Role and need of systems analyst
INTRODUCTION
Although many people in organizations are involved in systems analysis and design, the systems analyst has the primary responsibility. A career as a systems analyst will allow you to have a significant impact on how your organization operates. This fast-growing and rewarding position is found in both large and small companies. IDC, a leading consulting group, predicts that growth in information technology (IT) employment will exceed 3 percent per year through at least 2013. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts additional increases in the numbers of IT jobs from 2004 to 2014. During this period, the professional IT workforce is projected to add more than 1 million new jobs in the United States. Information technology workers remain in demand.
Role Of System Analyst
The primary role of a systems analyst is to study the problems and needs ofan organization in order to determine how people, methods, and information technology can best be combined to bring about improvements in the organization. A systems analyst helps system users and other business managers define their requirements for new or enhanced information services.
Systems analysts are key to the systems development process. To succeed as a systems analyst,
you will need to develop four types of skills:
- analytical,
- technical,
- managerial, and
- interpersonal.
Analytical skills enable you to understand the organization and its functions, to identify opportunities and problems, and to analyze and solve problems. One of the most important an-
alytical skills you can develop is systems thinking, or the ability to see organizations and information systems as systems. Systems thinking provides a framework from which to see the important relationships among information systems, the organizations they exist in, and the environment in which the organizations themselves exist.
Technical skills help you understand the potential and the limitations of information technology. As an analyst, you must be able to envision an information system that will help users solve problems and that will guide the system’s design and development. You must also be able to work with programming languages such as C and Java, various operating systems such as Windows and Linux, and computer hardware platforms such as IBM and Mac.
Management skills help you manage projects, resources, risk, and change.
Interpersonal skills help you work with end users as well as with other analysts and programmers. As a systems analyst,you will play a major role as a liaison among users, programmers, and other systems professionals. Effective written and oral communication, including
competence in leading meetings, interviewing end users, and listening, are
key skills that analysts must master. Effective analysts successfully combine
these four types of skills,
Examples:
Let’s consider two examples of the types of organizational problems you could face as a systems analyst.
First,
you work in the information systems department of a major magazine company. The company is having problems keeping an updated and accurate list of subscribers, and some customers are getting two magazines instead of one. The company will lose money and subscribers if these problems continue. To create a more efficient tracking system, the users
of the current computer system as well as financial managers submit their problem to you and your colleagues in the information systems department.
Second,
you work in the information systems department at a university, where you are called upon to address an organizational problem such as the mailing of student grades to the wrong addresses.
Frequently Asked Questions
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