The early R&D projects prepared the ground for continued method development as outlined in the Swedish and English commentaries about applications. One central point is that functional concept development prepares for adequate operationalization of relevant features of the phenomenon to be studied. Exemplary in this respect means that the elements should be mapped onto objective indicators and included in factual statements. This mapping is tricky when psychological and social features are at issue and complex systems should be characterized in operational terms.

Accordingly, the commentaries will first concentrate on concept development's requirements to create an adequate basic categorization of features. The relevant concepts in healthcare require multi-categorical schemes or networks of combined components. Components are often effects or goal states and actions in dynamic relations. The next level of description concerns the structure of the system or network of features to be used for formal modeling of the healthcare processes at issue. That choice depends on the 'perspective' used to investigate or develop a given practice or system, for example, a single client or agent perspective, or a multi-perspective systems approach.