Week 11: Clear

This week are assigned topic was on Information Systems Development. Prior to this topic I was not familiar with the extremely elaborate developing process. I also had no clue exactly what a system analyst's job really was. 

A system analyst also called a systems "architect" has a very important part in completing a successful project. The main job of the analyst is to be the guardian of the company. To watch over the entire systems process from beginning to end, to troubleshoot technology problems and to make sure people stay on schedule. Without the analyst overseeing the project, there are many things that could go wrong and the project would be more likely to fail. 

Another topic I learned about while watching the lectures was the SDLC, system development life cycle. The SDLC is the collection of phases that system development activities are often grouped in. These groupings are labeled as followed; planning, analysis, design, implementation and operation.

• Planning- In this phase, you should review project requests and prioritize them, allocate resources and form a team for the project.
• Analysis- In this phase, you should conduct primary investigation, study the current system, determine user requirement and recommend a solution to them.
• Design- In this phase, you should acquire hardware and software and develop the details of the system.
• Implementation- In this phase, you should develop the programs, install and test the new system, and finally train the users. Don't forget to convert to the new system.
• Operation, Support & Security- In this phase, you should perform maintenance, assess the system performance, and asses the system security.

Without a great systems analyst and the use of the SDLC system a project would become chaotic and be a complete failure. The video below talks about the job of a systems analyst, how long they work and what their job requires on a day to day basis. It helped me realize how easy it is for one thing to go wrong in a project and how much pressure is on a analyst.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A0d4NVtWx4&feature=related