, relatively static to dynamic. Finally, we present two methods for helping a system designer find or create useful abstractions, thus facilitating the construction of successful decision support systems.