Applying Systems Analysis to Program Failure in Organizations.

Certain systems analysis techniques can be applied to examinations of program failure in continuing education to locate weaknesses in planning and implementing stages. Since failures can be the result of human errors and environmental conditions (and frequently a combination of both), a systems design to determine causes must include techniques that can detect both individual and nonhuman factors. Questions to guide an analysis and various procedures are recommended. Unexamined failures may lead to “tossing the baby out with the bathwater,” when analysis, in fact, could be the initial step toward successful future implementation.