Some Comments on Systems Analysis.

Gene Fisher

Expert InsightsPublished 1967

An assessment of the current state of systems analysis and its possibilities for the future in the context of national security. Systems analysis is defined as a process to help sharpen the judgment of decisionmakers by a more precise statement of problems, by identification or invention of alternatives, by measurement of costs and benefits, by explicit treatment of the uncertainties involved, and by a serious attempt to estimate the effects of policy alternatives and parameter variability. The key problem for future work is to try to bring together results obtained by different techniques; for instance, improving the time-consuming, expensive, and unreliable process of gaming by adding online computing for the players. A major need is for a better means of representing the economic (opportunity) costs of decisions. 17 pp.

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Fisher, Gene, Some Comments on Systems Analysis. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1967. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P3677.html.
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