System Analyst : System Analysis and Design : Business Analysts and System Analysts FAQ

Any system has to be designed and developed according to the requirements. More specifically, a system has to serve the intended use in the right way. Having a plan and clear-cut idea upfront is thus vital to the entire process of design and development. The required analysis is done by the System analyst. He is the one responsible for handling the overall project from a higher level of view, managing within it the specifics of and integrity with the lower programming level of perspective. With sufficient knowledge about the dynamics of every aspect of the system, interactions with programmers, customers and other relevant people System analyst’s job is to get the right solution in the most efficient way. Let us see more about the role he plays.

Get the requirements!

Well, a solution to a problem can be really good only if the problem statement is taken in completely. Customers words are the key to figuring out the exact requirement set. As a System analyst, one has to be the customer’s voice when he drafts out the requirements clearly. Apart from the customer interactions, it is his job to translate the practical needs of customer into a more technical requirement. Acting as a bridge between the customer and the developers the System analyst has to give the right translation of customer’s terms into a programmer’s idea.

So, where does the analysis come in?

Stating the requirement gathering as just a “translation” can make it seem simple! The truth is that the technical documents that the System analysts prepare from the “Use cases” derived from the customer interactions or marketing documents should take in all considerations of technical feasibility and programming aspects/technologies. To do this a reasonable knowledge from the programming/development side is required. With interactions with the programmers he has to make sure of the feasibility of solution. Cooperation with the development team right through the development phase makes periodic validation/verification possible. Checking for conformance to use case requirements, standards of development and guiding the entire team together forward towards the goal makes the analyst’s job a very critical one for overall success of the software system under development.

The Analyst is basically the Information access point for the customer and the marketers. From the design of the system to deployment, he keeps track of all the information in perspective of both the customer and the programming team. This makes him a vital part of the testing phase and deployment phase. As a person who has the best knowledge about practical needs of deployment and usage, he also plays a major role in drafting out the user manuals and other data sheets for the customers.

It is pretty clear as to how important the role of system analyst is. A strong base to phase out the actions and plans gives any project a good head start. Thus, it is the System analyst who can be the starting point for having a successful development cycle and really useful system from the customer’s perspective. He can really give the entire team the comfort levels by making a good sturdy base for operations.