Abstract. The article states a brief historical sketch of the research conducted on the effectiveness of targeted processes in the operation of systems performed by Russian authors; an overview of some current problems in operational properties research solved outside Russia is made. A conclusion on the prospects of the analytical estimation of the operational properties is provided. The main directions of the research conducted on the operational properties of systems and processes of their operation, such as system potential, operational properties of application of information technologies, are stated. The main features of the research conducted on the operational properties in the view of the current tasks of their research are provided as well as the schemes of analytical estimation of the operational properties applicable to the new tasks are stated that allows for meeting these research challenges using mathematical models.