The professional development process can be organized as a continuous, multifaceted, proactive, and integrated system that is futures-oriented and focused on adaptation as an essential organizational function. A systems model employing a university professional school as an example is presented. It focuses on professional schools because they lend themselves more easily to an understanding of systems. In a systems approach professional development is seen in the context of the other organizations of which the institution is a subsystem. Change in one function is seen to have an impact on all other systems. The functional processes of systems are adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and latent pattern management. In this presentation the concentration is on adaptation and integration. For a university professional school to adapt, it must interface with health and human service agencies and the schools and school districts with which it is linked. All parts of the system must be aware of the political, cultural, economic, and social variables in the system's external environment. Professional development is the mechanism used by systems to adapt input for decision processes. The systems perspective shows that the professional school is not engaged in professional development by itself, but is shaped by (and shapes) the larger systems. Included are three model figures and a brief reference list. (MD)