System Analyst Skills and Knowledge

System Analyst Skills and Knowledge on that point is no doubt that schooling trunk psychopsychoanalyst is rangeing an increasingly primary(prenominal) role in roughly of the prospered transcription descend information. To strain this, study ashes analyst must possess a liberal range of qualities which expects abstract skills and abilities as well as decent intimacy in the implementing scheme of users braves and functioning of business. It has to be considered that selective breeding ashes analyst carries responsibilities to analyse and s sack ups the complex take of charitable resources, masses skills, broad(a) sagaciousness and offshoot facilitation and it is basic whollyy utilize from the first day of the organization honks existence. It is crucial for every(prenominal) information placement analyst to view participating exteriorize teams which atomic number 18 non static and unchanging as to ensure that they ar able to articulate the n eeds that atomic number 18 associated with the central task to be solved or opportunity to be realized. There atomic number 18 in addition several barriers exist in gathering and interpreting of project information that needs to be concerned by information administration analyst as this will affect the results of the project and the effectiveness of governing body development. This theme is critically emphasized on the skills and cognition of an information frame analysts and how these skills and noesis drive home impacted in the successful in arrangement project development. The structure of the paper will begin with the introduction, terminologies section, most important skills and competencies for a frame analyst, other important requirements as well as a conclusion as the summarization of the whole topic.1.0 INTRODUCTIONInitially, information dodging analyst is highly infallible to run a corpse project. With bulge information dodge companionship and appropri ate skill set, it is hardly to chance on projects goals. There be conglomerate dress and informal roles that constitution analyst play in creating successful. In short, every transcription analyst in project has their own responsibilities that carry both formal and informal line and more than than or lesstimes they atomic number 18 also assigned to run in big or small project concurrently based on the project requirements to achieve project successfulness. Essentially, form analyst plays an important role in the process of ashes development life cycle assigns which conglomerate project planning, synopsis, design, instruction execution and support process. Each process requires governance analyst to perform unlike task and they must possess a wide range of skills with sufficient knowledge. This is important as arranging development is very difficult occupation that needs very careful planning, control and execution.With the emergence of information engineering sc ience, system has become increasingly role in most of the organic law. In fact, a good system becomes the solely sustainable advantage for organizations to gain a winning position in todays highly competitive world. Parallel with that, the task of system analyst becomes more difficult because they bewilder to deal with divers(prenominal) organization with several(predicate) requirements. agree to Misic and Graf (2004), system analyst perform their stemma is characterized by constant exchange where the change of the environment and uncertainty places forces the system analyst to regularly and consistently update their task and activities. Meaning here, the system analyst should be able to adapt to the environmental changes. For that, a system analyst has to learn the culture or environment for every organization that they assigned to develop a system in nightspot for them to efficaciously perform their meditate and meet the projects goals. In addition, they also need to ex pect full collar of system development and try to apply it deep down the organization with the support of knowledge and skills as it is very important and necessary to ensure the organization gain value and byperform rivals.Numerous articles have been written about system analyst skills and knowledge by many a(prenominal) authors. Various authors have expressed different opinions on the skills that should be possess by a system analyst such(prenominal)(prenominal) as analytical, skillful, managerial and interpersonal or chat skills. There are two key skills that are take to perform system analysis task, fact- pay offing for the probe of system requirements and modelling of business process based on the system requirements (Satzinger, Jackson and Burd, 2009). Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide thorough information on the aspects of tasks, knowledge and important skills of todays system analyst as well as to identify the impact of these aspects towards the ef fectiveness of system development.2.0 DEFINITION OF KEY scathe SYSTEM ANALYST, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLSThere are several of definition of a system analyst have been identified by many professionals. The centre of the terms whitethorn vary from various authors depending to business process, work turn tail and guinea pig where it is used however, the concept of a system analyst remains the same. According to Dennis and Wixom (2003), system analyst can be outlined as the somebodys who convey ideas and suggestions for how information technology can improve business processes, narrow down impertinently processes with the help of a business analyst, design a saucily information system and ensure that all the standard information systems maintained. In contrast, Whitten and Bentley (2007) have defined system analyst as a specialist who are obligated in identifying and study the organization problems and needs as to determine how people, info, processes and information technology can c ontributes to the business developments.Some people arrive confused the meaning between system analyst and computing machine programmer. Basically, system analyst is not a computer programmer he or she is individuals that decided what form of information technology to be used in the development of a system, whereas a computer programmer is individuals which are responsible in putting appropriate instructions with specialised code into computer system. However, both Information System professionals have a similar skills needed in system development, which is emphasized on technical skills (Patrick Chang Boon Lee, 2002). Systems analyst and computer programmer are related in some counselling or another, but they are not exactly the same. Systems analyst requires different skills. Instead, computer programmer is focused on a particular focus of the study. Systems analyst and computer programmer like other professions were forced to have a sense of ethics. As viewed by Kagan and S obolo (1987), systems analyst job involves analysis of the problem or need information on the organization and sever the problem through the design of an efficient pattern of information flow from the source data into the computer. In different point of views by colour (1989), system analysts are service providers who are work closely with users as to define, develop and implement computer based system in order to meet business and other requirements. The involvement of users is required to help the system analyst to do analysis and synthesis tasks on a particular system. Almost similar with Misic and Graf (2002) views, system analyst acts as problem convergent thinker where they work closely with users and management in collecting and analyzing information on current and/or future computer-based system.Information system knowledge and appropriate skills for effective tasks and duties is needed to be an excellent system analyst. Several authors reviewed knowledge as an actionable or relevant information available in the indemnify format at the right time and at the right place for decision making. In other words, people seek knowledge because it assists them to improve performance and succeed in their work. Knowledge also is the most precious therapy for complexity and uncertainty. Further, the process of system development depends heavily on knowledge so that, by having right knowledge, organization can stimulate a good decision making with producing good product and work to ensure meet the business requirements. In the case of information systems, knowledge can be referred to as content or technical information needed to do an adequate job and is usually acquired through formal education, on job education and information media such as the manuals (Cheney, salutary and Kasper, 1990).Meanwhile, skills are referred to the specific psychomotor processes necessary to meet the current requirements of job a specific job. Skills also acknowledge facilities to choose from between the repertoire of action that may be most appropriate for their specific actions (Cheney, impel and Kasper, 1990). Environmental projects may differ from organization to organization and project to project, however, some skills will help in almost any environmental project. These skills include understanding the changes and understand how the organization works within the social, political and physical. definitive to realize, understanding the importance of system analyst activities and the related skills and knowledge may be critical in successful of system development.3.0 MOST authorised SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES FOR SYSTEM ANALYSTThe system analyst needs certain skills to charter system development. They need the skills to do systems analysis and design, where they have to understand what stakeholders (users, clients and technical staffs) need as to analyze the flow of data or place data in a systematic, process or transform data, inclose data, and out put information in the specific context of the business (Kendell and Kendell, 2010). Systems analysts manoeuvre to improve and develop information systems and information technology to get the shell eudaemonias for business especially in solving the business problems. Essentially, job skills support the core information system capabilities to determine the effective exploitation of technology innovation for IT organizations (Lerogue, Newton and Blanton, 2005). There are number of opinions that describe the skills that system analyst should possessed to be successful. Following is the most important skills and competencies for system analyst as pointed by various authors.Analytical skillsAccording to Misic and Graf (2002) in their article entitled System analyst and skills in the millennium, analytical skills were considered the most important skills in the system development. Analytical skills can be defined as the qualification to examine things critically and/or minutely, to s eparate the give picture into its individual components (Misic and Graf, 2002). As indicated by Misic and Graf (2002), these skills provide the primary understructure for an individual to adapt to changes in technology and by focal point on the development of their current employees and / or recruiting new employees that strong analytical skills of focusing mainly on a technical background, management information system will form a team development to be successful today and also in the face of the next wave of needed change and stress in their technological procedures. They also indicated that, this skill is applied in defining and analyzing requirements and insuring the fit within the organizations information system environment. In other hand, analytical skills were involved in the analysis process where it is the task to understand the whole of something by breaking it down into important components. By understanding its components and how they fit together in a larger whole , it leads to understand the whole better.Analytical skill requires a system analyst to just now in defining the problems. It is a fact that, knowing how to define a problem is a tough part. They have to find a authority to break things into elements and utilize those elements to understand the real situations. The system analyst tasks power involve visualizing, articulating, and solving complex problems and concepts, and making sensible decisions based on information available. Analytical skills assist the system analyst to figure out the needs of the organizations and then try to satisfy those needs with a new system development.The growing use of technology has become a major part of the organization around the world. This led to the making the task of the right way defines the problem ever more difficult. The system analyst has to be more precise in defining the problem besides determining the ambit of a new system. This is the task where, system analysts have to properly define the possible problem and the target where they aim to hit. Important to know that, if the problem is wrongly identified it may impact on the system development, such as the new system will not well known, more time needed to do some research on a new system and many possible issues might be occurred. In contrast, if the problems are well identified with the analytical skill is applied to do this the solutions to the particular problem are usually straightforward. Furthermore, to ensure the problem is on the nose identified, systems analysts need to analyze and address the available information, to know what information sources are good, to be able to access and to make effective use in maturation a new system. Identifying very clearly defined and specific problem is an important step to successfully implement the first solution. social skills and parley skillsinterpersonal and communication skills are other skills that required by every system analyst. Such skills are requ ired at various stages of the development process for acting with the users and try to identify their requirements in order to find out possible solutions to that particular problem. Interpersonal skills are related with individual skills needed to interact with individuals that associated with an IS project. In other words, interpersonal skills also can be referred as a behaviour and attitudes of individual, interpersonal communication and class behaviour in the IS context (Lerouge, Newton and Blanton, 2005). According to Lerouge, Newton and Blanton, (2005) in their study, IS managers have viewed these skills as the most important set skills for a system analyst in affecting IS success, whereas, for CIOs and end users indicated that technical skills were the most zippy skills in successful of system development. Several authors indicated that behavioural, social, communication and soft skills are sometimes referred to interpersonal skills as its characteristic represents individ ual behaviours such as articulating and covering skills to interact with the users, ability to work in team such as programmers, analysts and other system professionals, personal motivation and working independently, good listener, ability to write and many more. found on Odini (1991), interpersonal skills are term use to describe variety of social and communicative skills that involve two way communication skills, styles of positive behavior, leadership and teamwork and understanding of human behavior and interpersonal relationships in terms of interaction with relevant individuals. In contrast, Misic and Graf (2004) have distinguished interpersonal and communication skills into two different categories. Interpersonal skills are the ability to interact with other workers including end users, other system analyst, managers and outside vendors, meanwhile, communication skills is referred to the ability of people to effectively write and speak clearly, able to summarize document and that document must be intelligible to the users.Most of company IT based found that interpersonal skills or communication skills in both speaking and writing and ability to work in team are very important and necessary to carry out their task. System analyst need to have communication skills as they are required to write users requirements into technical specifications. It is a fact that, good communication skill is significance to help the system analyst to interact with users in order to identify their needs, to interact with system designers to assist them in developing of system interface as well as to communicate with the system developer as to keep track of system development. According to Green (1989), system analysts believe that they must rely on behavioral skills to effectively interact with user during the crucial stages of problem definition and analysis. As indicated by Misic and Graf (2004), if system analyst is able to interact well with users, it shows that he or sh e has ability to work with members of project team. Moreover, system analyst should spend time acquiring close to the diverse stakeholders such as users, client and technical staffs in order to obtain information as they are the group of people who will use a new system and will benefit most from it. Generally, interpersonal skill is a significant factor in the success of system analyst in developing system. The excellent system analyst is involved in every aspect of the system development process, and is actively involved in the interaction design for the system. They have an understanding of the various ways the stakeholder need to interact with the system, understand the different needs and to identify the different aspects of design that will work for different stakeholders. ground on Green (1989), management must recognize that successful system development depends on both behavioral and technical skills. He added that, training to improve behavioral skills such as interviewing and listening is needed. This is because they have to interact with many groups of people in various businesses where this group of people provides important insights to ensure the system satisfies the business needs. Besides, systems analysts also liaise with almost every department of the business that is involved in solving the system problem. In addition, management must also provide an orientation program for the users involved in new projects. This program is mainly about the specific activities of system development and related skills needs for analysis. This program may facilitate the return of interaction skills and promoting greater consumer awareness of the importance of behavioral skills for systems development functions (Green, 1989). adept skillsThere is no doubt that technical skills are areas commonly considered major to the computer related profession including system analyst. According to Misic and Graf (2004) technical skills are the ability to use techniques s uch as the development of systems of functional decomposition, data flow diagrams, process specifications, object-oriented analysis, data modeling, computer programming, hardware and software knowledge and other tools that are recognized to help in the development of system.In different point of views, Gallagher et. al (2010) indicated that technical skills can be divided into three major categories, foundational skills, operational skills and essential skills. Table 1, shows some of the technical skills that need to be possessed by every IT professionals.Table 1 technical SkillsFoundational SkillsOperational SkillsEssential SkillsProgrammingSystem testingbackground Support/ Helpdesk informationbase Design / ManagementOperating SystemsVoice / Data TelecommunicationsOperationsService HostingContinuity / Discovery PlanningMainframe / legacySystems AnalysisSystems DesignIT Architectures / StandardSource adequate from Gallagher et. al (2010)Based on the above table, it can be assum ed that system analyst requires all three technical skills as to stay competitive with todays dynamic environment especially in the emergence of internet and intranet technologies. This rapid change in technology forced the system analyst to prepare and focuses on the system analysis and development of system by mastering all relevant technical skills. Foundation skills are skills to be obtained in put across by system analysts for their basic knowledge before they can only develop to a higher level of skills. Whereas as indicated by Gallagher et. al (2010), operational skills often in particular, but they are usually not firm-specific. Though, they may be specific to technology providers such as, IBM mainframes or Microsoft horde products. These skills are important to solve problems that are related to the computers and both hardware and software. Meanwhile, essential skills are the most important skills in assisting system analyst to perform in analyzing and designing of syste m development.There are changes in the system analyst technical skill set due to the development of technology. Haga et. al (2007), have defined technical skills set that are listed in the job bank into three major categories, there are, database skills, operating system skills and other miscellaneous skills. Table 2, summarizes the technical skills required for a system analyst listed in the job bank. All these skills are crucial for them to black market andTable 1 Technical skills required for system analyst listed in the job bank.Database SkillsOperating System SkillsOther Miscellaneous SkillsOracleSQL PL/SQLDatabaseDB2SQL hostPowerbuilderSysbaseData Mining/ Data WarehousingInformixDelpiUNIX/LINUXWin NTWin 95/98/2000AS400/ OS400MainframeJCLNovellSun SolarisDOSMAC OSMS OfficeInternet/ Intranet DevelopmentNetworking/TelecomSAPAccounting (pay-roll, etc)PeoplesoftTech Support/ Help DeskERPLotus NotesumlCrystal ReportsVisionSource Adapted from Haga et. al (2007)