The Role of System Analyst
INTRODUCTION
Rapid and revolutionary changes in technology have created an increasingly information-centric global economy and has impacted the nature of system development and the environment in which the system must function. “The last decade has seen technologies and tools like the World Wide Web and object oriented analysis rapidly change the very nature of system development “ 1. Developments in Information Technologies (IT) have been one of the major underlying forces that have contributed to the reshaping and reinvestigation of the knowledge and skills for the system developer mainly the system analyst.
Factors such as rapid technology changes, business and organizational demand, information centric economy and up-to-date users requirement offer more challenges and opportunities for system analyst career development. Needless to say, system analyst therefore have to be closely following advances in the factors mentioned to stay relevant and being part of the global development. System Analyst must equip themselves with the latest knowledge and skill to catch up with ever increasingly complex and ill structured problem.
This paper is organized as follows. First, a brief background on knowledge and skills of a system analyst is presented. Second, the knowledge and skills of the SA are discussed in detail using 3W (what, when and why) and 1H (How) together with the tools and examples. Lastly, concluding comments are presented.
BACKGROUND
(Misic and Graf, 2004) defined a System analyst as a problem solving specialist who works with users and management to gather and analyse information on current and/or future computer based systems. ____________________________________________________________
__________________ 1. Misic, Mark M and David K Graf. "System analyst activities and skills in the new millenium." The Journal of System and Software (2004): 31-36.
With this information, the system analyst, working with other IS personnel, defines
Rapid and revolutionary changes in technology have created an increasingly information-centric global economy and has impacted the nature of system development and the environment in which the system must function. “The last decade has seen technologies and tools like the World Wide Web and object oriented analysis rapidly change the very nature of system development “ 1. Developments in Information Technologies (IT) have been one of the major underlying forces that have contributed to the reshaping and reinvestigation of the knowledge and skills for the system developer mainly the system analyst.
Factors such as rapid technology changes, business and organizational demand, information centric economy and up-to-date users requirement offer more challenges and opportunities for system analyst career development. Needless to say, system analyst therefore have to be closely following advances in the factors mentioned to stay relevant and being part of the global development. System Analyst must equip themselves with the latest knowledge and skill to catch up with ever increasingly complex and ill structured problem.
This paper is organized as follows. First, a brief background on knowledge and skills of a system analyst is presented. Second, the knowledge and skills of the SA are discussed in detail using 3W (what, when and why) and 1H (How) together with the tools and examples. Lastly, concluding comments are presented.
BACKGROUND
(Misic and Graf, 2004) defined a System analyst as a problem solving specialist who works with users and management to gather and analyse information on current and/or future computer based systems. ____________________________________________________________
__________________ 1. Misic, Mark M and David K Graf. "System analyst activities and skills in the new millenium." The Journal of System and Software (2004): 31-36.
With this information, the system analyst, working with other IS personnel, defines
References: Misic, Mark M and David K Graf. "System analyst activities and skills in the new millenium." The Journal of System and Software (2004): 31-36. Morell, Joseph S, et al. "The System Analyst: A Post Mortem?" International Conference Proceedings Globalization and Emerging Economies . Brussels, 2001. 1-10. Noll, Cheryl L and Marilyn Wilkins. "Critical skills of IS Professionals: A Model for Curriculum Development." Journal of Information Technology Education (2002): 143-154. Vongsavanh, Alan and Bruce Campbell. "The Roles and Skill Sets of Systems vs Business Analysts." 19th Australasian Conference on Information Systems. Christchurch, 2008. 1059-1068.