Systems analysis represents an approach to, or a way of looking at, complex problems of choice under uncertainty. It offers a means of discovering how to design or to make effective use over time of technologically complex structure in which the different componetns may have apparently conflicting objectives; that is, an approach to choosing a strategy that yields the best balance among risks, effectiveness, and costs. Its purpose is to place each element in its proper context so that in the end the system as a whole may achieve its aim with a minimal expenditure of resources. Thus systems analysis is a common sense approach to problems of decision.