The Role of a Systems Analyst

System Analyst Job and Tools of the Trade

CMGT 555/ SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DEVELOPMENT

Introduction

How have companies such as Amazon.com, Chase Bank or IBM survived so long in today's business market? When your bank account is updated or that package arrives at your doorstep there is network architecture behind that process. With technology changing so quickly even the keyboard of the computer I am typing on is out of date. I have only had this computer for a couple of months now. How does a company keep their systems efficient and running and know when to change out software and hardware for the architecture to stay current. Before any new software or hardware is laid out there are standardized methods in place to measure the who, what and when of evaluating. The process is done by a system analyst working for the company.

System Analyst

The system analyst operates on many different levels of a company. The system analyst needs to be familiar with many different intricate working and process of the company. The systems analyst needs to speak two languages. The language of the technical world such as programming language, network traffic design and database process to name a few. The system analyst move be able to translate that language into viable communication to other areas of the company that have little or no technical background. The system analyst must be able to speak to the technical side of the business by translating what the end-users wish the product or system to do at the completion of the project. A system analyst will need to be able to understand the fundamental aspects of programming language used in the company and know its' limitations ("United States Department Of Labor ", 2011). They must also know the limitation of the network they are working with. This means they must have a deep understanding of the OSI model that the IT department uses to follow how data flows through the network. A familiarity with different operation systems such as Microsoft, UNIX, JAVA and C++ also helps so they are able to speak to their technical team for specific technical queries and request. Under a system analyst egis and depending on the size of the company and department they may be responsible for tasks such as:

* Stress testing an installed system to measure it performance.

* Act as a liaison between different departments and facilitate communications between the two.

* Work closely with designers to understand the limitations of the software as compared to the needs of the company.

* The system analyst could also work with programmers during the development stage by designing flow charts and database design templates.

With these tools on hand it is important that the system analyst is able to meet all of the requirements that are required by the end-users. We were in the middle of developing a new system monitoring program that looked at our network phone traffic. With the software we were beta-testing we had met the goals of gathering reports from daily, weekly, monthly and yearly data. Problems arose when the end-user actually wanted the software to be able to drill down in real time on an hourly basis. This required the team to take a step back and look at the software package we had already purchased to see if that was possible. The system analyst did not know if our current phone switch could even produce that kind of data let alone have software pull it from the switch. Our project was delayed because the system analyst and the end-user communication broke down and did not bother to do more temperature checks with each other.

IS System Development Methods

System Analyst needs to follow a standardized process or methodology in implement a upgrade or new network framework. The field of Information Technology covers a wide array of fields. Different methodologies have been developed to aid system analyst in handling all of these tasks. Without these methodologies in place it would not be possible to measure the performance of any given piece of project objectively. With each level were a type of software or hardware is being reviewed different methodologies have been developed to