TOPIC 3:SYSTEMS

ANALYSIS – ITS
ROOTS AND PURPOSE
MODULE 6: THE SYSTEMS ANALYST (SA) IN
THE MODERN INFORMATION DRIVEN SOCIETY
 By the end of this module, you should be able to:
 Describe the terms systems analysis and design
 Define the systems analyst
 Explain the role of a systems analyst as a business problem solver
 Discuss the typical skills that a systems analysts requires
 Outline the typical environment in which a system analyst operates
 Explain how a systems analyst fits into the broader ICT
development domain and department
 Discuss the role of a systems analyst as a systems designer
 Outline the system analyst’s role in the strategic planning process
of an organisation
 Describe the various types f technology a system analyst utilises
in their day to day activities
 Differentiate between and describe different types of software
tools that a systems analyst uses as part of the systems analysis
and design process.
Unit 6.1 The systems analyst (SA)
 Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) – is the
systematic process undertaken to ensure that any
new IS, or upgrades or extensions to existing IS, meet
the requirements that the business or organisation
has that the information system must address.
 SAD is a process that ensures that:
 The business problem or opportunity is fully
understood, and
 The business requirements are carefully analysed and
fully specified
 A solution is designed for the system to deliver the
required functionality
 Systems Analyst – an IT professional who is responsible for
undertaking systems analysis and design activities, normally as
part of a project development team, under the leadership of a
project manager to deliver IS for organisations.
 Systems analysts can be involved in:
 Problem definition
 Requirements discovery
 Business(process) analysis and requirements specification
 Systems design specification
 Development and programming
 Installation, conversion and integration
 Testing, training and evaluation
 Maintenance and support
 Business Analyst – a systems analyst who focuses on
understanding business processes and what the business needs of
the system are
The role of a systems analyst as a business
problem solver
 Business and systems analysts are expected to act as
problem solvers for organisations as their work
involves understanding current business problems or
challenges and then proposing IS to help solve the
problem
 Examples of reasons for systems development
 To solve a problem (like not being able to keep track of
stock in a shop)
 As an opportunity to allow a business to do better (like
being able to answer customer questions more
accurately and quickly)
 To make sure that the company can do what is required
by law (like providing tax information for VAT)
 Projects have constraints like:
 Budget (how much money we have to spend on the
new system)
 Schedule (how urgently we need to get the system
done)
 Skills (what knowledge or experience does the team
and organisation have)
 Technology (what is possible and available)
 Systems analysts need to develop critical thinking
skills, and learn to use a variety of different problem
solving techniques and business tools to help them
fully analyse and understand situations before
designing solutions.
 The typical knowledge, skills and attributes of a systems analyst
Technical Relating to knowledge about available hardware, software, applications,
databases, data modelling, networking and communication.
Knowledge

Business An overall understanding of how organisations work, and understating of processes,

transactions, decision making, reporting

Analysis and design The SDLC, data and processing modelling, methodologies and approaches.
knowledge

Technical Use of tools, techniques and software applications to analyse and design systems.

Business Business modelling, planning frameworks and tools

Communication Written and verbal, able to communicate clearly and precisely with words, models and
Skills

diagrams, the ability to interact with users and managers al all levels.

Negotiation Ability to help solve conflict and enable users and managers to prioritise (conflicting)
requirements.

Teamwork and leadership Ability to work with people, motivate team members, stay focused and professional

• Attention to detail, precise and careful.

• Open minded and able to consider different ways and approaches to doing things.
utes

• Life long learners willing and able to stay up to date with new advances and open to learning new ways of doing
things.
Unit 6.2 The work environment of the SA
The IT or ICT department
 They may be found working in the IT or ICT department of an
organisation, or may work for a technology company which
develops systems for clients.
The analyst as system designer
 An important role of an SA is that of systems design
 Requires an analyst to translate the work done in analysing
problems and determining requirements (WHAT the system must
do) into a design of HOW the system can do it.
 Design phase of the SDLC requires the SA to
 design all the aspects of a project from the underlying database
structure
 How we will input data, process it and produce reports
 What types of user interfaces we will have
 How will the reports look like
 Requires SA to design ways of integrating existing
systems wit new systems and sometimes with
systems outside the organisation like suppliers or
customer systems.

The analyst as strategic planner

 SA is involved in planning of IS that are designed to
support organisations operationally to day-to-day
business, tactically for managerial support, and
strategically to help grow and enhance profitability.
Unit 6.3 The tools and technology used by
the systems analyst (SA)
 SA are involved in creating a lot of documentation relating to
the projects that they are working on
 Documentation include proposals, plans and schedule and a
whole set of specific diagrams of various levels of detail and
complexity
 Rely on a range of tools and technology to assist them with the
creation, updating and sharing of these documents
 They work on PCs, laptops and other mobile devices such as
tablets
 Require access to networks in order to communicate with team
and to send and share documents
 Teams might use Googledocs, Dropbox or share drives to store
their documents for the project.
 Software tools to support the systems analysis
and design process
 CASE tools (Computer- Aided Systems/Software
Engineering tools)
 Powerful, integrated software applications that can be used
by teams to create, manage and share many of the models,
diagrams and other parts of the system development
process.
 Allows the SA to draw models easily and precisely using
symbols and shapes – similar to the drawing tools found in
MS Word or MS Excel, except that it is quicker and easier to
use
 MS Visio is a drawing tool that allows SA to draw many of
the data and process models that are used in the SDLC
 A case tool normally consists of a repository and a set of
tools
 Case Tool: Repository

• Allow us to draw models of the data and processes

Modelling tools • These would be similar to MS Visio a stand alone
modelling tool.

Documentation • To manage, control and facilitate team access to

project documentation.
tools

• To first document and make smart changes to

processes
Engineering • Take existing software and reverse engineer(work
tools backwards) to the models that would describe the
original requirements

• Code generation (automatically generate code for

Construction applications in languages like Java, C#, C++)
• Reports generators or report writers (to design and
tools create formatted reports quickly)
• Screen generators or form painters (input screens)
 The repository is a type of database in which we can
centrally store all the information about the system being
developed.
 SA create data elements that precisely represent things in
the system, and once it exists in the CASE repository,
everyone who works with that element can use it in all
documentation and model diagrams and know it is the same
throughout.
Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
 These are software tools provided within software
development environments to support IS development
within a specific language or database environment.
 These provide the development language and a set of
CASE tools together in the language/environment that you
are coding or programming in e.g Microsoft has Microsoft
Visual Studio and Oracle has Oracle Designer.