The Craft of Applied Systems Analysis

The central goal of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis is to apply the craft of systems analysis to important national and international problems. To support and improve this work, the Institute explores its philosophical and scientific foundations, as well as the lessons of practice. This paper focuses its attention on the central conceptual issues of the field: the scientific nature of applied systems analysis, the search for standards of quality for it, its relation to problem solving, the craft aspects of the work, and the relation between argument and conclusion. The author has contributed significantly to clarifying foundational conceptions of applied systems analysis in other papers as well. Of these contributions, two related to this paper deserve mention here: G. Majone and E.S. Quade, editors, Pitfalls of Analysis (London: Wiley, 1980), a volume in the International Series on Applied Systems Analysis; and G. Majone, "Policies as Theories," issued by IIASA as RR-80-17 (originally published in Omega, 8, 1980, pp. 151-162). Other papers dealing with the craft of systems analysis are in preparation.