System Analysis and Design

System Analysis

- Mr. Ahmad Al-Ghoul

 Learning Objectives

 Discuss the analytical skills, including

systems thinking, needed for a systems
analyst to be successful
 Describe the technical skills required of
a systems analyst
 Discuss the management skills required
of a systems analyst
 Identify the interpersonal skills required
of a systems analyst

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 Introduction
 The system analyst is a key member of any systems
development project.
In a boarder sense, the systems analyst plays several
roles:
 Archaeologist and scribe: As a systems analyst, one
of the main jobs is to uncover detail and to document
business policy , passed down from generation to
generation of users.
 Innovator: The systems analyst must separate the
symptoms of the user’s problem from the true causes.

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System Analysis
 Introduction
   Mediator: The systems analyst who often finds himself
in the middle of users, managers, programmers,
auditors, and various other players, all of whom
frequently disagree with one another.
 Project leader: Because the systems analyst is usually
more experienced than the others on the project, and
since he is assigned to the project from the beganing,
there is a natural tendency to assign project
management responsibilities to the analyst.
 To succeed as a systems analyst, you will develop four
types of skills, Analytical Skills, Technical Skills,
Management Skills, and Interpersonal Skills

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System Analysis
 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Analytical Skills for Systems Analysis
 Analytical skills enable you to understand the
organization and its functions, to identify
opportunities and problems, and to analyze
and solve problems.
 Four Sets of Analytical Skills
 Systems Thinking
 Organizational Knowledge

 Problem Identification

 Problem Analyzing and Solving

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System Analysis
 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Analytical Skills for Systems Analysis
 Systems Thinking
 One of the most important analytical skills you can
develop is system thinking, or the ability to see
organizations and information systems as systems.
 System 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.

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System Analysis
 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Analytical Skills for Systems Analysis
 Systems Thinking
 Important System Concepts
 Decomposition
 The process of breaking down a system into smaller
components
 Allows the systems analyst to:
 Break a system into small, manageable subsystems

 Focus on one area at a time

 Concentrate on component pertinent to one group of

users
 Build different components at independent times

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System Analysis
 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Analytical Skills for Systems Analysis
 Systems Thinking
 Important System Concepts
 Logical System Description
 describes the purpose and function of the system
 Does not tie the description to a specific physical
implementation
 Physical System Description
 Focuses on how the system will be physically
constructed

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System Analysis
 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst

 Analytical Skills for Systems Analysis

 Organizational Knowledge
 Understanding of how organizations work
 Knowledge of specific functions and procedures of

organization and department

 How work officially gets done

 Internal policies

 Competitive Environment

 Organizational Strategies and Tactics

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 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Analytical Skills for Systems Analysis
 Problem Identification
 Problem: Difference between an existing situation
and a desired situation
 Identification is process of defining differences

 Differences are defined by comparing the current

situation to the output of a model that predicts

what the output should be

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 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Analytical Skills for Systems Analysis
 Problem Analyzing and Solving
 Four Phases
 Intelligence
 All relevant information is collected
 Design
 Alternatives are formulated
 Choice
 Best alternative solution is chosen
 Implementation
 Solution is put into practice

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 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Technical Skills for Systems Analysis
 Technical skills help you understand the
potential and 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, various operating
systems, and computer hardware platforms.

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 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Technical Skills for Systems Analysis
 Understanding of a wide variety of
technologies is required
 Microcomputers, workstations, minicomputers and
mainframe computers
 Programming languages

 Operating systems

 Database and file management systems

 Data communication standards

 Systems development tools and environments

 Web development languages and tools

 Decision support system generators

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 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Management Skills for Systems Analysis
 Management skills help you manage projects, resources,
risk, and change.
 Four categories
 Resource Management
 Systems analyst needs to know how to get the most out of the
resources of an organization, including team members
 Project Management
 Goals are prevent projects from coming in late and prevent projects
from going over budget
 Risk Management
 Ability to anticipate what might go wrong in a project and minimize
risk and/or minimize damage that might result
 Change Management
 Ability to assist people in making transition to new system and ability
to deal with technical issues related to change

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 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Interpersonal Skills for Systems Analysis
 Interpersonal skills help you work with end users as
well as with other analysts and programmers. As a
system analysts, you will play a major role as a
mediator among users, programmers, and other
systems professionals.
 Effective written and oral communication, including
competence in leading meetings, interviewing, and
listening, is a key skill analysts must master
 two types of skills:
 Communication skills
 Working alone and with a team

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System Analysis
 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Interpersonal Skills for Systems Analysis
 Communication skills
 Effective communication helps to establish
and maintain good working relationships with
clients and colleagues
 Three types used by Systems Analyst
 Interviewing and Listening
 Questionnaires

 Written and Oral Presentations

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 Succeeding as a Systems Analyst
 Interpersonal Skills for Systems Analysis
 Working alone and with a team
 Working alone on aspects of project involves
managing:
 Time
 Commitments

 Deadlines

 Team work involves establishing standards of

cooperation and coordination

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 Sequence Summary
 Skills of Successful Systems Analyst
 Analytical
 Systems Thinking
 Technical
 Change over time, programming languages, operating
systems, database management systems, data
communications, systems development techniques
 Management
 Resources, projects, risk, change
 Interpersonal
 Interviews and Questionnaires, written and oral
presentations, facilitating groups

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 Sequence Summary
 In this Sequence we have
 Defined structured analysis and design
 Discussed the analytical skills, including systems thinking,
organizational knowledge, and problem identification
 Defined the term system decomposition
 Distinguished between logical and physical system
description
 Defined the term problem
 Explained the Problem Analyzing and Solving phases
 Described the technical skills required of a systems analyst
 Discussed the management skills required of a systems
analyst
 Identified the interpersonal skills required of a systems
analyst

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 Reference

[2] Modern Systems Analysis and Design Third Edition

Authors: Jeffrey A. Hoffer , Joey F. George, Joseph S. Valacich
Publisher: prentice hall

[2] introduction to systems analysis and sesign.

Authors: Hawryszkiewyer
Publisher: prentice hall 1990

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