Opinion on Business Systems Analysts

[onebigscot]

Hello,

Currently, I am a Reporting Analyst in the accounting department for a large social service organization in Northern California.

Soon I will be graduating with a BSIT degree, specializing in Business Systems Analysis. I was curious to see what everyone thinks of having a BSA on their development team?

Thanks!

 

[sleipnir214]

I dunno. What does a business system analyst do? What did you have to learn to get your degree?

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!

 

[onebigscot]

Hey Sleipnir,

Basically, a Systems Analyst acts as a translator between users and programmers, two groups who tend not to understand what the other needs (or is saying).

A SA researches the job request, interviewing employees and studying how the job used to be done. They compile this information into a report for how the new job should funtion. The programmers take this analysis and do their magic. When that portion of the job is complete, the SA's help with training, testing and maintenence.

Some of the classes I have taken include:
Business Ethics
Business Systems Development
Project Planning
Intro to Operating Systems
Database Management Systems
Visual Basic
and Systems Analysis Tools and Methodologies.

Nothing in depth (except for the last classes). The idea is not to make me a programmer, but familiarize myself with programming concepts along with business concepts. I have seen where some programmers have gone into SA, but it seems like it is a step down in the payscale...with programmers being on top. There is a lot of communication involved and the position is expected to be people (end-user) intensive.

What do you think about this?

 

[MHPGuy]

I've gotta ask... what kind of payscale are you looking at?

Michael Phipps
Technical Business Analyst
Mercy Health Plans

 

[dilettante]

Not where I live.

These guys have been around forever. Usually they're known by the shorter title "Systems Analyst" and more often recently "Information Technology Analysts."

Often they have no programming background at all, but typically they are paid substantially better.

In many cases they seem to be programmers who were never very good, but had an "in" someplace and got promoted above their level of incompetance. In other areas this seems to be viewed as some "natural career path" even though there was no new education involved in getting this promotion.

I expect things from such people I never get: useful specifications, system documentation that actually is useful to somebody, an insight into client needs. What I do get is: process, process, process, paper, paper, paper, demands, demands, demands (usually to reseach the running system and provide things that should have been in their system documents).

They are the lilies of the field: they do not toil, nor do they spin.

More recently I find I must contend with TWO layers of these folk: one the IT Analyst, the other a "Business Analyst." As Job might ask: what next?

It doesn't have to be like this. I have known exceptional examples who have made a highly positive impact.

Lately things have gotten worse however. In most cases these people have no formal data processing or computing eduation (usually a generic BS), and are former HR types and secretaries who took a class at a community college in "computer analysis stuff." That seems to have consisted of how to use Excel, PowerPoint, and MS Project to a primitive degree. If people think the programming ranks are grim, take a look at the analysts.

 

[BJCooperIT]

In my experience a Business Systems Analyst's services are mostly required for new project analysis. Many employers prefer to get a consultant in for the analysis phase and then they turn them loose after development is underway and the specs are written.

As a developer I like having an analyst on the team as long as they take the time to understand the nature of the tools we use. An analyst who only is familiar with VB or MSAccess has real trouble writing specifications for Oracle Forms. I appreciate that the analyst buffers me from the users as long as they write detailed requirements so that I don't have to re-interview users after the analyst goes out the door.

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