Any general systems approach has five basic elements, which serve as the tasks for the researcher using systems analysis. The five are (1) the objectives, (2) the alternatives, (3) the costs, (4) the model (or models), and (5) the decision rule. With these five steps, the researcher should be able to specify the objectives, select alternatives, determine the cost of each alternative, develop a representative model to predict the extent to which each alternative will achieve the specified objective, and arrange the alternatives in order of preference. Differences among various systems approaches focus primarily on emphasis. For example, systems analysis emphasizes objectives and alternatives, PPBS emphasizes costs, and operations research emphasizes models. The application of systems approaches to educational planning is bound to increase as the supply of trained personnel increases and the techniques associated with systems analysis become more refined. Related articles are EA 003 517, EA 003 518, EA 003 519, EA 003 521, and ED 044 833. (Author/RA)