Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 12.1
Role of the Systems Analyst
The systems analyst plays an
important role in the development
team and is often the only person
who sees the system in its totality.
The one-way arrows in this figure do
not mean that there is no direct
communication between other team
members. These arrows just
indicate the pivotal role of the
systems analyst—a person who is
often called on to be a facilitator,
moderator, negotiator, and
interpreter for development
activities.
Managers
External companies
Software programmers
System stakeholders
SYSTEMS ANALYST
Vendors and suppliers
Technical specialists
Users
Regardless of the specific nature of a project, systems development creates or modifies
systems, which ultimately means change. Managing this change effectively requires devel-
opment team members to communicate well. Because you probably will participate in
systems development during your career, you must learn communication skills. You might
even be the individual who initiates systems development.
Initiating Systems Development
Systems development initiatives arise from all levels of an organization and are both planned
and unplanned. Systems development projects are initiated for many reasons, as shown in
Figure 12.2.
As shown in Figure 12.2, problems with the existing system can initiate systems devel-
opment activity. Hannaford Brothers, a large grocer located in Maine, decided to upgrade
its security system after millions of credit and debit card records were stolen from its computer
new opportunities is another cause of systems initiation. The increased use of the
cloud com-
puting
approach, discussed in Chapter 7, has many IS professionals looking into using the
Internet for applications, such as word processing and spreadsheet analysis, instead of putting
these applications on desktop or laptop computers. According to Internet pioneer Marc
Andreessen, “The cloud is a smart, complex, powerful computing system in the sky that
opment effort is typically required to unify systems. Even with similar information systems,
the procedures, culture, training, and management of the information systems are often
different, requiring a realignment of the IS departments. In another case, Six Flags, one of
the largest amusement park companies in the world with about $1 billion in annual sales,
initiated a systems development project to build a sophisticated inventory control system to
know at mid-day instead of the end of the day.”
A company's customers or suppliers can trigger systems development. Daisy Brand, a
dairy products company, was asked by one of its major customers, Wal-Mart, to start using
