The Management Systems Review (MSR) is an important component of EPA's quality assurance program to assess the effectiveness of environmental data operations and the quality assurance/quality control activities designed to support those operations. MSRs inform managers about aspects of the environmental data operation that are working well and those which may warrant some improvement. A recent review of the Superfund remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/FS) has shown that the MSR is an excellent tool for providing a systematic definition of complex environmental data operations and for enabling a thorough analysis of these operations. The MSR utilized information gathered from interviews of Regional personnel and from case studies of recently completed RI/FSs. The findings indicated that environmental data play an important role in most RI/FS decisions and that thorough and structured scoping is critical to the effectiveness of the RI/FS. Analysis of the RI/FS process using a comprehensive flow diagram identified several opportunities for changes that may increase efficiency in data collection and the reliability of RI/FS decisions. These changes provide for more effective scoping activities, a streamlined feasibility study, and increased use of treatability studies during the RI. A pilot demonstration of these process changes is being planned for a Regional RI/FS. (Copyright (c) 1990--Air and Waste Management Association.)