Decision Support Systems
What is a Decision Support System?
A decision support system (DSS) is a computer-based tool that helps individuals and organizations make better decisions by organizing data, analyzing information, and presenting it in a way that supports strategic or operational action. These technological systems are used in a range of settings, from business management and logistics to healthcare and emergency response, where they assist users by guiding judgment under complex or uncertain conditions.
The Basic Idea
A storm is rolling in. You’re managing a regional supply chain when the alert hits: flash floods are blocking your main shipping route, with hundreds of customers counting on the delivery. Vendors are already calling. You swivel to your screen and open your logistics dashboard.
The interface lights up with real-time maps, shifting delivery timelines, updated inventory counts, and alternative routes. A vendor in the neighboring region just flagged a surplus; another location reports a spike in demand. You scan the data, weigh the costs, make the call to reroute the existing load to the high-need zone, and trigger a new shipment from the surplus supplier. Within minutes, everything’s moving again.
The role of a decision support system is to provide the right information at the right time, so users can act with greater confidence and accuracy. That means surfacing only the most relevant data—cleanly displayed, easy to scan, and organized for comparison. In practice, this could be a dashboard filled with interactive maps, sortable tables, trend graphs, cost projections, or alerts that flag anomalies. Whether it’s visual charts or guided prompts, the system filters noise, narrows the field of options, and highlights what needs attention so decision-makers can respond faster and more effectively. In logistics, healthcare, security, finance—even the GPS offering reroute options on your way to Grandma’s—DSSs are designed to reduce uncertainty, support analysis, and weigh tradeoffs to aid the decision-making process.
The capacity of the human mind for formulating and solving complex problems is very small compared with the size of the problems whose solution is required for objectively rational behavior—or even for a reasonable approximation to such objective rationality.
— Herbert Simon, American political scientist and psychologist1
About the Author
Joy VerPlanck
Dr. VerPlanck brings over two decades of experience helping teams learn and lead in high-stakes environments. With a background in instructional design and behavioral science, she develops practical solutions at the intersection of people and technology. Joy holds a Doctorate in Educational Technology and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership, and often writes about cognitive load and creativity as levers to enhance performance.
