Systems analyst

A systems analyst is responsible for researching, planning, coordinating and recommending software and system choices to meet an organization's business requirements.
The systems analyst plays a vital role in the systems development process. A successful systems analyst must acquire four skills: analytical, technical, managerial, and interpersonal.
Analytical skills enable systems analysts to understand the organization and its functions, which helps him/her to identify opportunities and to analyze and solve problems.
Technical skills help systems analysts understand the potential and the limitations of information technology. The systems analyst must be able to work with various programming languages, operating systems, and computer hardware platforms.
Management skills help systems analysts manage projects, resources, risk, and change.
Interpersonal skills help systems analysts work with end users as well as with other analysts, programmers, and other systems professionals.

Systems analysts may act as liaisons between vendors and the organization they represent. They may be responsible for developing cost analyses, design considerations, and implementation time-lines. They may also be responsible for feasibility studies of a computer system before making recommendations to senior management.

Basically a systems analyst performs the following tasks:

• Interact with the customers to know their requirements
• Interact with designers to convey the possible interface of the software
• Interact/guide the coders/developers to keep track of system development
• Perform system testing with sample/live data with the help of testers
• Implement the new system

Duties and Responsibilities

• 1. Design and develop applications for specified client departments. Act as the key technical liaison between computer systems users, vendors, and IS. Provide project management and support for computerized departmental systems and related projects.

• 2. Act as primary contact for all application systems problems. Analyze, debug, test, and document problems or recommend solutions that involve new applications. Follow up on problem resolution and inform clients of status. Test and debug all systems before moving to the live directory.

• 3. Monitor user proficiency in applications and provide on-going training. Ensure that all system updates are communicated to users. Update online scripts to reflect any resulting changes in systems, departmental procedures, or policies.

• 4. Coordinate application enhancements to existing computer systems, including analysis, design specifications, documentation, and liaison between vendors and clients.

• 5. Serve as information resource for client users, including determination of most appropriate data source, providing or arranging application-based report writing, or educating users to retrieve the information themselves.

• 6. May serve as project coordinator for in-house development or implementation of vendor-based automated systems.

Qualifications

Employers generally seek college graduates who have a degree in computer science, information science, information systems, or data processing. Regardless of college major, employers look for people who are familiar with programming languages. Courses in computer concepts, systems analysis, computer programming, and database management systems offer good preparation for a job in this field. Since technology continues to rapidly advance and evolve, it is important for systems analysts to continue their education and study. Often employers will offer additional training on systems and software. You can also find training seminars and classes given by professional computing societies

Average Salaries

The middle half of all computer hardware engineers earned between $56,490 and $91,730 per year in 2002. The lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than $46,190. The highest-paid 10 percent earned more than $114,880.

External links

• "Computer Systems Analysts" from the US Department of Labor BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook