Skills And Knowledge For Successful System Development Information Technology Essay

Skills And Knowledge For Successful administration maturement Information Technology Essaythither is no doubt that maturement dodge psycho psychopsychoanalyst is playing an increasingly primal role in close of the lucky establishment scheme developing. To get hold of this, culture governance analyst must(prenominal)iness possess a wide range of qualities which connotes confiscate skills and abilities as tumesce as sufficient fellowship in the implementing musical arrangement of drug users supports and functioning of business. It has to be considered that randomness strategy analyst carries responsibilities to analyse and substantiates the analyzable unavoidably of adult male resources, spate skills, expert pinch and form facilitation and it is fundamentally applied from the first day of the body of rules get a lines knowence. It is polar for either nurture form analyst to agree dynamic project teams which atomic number 18 non static and unchanging as to consider that they atomic number 18 able to give voice the carrys that atomic number 18 associated with the come upon line of resolve to be solved or opportunity to be realized. at that place are besides several barriers exist in gathering and interpreting of formation maturement that ineluctably to be concerned by education constitution analyst as this testament affect the results of the schema and the effectiveness of carcass development. This make-up is critically emphasize on the skills and companionship of an reading strategy analysts and how these skills and association consecrate squeeze in the successful in arrangement project development. The structure of the paper get bug out begin with the introduction, terminologies section, knowledge required by arrangement analyst, most fundamental skills and competencies for a organization analyst as well as a conclusion as the summarization of the full-length topic.Keywords formation analyst, schema analysis, knowledge, analytical skills, technical foul skills, social skill, managerial skills, communion skills1.0 INTRODUCTIONInitially, data constitution analyst is highly needed to run a system project. Without an info system knowledge and appropriate skill rophy, it is hardly to contact projects goals. There are various formal and easy roles that system analyst play in creating successful. In short, any system analyst in a project has their own responsibilities that carry both formal and informal designate and some clippings they are also assigned to run in a big or small project con reliablely ground on the project requirements to achieve project successfulness. Essentially, a system analyst plays an weighty role in the process of system development bearing cycle taxs which bespeakd project planning, analysis, design, implementation and support process. Each process requires a system analyst to perpetrate a diametrical task and they must p ossess a wide range of skills with sufficient knowledge. This is important as system development is a very difficult activeness that needs very careful planning, control and execution.With the emergence of data technology, system has become increasingly role in most of the administration. In fact, a proficient system becomes the solely sustainable advantage for formations to gain a winning position in immediatelys highly competitive world. Parallel with that, the task of a system analyst becomes more difficult because they brace to charter with a polar organization with different requirements. jibe to Misic and Graf (2004), systems analyst perform their crop line is characterized by a constant turns where the change of the environment and hesitation places forces the system analyst to regularly and consistently updates 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 lear n the culture or environment for every organization that they assigned to develop a system in order for them to in effect perform their job and meet the projects goals. In addition, they also need to stand full understanding of system development and try to apply it in spite of appearance the organization with the support of knowledge and skills as it is very important and necessary to ensure the organization gain value and outperform rivals.Numerous members put one crossways been written near system analyst skills and knowledge by legion(predicate) authors. Various authors ca-ca expressed different opinions on the skills that should be feature by a system analyst such(prenominal) as analytical, technical, managerial and interpersonal or communication skills. There are two key skills that are needed to perform system analysis tasks, fact-finding for the investigation of system requirements and modelling of a business process based on the system requirements (Satzinger, Jac kson 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 effectiveness of system development.2.0 DEFINITION OF check over TERMS SYSTEM ANALYST, intimacy AND SKILLSThere are several of translation of a system analyst imbibe been identified by numerous professionals. The meaning of the terms may vary from various authors depending to business process, workflow and discipline where it is used however, the concept of a system analyst system the same. According to Dennis and Wixom (2003), system analyst mickle be doctord as the persons who generate ideas and suggestions for how information technology great deal improve business processes, define unfermented processes with the attention of a business analyst, design a new-made information system and ensure that all the standard information sys tems maintained. In contrast, Whitten and Bentley (2007) have defined system analyst as a medical specialist who is responsible in identifying and study the organization difficultys and needs as to place how volume, data, processes and information technology can contribute to the business developments.Some community get confused the meaning amid system analyst and ready reckoner computer programmer. Basically, a 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 unique(predicate) code into a computer system. However, both Information System professionals have similar skills needed in system development, which is emphasized on technical skills (Lee, 2002). Systems analyst and computer programmer are related in some way or an new(prenominal), but they are not ex actly the same. Systems analyst requires different skills. Instead, computer programmer is focused on a bad-tempered emphasis of the study. Systems analyst and computer programmer like other professions were laboured to have a sense of ethics. As viewed by Kagan and Sobolo (1987), systems analyst job involves analysis of the task or needs information on the organization and resolve the problem through with(predicate) the design of an efficient pattern of information flow from the source data into the computer. In different point of views by Green (1989), system analysts are service providers who are work virtually 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 abet the system analyst to do analysis and synthesis tasks on a sparkicular system. Almost similar with Misic and Graf (2002) views, system analyst acts as problem solver where they work closely with users an d 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 thin system analyst. some(prenominal) authors reviewed knowledge as an actionable or relevant information purchasable in the right format at the right time and at the right place for decision making. In other words, people render 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 heavy on knowledge so that, by having right knowledge, organization can produce a good decision making with producing good product and services 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 f ormal education, on job training and information media such as the manuals (Cheney, Hale and Kasper, 1990).Meanwhile, skills are referred to the hairsplitting psychomotor processes necessary to meet the current requirements of job a specific job. Skills also include facilities to choose from between the repertoire of action that may be most appropriate for their specific actions (Cheney, Hale and Kasper, 1990). Environmental projects may differ from an organization to organization and project to project, however, some skills will assist in almost any environmental project. These skills include understanding the changes and understand how the organization works within the social, policy-making and physical. Important 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 KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED BY SYSTEM ANALYSTBefore starting to prove and design a system, it is very important for a systems analyst to have sufficient knowledge about the various fields of knowledge depends in general on the duties and level of development of the system. Based on Vitalari (1985), there are six key concepts of the knowledge base have emerge, namely, core system analysis worldly concern knowledge, high-rated humans knowledge, application domain knowledge, functional domain knowledge, organization specific knowledge and knowledge of methods and techniques.Vitari (1985) said that core system analysis domain knowledge is essential components of system analysts knowledge to achieve satisfactory levels of performance. It is very important to meet the needs of the user to ensure the output of the system development will produce high merriment to the users. Important to realize that, systems analysts need to know what commitments are expected from the user and the user also knows what is expected of the systems analyst. In addition, by having this knowledge it help the system an alyst to avoid committing mistakes and delaying the project to be completed. Whereas high rated domain knowledge is referred to the knowledge that distinguishes high rated analysts from low rated analysts. Application domain knowledge is a knowledge related to several information system applications such as expert system, decision support system, transaction processing system and end user computing.4.0 MOST IMPORTANT SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES FOR SYSTEM ANALYSTThe system analyst needs certain skills to conduct 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 discerp the flow of data or enter data in a systematic, process or transform data, store data, and output information in the specific context of the business (Kendell and Kendell, 2010). Systems analysts aim to improve and develop information systems and information technology to get the best earns for busi ness especially in work out 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 be have to be successful. Following is the most important skills and competencies for a 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 dexterity to examine things critically and/or minutely, to separate the clear figure into its individual components (Misic and Graf, 2002). As indicated by Misic and Graf (2002), these skills provide the primary basis for an individual to adapt to changes in technology and by focusi ng on the development of their current employees and / or recruiting new employees that strong analytical skills of focusing chiefly 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 inevitable 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 hands, 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 precisely in defining the problems. It is a fact that, knowing how to define a problem is a tough part. They have to find a way to break things into elements and utilize those elements to understand the real situations. The system analyst tasks might 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(ip) part of the organization around the world. This led to the making the task of properly defines the problem ever more difficult. The system analyst has to be more precise in defining the problem besides determining the scope 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 re search 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 accompaniment problem are usually straightforward. Furthermore, to ensure the problem is precisely 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 ontogeny a new system. Identifying very clearly defined and specific problem is an important step to successfully implement the first solution. social skills and communication skillsInterpersonal and communication skills are other skills that required by every system analyst. Such skills are required at various stages of the development process for interacting 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 behavior and attitudes of individual, interpersonal communication and group 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 vital 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 the individual behaviours such as articulating and oral presentation skills to interact with the users, ability to work in a team such as programmers, analysts and other system professionals, personal motivation and working independently, goo d listener, ability to make unnecessary and many more. Based 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 are referred to the ability of people to effectively write and speak clearly, able to summarize a document and that document must be understandable to the users.Most of the company IT based found that interpersonal skills or communication skills in both speaking and writing and ability to work in a team are very imp ortant and necessary to carry out their task. A system analyst needs to have communication skills as they are required to write user requirements into technical specifications. It is a fact that, good communication skills 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 a system porthole as well as to communicate with the system developer as to keep back 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 a system analyst is able to interact well with users, it shows that he or she has the ability to work with members of the project team. Moreover, a system analyst should spend time getting close to the diverse stakeholders such as users, client and technical s taffs 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 a 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.Based 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 valuable insights to ensure the system satisfies the business needs. Besides, system analysts also intermediate with almost every department of the business that is involved in solving the system problem. In addition, management must also provide an orientation course 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 improvement of interaction skills and promoting greater consumer awareness of the importance of behavioral skills for systems development functions (Green, 1989).Technical 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 such as the development of systems of functional decomposition, data flow diagrams, process specifications, object-oriented analysis, data modeling, computer schedule, computer ironware and software knowledge and other tools that are recognized to help in the development of a system. Similar with Lerouge, Newton and Blanton (2005) technical skills referred to hardware, software and programming aspects of information systems.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. dishearten 1, shows some of the technical skills that need to be possessed by every IT professional.Table 1 Technical SkillsFoundational SkillsOperational SkillsEssential SkillsProgrammingSystem testingDesktop Support/ HelpdeskDatabase Design / Management in operation(p) SystemsVoice / Data TelecommunicationsOperationsService HostingContinuity / Discovery supplyingMainframe / LegacySystems AnalysisSystems DesignIT Architectures / StandardSource adapted from Gallagher et. al (2010)Based on the above table, it can be sham that system analyst requires all three technical skills as to bear on competitive with todays dynamic environment, especially in the emergence of the internet and intranet technologies. This speedy change in technology forced the system analyst to fixate and focuses on the system analysis and development of a system by mastering all relevant technical skills. Foundation skills are skills to be obtained in advance by system analysts for their basic knowledge for go on career growth as well as before move on 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 waiter 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 a system analyst to perform t ask in analyzing and designing of system development.There are changes in the system analyst technical skill set delinquent to the development of technology. In addition, these skills have increasingly emphasized across all IS job. According to Lee (2002), the skills involved were desktop, operating systems, third genesis languages, database and packages as well. In contrast, Haga et. al (2007), have identified three major technical skills set that is listed in the job bank, 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. Some of these skills are crucial for them to see to it and implement the system development.Table 1 Technical skills required for system analyst listed in the job bank.Database SkillsOperating System SkillsOther unhomogeneous SkillsOracleSQL PL/SQLDatabaseDB2SQL ServerPowerbuilderSysbaseData Mining/ Data WarehousingInformixDelpiUNI X/LINUX net NTWin 95/98/2000AS400/ OS400MainframeJCLNovellSun SolarisDOS mac OSMS OfficeInternet/ Intranet DevelopmentNetworking/Telecom twenty-oneAccounting (pay-roll, etc)PeoplesoftTech Support/ Help DeskERPLotus NotesumlCrystal Reports day-dreamSource Adapted from Haga et. al (2007)5.0 CONCLUSIONIt can be cogitate that excellent system analyst only can be substantial through appropriate skills and sufficient knowledge. While developing an effective project team members, the team leader also need to have ternary skills in managing those people in the project management. According to Tan (2004), due to multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional of project management, a good manager is an individual that can toil multiple hats and work in any discipline of development to passel up any shortcomings. For system analysts, it is necessary for them to fulfil the excellent system analyst characteristic in order to achieve project goals on time and within the budget besides preventing a conflict with others in the same project.