Systems Analysts

History of Systems Analysis

Systems analysis is one of many technological and scientific innovations with roots in the defense [Page 855]establishment, especially the RAND Corporation in the 1950s and the U.S. Department of Defense. The development of ever more complex weapons, computing, and communications systems created huge demand for sophisticated analysts who could model the future demand and projected costs of such systems. The Office of Systems Analysis was set up in the early 1960s by then-secretary of defense Robert S. McNamara as he struggled to gain civilian control over the vast and competing military and defense contracting establishment. McNamara embodied “rational,” numbers-based, and “scientific” management approaches and hired a large group of highly educated systems analysts to implement such innovations as the planning, programming, budgeting system (PPBS). This was designed to ensure that only defense projects with the best value for the money for taxpayers would be funded—to find “more bang for the buck.” Systems analysis has subsequently been applied in all manner of private- and public-sector settings, such as law enforcement, child protection, health care, manufacturing, and large-scale project management. It is used not just for budget forecasting but also for managerial attempts to control complex and interrelated fields where accidents and oversights can be extremely costly (such as aerospace manufacturing, power generation, and emergency response systems).

Thorough and rational application of systems analysis can be indispensable in making operations effective and robust. Systems analysis is truly interdisciplinary, derived from the need to measure and handle the ever-growing complexities of advanced societies. The approach is to ensure that all elements works together, to look at the big picture first, then all of its components and to conceptualize people and organizations as parts of a “system” or as an interlocking series of systems. It attempts to provide a science of decision making and planning, to allow leaders to make better decisions, and to help design reliable systems that take into account all probable events that might disrupt a system or cause it to fail. Lessons learned from success or failure or systems implementation can be fed into future developments.

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