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March 05, 2007
Q8 of 25 Questions about a Career in IS
What Does a Systems Analyst Need to Know?
A systems analyst is a cultural broker. A systems analyst meets with the users and learns their goals and objectives, their processes, and their information needs. A background in business will enable the systems analyst to learn business needs quickly and effectively. Without such a background, his or her ignorance will slow the project unacceptably, or will cause silly mistakes like the one above.
For example, consider a systems analyst that is working with, say, a manufacturing department. At a requirements meeting, that analyst is likely to hear terms like MRP or MRP II or just-in-time inventory. The discussion might involve the number of turns in finished goods inventory and how inventory holding costs seem to high for that number of turns.
Without a background in business, the systems analyst will be unable to follow the discussion. And, the team expects the systems analyst to be able to contribute to the discussion -- adding insights into what kind of information is needed to solve that problem, and the likely availability of the data to produce that information.
At the same time, once the systems analyst understands the business requirements, he or she then meets with technical people to explain what needs to be done. The analyst must be able to develop data models, to participate in database design, to understand how computer programmers will go about creating the information system, to know what an effective test plan is, to understand how the system should be implemented, and so forth. The analyst needs to have sufficient background in technology to be able to reject ideas that are clearly infeasible, whether from cost, organizational, schedule, or technical reasons.
So, a systems analyst needs to be able to bridge the world of business and the world of information technology.
It is a fascinating and ever so interesting a job!
Posted by DavidK at March 5, 2007 11:06 AM | Permalink