Steps in CSF Approach

Identify and discuss the steps for "critical success factors" approach? (at least 1,500 words)

Critical Success Factor
A key area where satisfactory performance is required for the organization to achieve its goals
A means of identifying the tasks and requirements needed for success
At the lowest level, CSFs become concrete requirements
A means to prioritize requirements

Critical Success Factors are the essential areas of activity that must be performed well to achieve the mission, objectives or goals for a business or project. By identifying the Critical Success Factors, it can create a common point of reference to help direct and measure the success of the business or project. As a common point of reference, Critical Success Factors help everyone in the team to know exactly what's the most important. And this helps people perform their own work in the right context and so pull together towards the same overall aims.

Executives and employees spend a fair amount of time doing things which don't really make the business more successful. When you stop to consider it, there are only generally a limited number of areas - like sales or product development - which make your business succeed. With insight and analysis you can select these things, the critical success factors. A business will succeed or fail depending on how you approach your unique set of critical success factors. Understanding these factors and paying 100% attention to them is a sure way to add power to your efforts and jump start towards a new level of performance.

Steps in Critical Success Factors Approach:

Step 1: Identify your critical success factors
Step 2: Establishing the measurements
Step 3: Setting the baseline
Step 4: Set new goals
Step 5: Closing the gap
Step 6: The Ben Franklin Rotation Program

Step 1: Identify your critical success factors

The first step is to identify the special set of CSFs. This may have already crossed peoples mind in the past, and answered it by instinct. The answers maybe correct answers, but they have to think deeper and broader. I have read from http://www.paullemberg.com/criticalfactors.html a list of factors believed to critical in an enterprise. The list below are only based on that site, this also depends on the business that you have. You may add factors to the list to describe the critical influences on a business' success.

Distribution - this could be direct sales, telesales, third- party sales, etc.	Lead generation	Customer satisfaction
Referrals	Research	Product development
Production, including quality, costing, run-rates, etc.	Sufficient investment capital, sufficient working capital	Customer support / technical support
Quality assurance	Sales process / sales life cycle	Market research
Customer education	Sales compensation	Recruiting
Personnel retention programs	Expense management	Intellectual capital development
Training	Marketing communications	Logistics
Employee equity	Executive leadership	Training and development
Corporate goals / strategic objectives	Values and beliefs	Mission/purpose
Individual accountability	Productivity & effectiveness metrics	Internal communications
Strategic and tactical planning	Executive team	Board of directors/advisors

It is a must to be specific when identifying the CSFs. Don't say "people" when the issue is recruiting, employee satisfaction, training or compensation. Don't say "marketing" or "sales" when the issue is lead generation. Test your assumptions by imagining a decline in a particular factor. You should be able to think of the pros and cons of each factors then come up with a solution for each cons.

In selecting factors, limit your list to no more than seven. Why seven? Cognitive theory suggests that human minds are efficient at juggling from five to nine separate trains of thought - the average and oft- quoted number is seven. Our plan is for you to keep your eye on the ball, you want to limit the balls to those you can keep your eye on.

Step 2: Establishing the measurements

Your next step is to establish a measurement scale for each critical factor. Some of these measures will be quantitative; some qualitative. Sales is an easy one: dollars of revenue measured against budget. Leads generated is also easy - how many? You can further break down sales by product and leads by sources, or you can stick to the consolidated numbers. Choose the measure which best reflects your understanding of how the issue affects your business.

Everything is measurable, you just need the right system. How can you measure your effectiveness in sales compensation? You could establish a compound metric which includes total compensation as a percentage of sales revenue, juxtaposed against goal attainment. Marketing communications is also difficult. One way to measure this is to subjectively assess the quality of your marcom pieces; you could also measure whether you have the total complement of marcom pieces you require. Or, measure whether prospects respond to your marcom efforts. Most likely you will combine all three to get one measure. A final example is measuring your efforts in the area of your Board of Directors / Board of Advisors. Measures include: do you have one? Are all the board seats filled? Is the board effective for your intended purpose? Measuring the Board factor would likely blend each of these.

Step 3: Setting the baseline

Once you've established a measurement structure for a factor, the next step is setting a baseline. Each factor should be set against a normalizing scale ranging from 1 to 10. Subjectively this can translate into non-performing(1), poor (2-3) , mediocre (4-5), good (6-7), great (8-9), and outstanding (10).

Step 4: Set new goals

Next, create a "gap" between where you are - your baseline - and your target for that factor. You already have a sales plan, so your gap exists between your current revenue and your budgeted revenue. You may consider your baseline a 5, and your target an 8. Implicit in this 1- 10 scale are judgements about your intentions: will reaching your budgeted revenue put you at 8 (almost great) or 10 (outstanding)? Where do you want to peg your efforts? If you've assessed your employee training at a 4 (mediocre), are you shooting for a 7 (good) or a 9 (great)? You can see from this how your measurement structure and goal system will impact how you allocate your company's resources and energy.

Step 5: Closing the gap

You now have a baseline and a target for each factor. Between them they define a factor gap - your challenge is to close it. Each gap becomes the focus of a meditation which asks the question: What will close the gap between our current level of this factor and our desired level? What possible actions will raise that measurement? You may have intuitive responses to these questions, and when appropriate, trust your gut. If need be, back that gut response with research - but only when cost effective. (Sometimes the most cost effective research is implementation, particularly in simple matters.)

Use any idea generation process you are comfortable with. Develop several possible initiatives to raise the level of that factor. With luck your ideas will work together and harmonize in terms of impact or implementation requirements. If you create competing ideas, select the best alternatives. Choose based on return on investment, required resources, scheduling conflicts, time to impact, total cost, and likelihood of success versus risk of failure. Depending on the specific factor, and the size of the gap, you may plan to close it in stages or shoot the gap all at once. You can launch one initiative at a time, or implement several initiatives in parallel. You may find my GamePlan!" methods useful in designing your gap-closing programs. Once you launch your gap-closing initiatives, continually measure your results. Report your progress to participants and stakeholders, and post it publicly.

Step 6: The Ben Franklin Rotation Program

As a young adult, Ben Franklin identified thirteen virtues he aspired to. In order to implement these virtues in his life he devised a "Plan for Self Examination", a program whereby he focused his attention, one virtue at a time, for one week at a time, rotating through the entire list four times a year. He kept a detailed log of the actions he took to develop the virtues in himself, along with his personal results. The article I've read adapted Franklin's concept and called it the Ben Franklin Rotation Program. At any point in time, you will have in place a program for improving every one of your critical factors. But in any given week, your primary attention will be on only one factor.

Using Franklin's principles, at the beginning of each week, focus your mind - or collective mind of your management team - on improving that week's factor. What new actions can you take, what new attitudes can you adopt, what new or renewed approaches are available - which will enhance your performance in that one specific area? Do that "thing" wholeheartedly for the entire week. Franklin also shows us how to track your progress in this venture. Create a score sheet detailing your Critical Success Factors. This sheet should detail each factor, its measurements, your current 1-10 rating and your target rating, along with your next action steps for improving that rating. Each factor also gets a weight, which enables you to develop an overall score. Each week, re-rate all the factors on the score sheet, and graph your progress. You may also graph the overall score. Publish the score sheet and the graphs. You can establish a reward system based on individual progress, or, using the factor weights, you can develop a bonus structure which incentivizes total progress.

This simple system will focus your attention on improving each one of your critical success factors. With carefully selected factors, you insure both rapid performance increases and balance in your company.


Critical Success Factors therefore produces results that express the needs of the enterprise clearly and (hopefully) completely. In addition it also allows us to measure success and prioritize goals in a sensible way. CSFs when used together with traditional usage scenarios, ensures that the needs of both the user and the enterprise are being met.

References:

http://www.paullemberg.com/criticalfactors.html

http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/arch/2/04/UCSFA.ppt

Systems Analyst as a Project Manager

Discuss the role of a systems analyst as a project manager.

A Systems Analyst is responsible for the operating system and associated subsystems. They provide system-level support of multi-user operating systems, hardware and software tools, including installation, configuration, maintenance, and support of these systems. In addition, they also Identify alternatives for optimizing computer resources.

Below are the list of the primary responsibilities of a Systems Analyst:
-Collect information to analyze and evaluate existing or proposed systems.
-Research, plan, install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain and upgrade operating systems.
-Research, plan, install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain and upgrade hardware and software interfaces with the operating system. Analyze and evaluate present or proposed business procedures or problems to define data processing needs.
-Prepare detailed flow charts and diagrams outlining systems capabilities and processes.
-Research and recommend hardware and software development, purchase, and use.
-Troubleshoot and resolve hardware, software, and connectivity problems, including user access and component configuration.
-Select among authorized procedures and seek assistance when guidelines are inadequate, significant deviations are proposed, or when unanticipated problems arise.
-Record and maintain hardware and software inventories, site and/or server licensing, and user access and security.
-Install, configure, and upgrade desktop hardware and peripherals to include; network cards, printers, modems, mice and add-in boards.
-Work as a team member with other technical staff, such as networking to ensure connectivity and compatibility between systems.
-Write and maintain system documentation.
-Conduct technical research on system upgrades to determine feasibility, cost, time required, and compatibility with current system.
-Maintain confidentiality with regard to the information being processed, stored or accessed by the network.
-Document system problems and resolutions for future reference.

As i was reading the aforesaid primary responsibilities of a systems analyst, I had said to myself that indeed a systems analyst should be a percent or a 'part' or had experienced every task such as in documentation team, developing team, quality assurance team, communication team, as a project manager and the likes. Because if he lacks something on those skills there is a possibility that the Systems Analyst won't be effective in doing his job. Here are additional information about a systems analyst. A systems analyst is the person (or persons) who guides through the development of an information system. In performing these tasks the analyst must always match the information system objectives with the goals of the organization.

Role of System Analyst differs from organization to organization. Most common responsibilities of System Analyst are following:

1) System analysis: It includes system's study in order to get facts about business activity. It is about getting information and determining requirements. Here the responsibility includes only requirement determination, not the design of the system.

2) System analysis and design: Here apart from the analysis work, Analyst is also responsible for the designing of the new system/application.

3) Systems analysis, design, and programming: Here Analyst is also required to perform as a programmer, where he actually writes the code to implement the design of the proposed application.

Due to the various responsibilities that a system analyst requires to handle, he has to be multifaceted person with varied skills required at various stages of the life cycle. The technical know-how of the information system development a system analyst should also have the following knowledge. [Just a review]

Business knowledge: As the analyst might have to develop any kind of a business system, he should be familiar with the general functioning of all kind of businesses.

Interpersonal skills: Such skills are required at various stages of development process for interacting with the users and extracting the requirements out of them

Problem solving skills: A system analyst should have enough problem solving skills for defining the alternate solutions to the system and also for the problems occurring at the various stages of the development process.

I have read an article by HM Winning (The Role of Business Analyst), let me quote what she had written into her article regarding being a Business Systems Analyst who has taken various technical roles.

"On the IT side, if a business got the chance to know me they were happy (I was eventually "stolen" from IT by my the client.) Otherwise, they felt that the BA role was there to add another layer of billing to their project and that there would be minimal value. Now that I'm on the business side IT can't shut me out but I am viewed with suspicion....If I didn't have the IT experience I wouldn't have been able to walk into my current role and be as comfortable as I am so quickly. It was my prior role in business that led me to IT because I thought technology had the answers to just about any business question and problem. I think individuals working in the role of BA on both the IT side and business side have a unique opportunity to define and develop the role. We have the unique ability to "step outside and look in". We are not married to any particular technology, theory or methodology. We bring with us both business and technological experience and are open to learning from one another. We need to look within and to understand, as individuals, where we can provide the most value using our unique backgrounds. We need to approach each situation in a neutral fashion. We're the diplomats and the translators and we are in one of the best positions to actively participate in the creation of new and exciting cutting edge solutions. "

- This is how broad a Systems Analyst knowledge should be. Aside from th knowledge, experience also counts!

The role of a Systems Analyst as a Project Manager is to develop requirements, budgets, and schedules for their firm’s information technology projects. They coordinate such projects from development through implementation, working with the organization’s IT workers, as well as clients, vendors, and consultants. These managers are increasingly involved in projects that upgrade the information security of an organization.

Outputs of our interview with Mr James Bautista of SAMULCO regarding this subject

A Systems ANalyst as a Project MAnager is of course the person responsible for managing the project. And he is responsible for accomplishing the project objectives within the constraints of the project. He is responsible for the outcome(success or failure) of the project.

-A Systems Analyst as a Project Manager is responsible for identifying, monitoring, and responding to risk.
**This is very important he said, because the Systems Analyst should be a risk-taker in a smart way. He let us define what is 'risk' for us but he answered his own question he answered that risk is a possibility of a loss. In every move that a Systems Analyst take, there are so many risks involve. HE said that we can never stop a risk from coming but we can prepare on how it will affect us. He emphasized the importance of this characteristic by sharing to us the murphy's law which states that 'If something can go wrong, it will, and it will hit you in the most inappropriate time.' A Systems Analyst knows and understands that murphy's law will exist forever. A good Systems Analyst should be able to identify, analyze and detect the risk that might be involve on his plans. A good Systems Analyst should also be able to take the risk.
He had also shared 4 ways to deal with risks:
Tolerate - these are risks that won't affect you so much.
Terminate
Treat - prepare or aid the risks.
Transfer

-A Systems Analyst as a Project Manager collects metrics data(such as baseline, actual values for costs, schedule, work in progress, and work completed) & reports on project progress and other project specific information to stakeholders. He is also responsible to the project stakeholders for delivering a project’s objectives within scope, schedule, cost, and quality.

**Sir James Bautista always provide this reports specially during the annual general assembly of SAMULCO.

- A Systems Analyst as a Project Manager is involved with the planning, controlling and monitoring, and also managing and directing the assigned project resources to best meet project objectives. He controls and monitors “triple constraints”—project scope, time and cost(quality also)—in managing competing project requirements. He also examines the organizational culture and determine whether project management is recognized as a valid role with accountability and authority for managing the project.

References:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/business-analyst/the-role-of-business-analyst-3357
http://leadershipchamps.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/roles-and-responsibilities-of-a-project-manager/
http://www.freetutes.com/systemanalysis/role-of-system-analyst.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_System_Analyst_an_its_responsibilities

Evidences shall follow... I dont have the copy of the pictures yet.

Radical type of change

In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts?

Change can take many forms; it can be planned or unplanned, incremental or radical , and recurrent or unprecedented. Trends in the process or sequence of changes can be observed over time. These trends can be accelerating or decelerating in time, and they can move toward equilibrium, oscillation, chaos, or randomness in the behavior of the organizational enitity being examined. Thus, the basic concept of organization change involves three ideas: difference, at different temporal moments, between states of an organizational unit or system.

Automation
-Mechanizing procedures to speed up the performance of existing tasks.
-most common form of IT-enabled change
-involves assisting employees perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively
-akin to putting a larger motor in an existing vehicle


Rationalization of Procedures
-The streamlining of existing operating procedures, eliminating obvious bottlenecks so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient
-follows quickly from early automation
[size=10] [Toshiba had to rationalize its procedures down to the level of installation manuals and software instruction and had to create standard names and formats for the data items in its global data warehouse. Without a large amount of business process rationalization, computer technology would have been useless at Toshiba (what ERPs do) ]


Business Reengineering
-The radical redesign of business processes, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks to improve cost, quality, and service and to maximize the benefits of information technology
-Involves radical rethinking
-Can change the way an organization conducts its business
-Strikes fear, its expensive, its very risky and its extremely difficult to carry out and manage
-Develop the business vision and process objective

Business Process Re-engineering Steps:
-Identify the processes to be redesigned (core and highest payback)
-Understand and measure the performance of existing processes
-Identify the opportunities for applying information technology
-Build a prototype of the new process


Paradigm Shifts
-Radical reconceptualization of the nature of the business and the nature of the organization
-akin to rethinking not only the automobile, but transportation itself
-e-business is a paradigm shift
-Deciding which business process to get right is half the challenge
-70% of time programmatic reengineering efforts fail
-Why then change? Because the rewards are high!


Each kinds of structural organizational change that are enabled by IT carries different rewards and risks. The most common form of IT-enabled organizational change or the first phase of IT adoption is automation. This has allowed employees to automate a number of time-consuming and error-prone activities and gain benefits in cycle-time, productivity, and accuracy. For example, a main contractor makes use of standalone software to keep track all Request For Information (RFI) in a project.

A deeper form of organization change or the second phase of IT adoption is rationalization of procedures. Automation frequently reveals bottlenecks in production and makes the existing arrangement of procedures and structures painfully cumbersome. Rationalization of procedures involves the streamlining of standard operating procedures, which eliminates obvious bottlenecks, so that operating procedures become more efficient. Roughly speaking, it is a process of fine tuning the first step. For example, the main contractor implements an intranet and standardizes the data in RFI across all projects in the enterprise.


A more powerful type of organizational change or the third phase of IT adoption is business process reengineering, in which business processes are analyzed, simplified, and redesigned. Reengineering involves radically rethinking the flow of work and the construction business processes with the intention to radically reduce the costs of businesses. Using IT, organizations can rethink and streamline their business processes to improve speed, service, and quality. Business process reengineering reorganizes workflows, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks. It is much more ambitious than rationalization of procedures because it requires a new vision of how the process is to be organized. For example, the main contractor sets up an extranet to online collaborate with the architect for the RFI process.

Paradigm Shift is the fourth kind of structural organizational change that are enabled by IT. It is a dramatic change in methodology or practice. It often refers to a major change in thinking and planning, which ultimately changes the way projects are implemented. For example, accessing applications and data from the Web instead of from local servers is a paradigm shift.

Not many construction industry players have moved beyond the first phase of automation. However, there are some companies have committed to a continuing investment in technological advancement and organizational change. By changing how they are organized and do business, they have achieved far greater benefits than available through automation alone. Companies like this have succeeded in staying ahead of their competitors not merely by automating but by changing their organization as well. Their strategic advantage has been their preparedness and ability to continually be innovative, and to manage the change necessary to gain substantial business benefits.

The changes in technology has impact the whole sectors and even the whole society. This is because the changes take place at system level, involving technology and market shifts. This involves the convergence of a number of trends which result in a 'paradigm shift' where the old order is replaced. For example, the invention of computer has long been replaced the usage of a typewriter, and since after the appearance of this computer, scenario of the workplace has changed significantly. We can see that all the work can be done in a short time. Computer has become a crucial tool in any office in the world. There are many examples of the technology advances such as the internet, e-business, mobile phone and many more that makes every activities becomes faster and easier. Therefore, based on my readings the most radical type of change are all of the aforementioned structural organizational change, beginning from Automation (wherein an organization will adopt what's the latest technology) proceeds Rationalization of Procedures (which eliminates bottleneck to make automation efficient) followed by Business Process Re engineering (which maximizes the benefits of IT) and lastly is the Paradigm shift (which is a transformation driven by change).

References:

http://www.softlogic.org/blog/

http://quantifactus.wcupa.edu/mis601/chapter14.ppt

http://alexandra.di.uoa.gr/courses/mis/docs/lecture6.ppt

Systems Development Models

Identify and discuss at least 3 systems development models .. discuss each phases ...

A Process Model
Software process models are universal approaches to organize projects into actions. Regularly represents a system series of activities, objects, transformations, and events that symbolize strategies for accomplishing software evolution. These models can be used in developing more precise and formalized descriptions of software life cycle activities.


The Traditional Process Models
Based on the resources that I have read there the traditional process models are the following:
1. The Classic Software Life Cycle (Waterfall Model)
• Frequently embodied as a simple prescriptive waterfall software phase model, where software evolution proceeds through an orderly sequence of transitions from one phase to the next in order (Royce 1970). Going back to the previously finished phase, as well as skipping a phase are not allowed on this model.

2. Stepwise Refinement Model
• Developing software systems through the progressive refinement and enhancement of high-level system specifications into source code components (Wirth 1971, Mili1986). However, the choice and order of which steps to choose and which refinements to apply remain unstated.

3. The Incremental Release Model
• Developing systems through incremental release requires first providing essential operating functions, then providing system users with improved and more capable versions of a system at regular intervals (Basili 1975). This model combines the classic software life cycle with iterative enhancement at the level of system development organization.

4. Military Standards Based Model
• Industrial firms often adopt some variation of the classic model as the basis for standardizing their software development practices (Royce 1970, Boehm 1976, Distaso 1980, Humphrey 1985, Scacchi 1984, Somerville 1999). Such standardization is often motivated by needs to simplify or eliminate complications that emerge during large software development or project management.

5. Build-and-fix Model
• Adopted from an earlier and simpler age of hardware product development. The product’s overall quality is never really addressed, even though some of the development issues are ultimately corrected. Also, there is no way to feed back to the design process any proactive improvement approaches.

6. Spiral Model
• An enhancement of the waterfall/rapid prototype model, with risk analysis preceding each phase of the cascade. This model has been successfully used for the internal development of large systems and is especially useful when software reuse is a goal and when specific quality objectives can be incorporated. Like the other extensions of and improvements to the waterfall model, it adds feedback to earlier stages.

7. Iterative Development Model (Evolutionary Model)
• The most realistic of the traditional software development models. Rather than being open-loop like build-and-fix or the original waterfall models, it has continuous feedback between each stage and the prior one.

Rapid prototyping and extreme programming are processes that have more recently augmented the waterfall model.

• Rapid Prototyping- long been used in the development of one-off programs, based on the familiar model of the chemical engineer’s pilot plant. More recently it has been used to prototype larger systems in two variants—the “throwaway” model and the “operational” model, which is really the incremental model. This development process produces a program that performs some essential or perhaps typical set of functions for the final product.

• Extreme Programming - recent development of the incremental model that puts the client in the driver’s seat. Each feature or feature set of the final product envisioned by the client and the development team is individually scoped for cost and development time. This development model is distinguished by its flexibility because it can work in the face of a high degree of specification ambiguity on the user’s part.

• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) technology- not a software development model. However, OOP does enhance the effectiveness of earlier software development models intended for procedural programming languages, because it allows the development of applications by slices rather than by layers. The central ideas of OOP are encapsulation and polymorphism, which dramatically reduce complexity and increase program reusability.

Each of these models uses comprehensive characterizations when describing software evolution. These models are independent of any organizational development setting, choice of programming language, software application domain, etc. To be brief, the traditional models are context-free rather than context-sensitive. But as all of these life cycle models have been in use for some time, they are referred as the traditional models, and characterizes each in turn.


Process Models in Recent Times
1. Rational Unified Process
• Characterized by a set of software best practices and the extensive application of use cases. Its most important advantage is its iterative process that allows changes in functional requirements also to be accommodated as they inevitably change during system development. Not only do external circumstances reflect changes to the design, but also the user’s understanding of system functionality becomes clearer as that functionality develops.

2. Capability Maturity Model
• An organizational maturity model, not a specific technology model. Maturity involves continuous process improvement based on evaluation of iterative execution, gathering results, and analyzing metrics. As such, it has a very broad universe of application.


Strengths/Weaknesses of the Process Models

Model	Strength	Weakness
Classic Software Lifecycle (Waterfall)	Disciplined, document-driven	Result may not satisfy client
Stepwise Refinement Model	Effective and widely applied in helping to teach individual programmers how to organize their software development work	Choice and order of which steps to choose and which refinements to apply remain unstated
Incremental Release Model	Promotes maintainability	Can degenerate build-and-fix
Military Standards Based Model	Simplify or eliminate complications that emerge during large software development or project management.	Organized software development activities according to succession of military software standards
Build-and-fix Model	Okay for small one-off programs	Useless for large programs
Spiral Model	Ultimate Waterfall Model	Large system in-house development only
Iterative Development Model	Can be used by OOP	May allow overiteration
Rapid Prototyping	Guarantees Client Satisfaction	May not work for large applications
Extreme Prototyping	Early return on software development	Has not yet been widely used
OOP Technology	Supported by IDE tools	May lack discipline
Rational Unified Process	-Well supported by tools -Supports OOP development	-Expensive to maintain - High training costs
Capability Maturity Model	-Provides process guidelines -Documentation facilitated, comprehensive, detailed	- Some firms may seek to gain certification without process redesign

References:

Anon, 199?. Software Development Methodology Today[Online] Available at: http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/0131872508/samplechapter/0131872508_ch01.pdf

John Wiley and Sons, Inc, New York, December 2001. Process Models in Software Engineering[Online](Updated October 2001) Available at: www.ics.uci.edu/~wscacchi/Papers/SE.../Process-Models-SE-Encyc.pdf

Skills and Characteristics of a Systems Analyst -- in an SA's point of view

Interview a Systems Analyst and ask what skills and characteristics must a systems analyst develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process.

On Venus Millena's ___th birthday --- December 16,2009 --- some of my classmates and I went to SAMULCO and heard the SAMULCO's MIS Supervisor --Sir James Bautista -- point of view regarding the skills and characteristics a Systems Analyst should develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process. He first had his sort of a review regarding the question "What skills and characteristics must a systems analyst develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process?".

After 5 minutes of review, the beautiful and knowledge filled discussion had started. He first defined that Systems Analysis is a plan for future purposes, scalability purposes and that a Systems Analyst is the one who solves problems or certain issues that an organization has.

Sir James Bautista had then enumerated the skills and characteristics that a systems analyst should develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process, and these are the following:(These are subjective, it differs from other Systems Analyst)

Flexible - a systems analyst should be flexible to be prepared for the rapid changing technology that we have.

Should have enough knowledge in Systems Integration / Systems Development - if you have the experience of developing system you wil have the idea of how to do it, what to do, what's there, what's not there, what's there to fix, etc. System Analysts should start with something small, he associated the carpenter who starts to build small houses, he said that SA should also start with something small, such as programming small-scales. He also imparted to us his thought that a Systems Analyst should have a 'part' or experience of every task such as in documentation team, developing team, quality assurance team, communication team and the likes. Because if he lacks something on those skills there is a possibility that the Systems Analyst won't be effective in doing his job.

Should have both holistic and systematic approach - a holistic approach looks at the whole picture. The totality of something is much greater than the sum of its component parts and they cannot be understood by the isolated examination of their parts. While a systematic approach is more of a philosophy than a technique. It's the way one approaches problems in life, as opposed to the specific solutions that exist. Given a certain problem, one has many choices as to how to solve it. However, approaching the problem haphazardly, may or may not solve the problem. But, approaching the problem with the analytical approach, one is more likely to find the solution to the problem. How one can approach the problem analytically, or systematically, depends on how one views the problem. This is what is often called Analysis, and is really the same thing as breaking the problem down, sometimes referred to as "Divide and Conquer." By breaking down a problem, one can see the various aspects of the problem, and how they inter-relate, and by isolating the causative factors in the problem, one can find the solution to the problem. A Systematic Approach can be used in many areas, such as, systems analysis, software development, (which are part of the software development life cycle), internet site design, web optimization, hosting, business management and consulting, sales, and training. He emphasized that both approaches or views should be a character of a Systems Analyst.

Should have a skill on Calculating Risks - this is very important he said, because the Systems Analyst should be a risk-taker in a smart way. He let us define what is 'risk' for us but he answered his own question he answered that risk is a possibility of a loss. In every move that a Systems Analyst take, there are so many risks involve. HE said that we can never stop a risk from coming but we can prepare on how it will affect us. He emphasized the importance of this characteristic by sharing to us the murphy's law which states that 'If something can go wrong, it will, and it will hit you in the most inappropriate time.' A Systems Analyst knows and understands that murphy's law will exist forever. A good Systems Analyst should be able to identify, analyze and detect the risk that might be involve on his plans. A good Systems Analyst should also be able to take the risk.
** He had also shared 4 ways to deal with risks:
Tolerate - these are risks that won't affect you so much.
Terminate
Treat - prepare or aid the risks.
Transfer

Should be a people person/ Good Communication Skills -A good systems analyst should be able to communicate to other people.

Should have high Adversity Quotient (A.Q.) - Sir James mentioned that Intelligent Quotient and Emotional Quotient will never be used in Systems Planning, because the Adversity Quotient is what matters. Adversity Quotient test the unconscious pattern of how people respond to adversity/problems, and show how to increase it and, thereby, help individuals become valuable at work.

These skills can not be easily learned or acquired in a one sitting, it is built through experience. Therefore, systems analyst are not born they are made.

References:
http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/501-550/article517_body.html
http://www.systematicapproach.com/

Expedite the implementation of the IS plan

You were invited by the university president to prepare an IS plan for the university, discuss what are the steps in order to expedite the implementation of the IS plan.

Preparing an Information Systems Plan for the university is a very challenging task because a lot of things are to be considered when we talk of Information System Planning. Planning for information systems, as for any other system, begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. Such planning for information systems is much like strategic planning in management. Objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. The plan must be specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary. There was an article which contains an argument that a strategic capability architecture - a flexible and continuously improving infrastructure of organizational capabilities - is the primary basis for a company's sustainable competitive advantage. It has emphasized the need for continuously updating and improving the strategic capabilities architecture.

Some characteristics of strategic IS planning are:

• Main task: strategic/competitive advantage, linkage to business strategy.
• Key objective: pursuing opportunities, integrating IS and business strategies
• Direction from: executives/senior management and users, coalition of users/management and information systems.
• Main approach: entrepreneurial (user innovation), multiple (bottom-up development, top down analysis, etc.) at the same time.

Implementing the proposed Information Systems Plan is ,in my own perspective, the second toughest thing to do in Information Systems Planning. All the hard works starting from the identification of needs, then formalizing the objectives, priorities, and authorization for the information systems project, and all the necessary things needed to be done in planning information systems will not be appreciated if the said information systems plan will not be properly implemented or worst, will never be implemented because of some user resistance. Thus, in an information systems planning, steps for implementing the proposed information systems plan should be included -- which is in fact already the situation but I just wanted to emphasize why it should be included.hehe

One of the important factors in implementing the Information Systems Plan is that it should be useful so that there will be no user resistance and the organization itself will be satisfied and be convinced to implement the proposed information systems plan. Let me present to you a table of the characteristics of a Quality ISP, a quality ISP must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it is useful. These five are presented in the table that follows.

Characteristic	Description
Timely	The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned.
Useable	The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started.
Maintainable	The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.
Quality	While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly.
Reproducible	The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.

Whenever a proposal for the development of an ISP is created it must be assessed against these five characteristics. If any fail or not addressed in an optimum way, the entire set of funds for the development of an ISP is risked.

In my own reflection, to expedite the implementation of the proposed Information Systems Plan, it should be totally supported by all -- 'all' means including the students, the board of directors, the faculty and everyone who will be affected by this plan. But how can it be supported by the students if the students are not informed about it? Or the information disseminated to the students are not enough? Which might make the students misunderstood the ISP, in result they will resist from implementing it. Hence, informing the students or having a proper conference regarding this matter would be very helpful for the students to be enlightened and even have their questions answered. This also should be done for other concerns not only for the students, I have just specified the students as an instance since I am a student, hehe. In addition, the budget should also be properly allocated. We all know that money can speed up things, in one way or another. Lastly, the proposed Information Systems Plan should be very convincing and properly planned so that it will deserve a nod to everyone.

References:

http://viu.eng.rpi.edu/publications/strpaper.pdf

http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262

Characteristics of a Systems Analyst

Since we are talking about characteristics here, I would like to start this post with a quote from Samuel Johnson (an English author) that says: “Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind .”

Systems Analysis?

Systems Analysis is a process of understanding in detail what a system should accomplish. It is about understanding the goals and strategies of the business and defining the information requirements that support those goals and strategies. Most importantly, systems analysis is not about programming.

Now, what is the key role of a Systems Analyst?

A Systems Analyst serves as a business professional who uses analysis and design techniques to solve business problems using information technology. As we all know information technology is the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware, which deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information. The typical problems a systems analyst solves are:

Customers want to order product anytime of the day.

Suppliers want to minimize inventory holding costs.

Marketing wants to know customer needs better.

Management want to analyze financial information more efficiently.

Systems Analyst Required Skills

Understanding the goals and strategies of a business and defining the information requirements that support those goals and strategies are a mighty hard task done by a Systems Analyst. This task requires specific skills and these are: Technical Knowledge, Business Knowledge and People Knowledge.

Technical Knowledge and Skills

A Systems Analyst should have technical knowledge and skills in both tools and techniques. When we say technical knowledge and skills in tools, he/she should be acquainted or has knowledge with computers / peripheral devices (hardware) ,communication networks and connectivity, database and database management systems (DBMS), programming languages (for example, VB.NET or Java), operating systems and utilities, software productivity packages, integrated development environments (IDEs) for programming languages, and CASE tools, testing, documentation support, reverse engineering, configuration management. On the other hand, when we say technical knowledge and skills in techniques, he/she should be acquainted or has knowledge with project planning, systems analysis, systems design, database design, network design, construction, implementation, and systems support.

Business Knowledge and Skills

A Systems Analyst’ primary task is to solve business problems, thus he/she should know the business functions performed by the organization. Some of these are:

-Strategies, plans, traditions, and values of the organization

-Organizational structure

-Organization management techniques

-Functional work processes

People Knowledge and Skills

Systems analysts need to understand how people think, learn, react to change, communicate, and work (in a variety of jobs and levels). Interpersonal and communication skills are crucial in obtaining information, motivating people, getting cooperation, understanding the complexity and workings of an organization in order to provide necessary support.

Characteristics of a good Systems Analyst

Allow me to relate this element to my very first sentence of this post, which is one of the quotations of Samuel Johnson. In his quote, he pointed out that curiosity is a characteristic to have a vigorous mind. Being a Systems Analyst, in my point of view, needs a vigorous mind hence I would say that a Systems Analyst have to be curious or inquisitive. Remember that a Systems Analyst needs to obtain the organizations’ goals and objective and define the information requirement, in defining the information requirements one needs to be inquisitive, that proves the importance of the said characteristic on being a Systems Analyst. However, let me show you Yahoo! Answer’s result on the question ‘Explain five characteristic of a good system analyst?’:

1. The system analyst must be able to communicate in writing and orally.

2. The analyst must easily get along with people.

3. The analyst must be a good listener and be able to react to what people say.

4. The analyst must be knowledgeable of technology. The analyst is not expected to know the intricacies of programming, but a decent general knowledge of concepts and terms are essential.

5. The analyst must be knowledgeable of business. The analyst is not expected to be an expert in business but a decent understanding of the client's world is required.

After I have read the aforementioned answers, I was actually a bit bewildered with the terminology ‘skills’ and ‘characteristics’ because it seems that the required skills of a Systems Analyst was also brought up in the characteristics of a Systems Analyst. For that reason, I decided to consult Encarta and define the two terminologies. Below are the results:

Skills – ability to do something well.

Characteristics – a feature or quality that makes something or somebody recognizable.

After defining the two terminologies, I now understand why some of the mentioned skills are also brought up in the characteristics. Because the skills of a System Analyst are indeed a part of characteristics or the feature that a Systems Analyst should obtain.

Therefore, I have come up with my list of the characteristics of a System Analyst based on my understanding on Chapter 1 Sharing, a Systems Analyst should be/have:

Technical Knowledge and Skills

Business Knowledge and Skills

People Knowledge and Skills

Inquisitive

Critical/Logical Thinker

Able to adjust to rapidly changing technology

Patient

Perseverance

Methodical

Broad-minded

I could have written more but I think it will be redundant because the first three characteristics actually sums up the characteristics of a Systems Analyst. Many computer systems analysts have a bachelor's degree in computer science, information science, or management information systems. Some analysts get college degrees in other subjects. Then, they take computer classes and get computer experience. Some analysts also have a master's degree in business. This helps them to understand the types of computers that businesses need. Analysts need to understand computers, math, and planning. They need to know math so that they can solve problems and figure out how much computer power different systems would use. Logical thinking skills are also important. Analysts need good speaking and writing skills, too, so that they can explain their systems and give good instructions.

Characteristics I have as a good system analyst

I am currently still studying the required skills of a System Analyst. The good thing though is that while I am still learning the three knowledge and skills, in the process my patience, perseverance, curiosity, flexibility, and critical thinking are also being honed. Through the help of project proposals which are checked meticulously and through giving us other brain and attitude honing projects.

References:

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/characteristics/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080725042042AA2MqMh

http://www.bls.gov/K12/computers06.htm

10 years from now

Think about yourself worthy to be called as IT professional, how do you see yourself 10 years from now, what are your strategies to get there?

I have to finish my studies in Bachelor of Science in Information Technology by the year 2011. Four years ago when I found out that Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering is not offered here in our university -- University of Southeastern Philippines-- and when I decided to just enroll as a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology student, I actually planned to finish my studies in Bachor of Science in Information Technology by the year 2010. But unfortunately because of my negligence, that foresaid plan failed, hence I planned to fail.

Anyway, after I graduate, I would like to create a system suited to help a treasurers' tasks in an organization. Specifically in producing reports such as: Cash Position Report, Summary of Collections, Summary of Disbursements, Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, Monthly Spread and the likes. I wanted to create this kind of system because my Aunt is a treasurer in a small developing organization and she sometimes asks me to lend a hand in recording some of the transactions and sometimes produce a report out of it (of course, she'll check it first if I have done it correctly.hehe). I find it bothersome to do some of the encoding whenever the thought that it could actually be automated crosses my mind, especially typing names repetitively (who are members of the organization) and the balancing part. So I promised to myself that I will create a system that caters to that kind of service, or a system that will actually automate all the reports that my Aunt needs to produce as a treasurer. In creating this kind of system I could actually be able to review and put into application what I have studied for five years. If ever I will be successful in creating this system it will eventually boost my confidence and I will be convinced that I am worthy to be called an IT professional or an IT Specialist, in a nutshell the accomplishment of this system will be my very first achievement as an IT Professional.

I plan to take my masteral degree, but until now I am not sure if it will be right after I graduate or will it be after I finish the system. But I would really like to take it only after I finish the system, what is boggling me is the thought that I would be so captivated in creating systems and as a result I will keep on postponing on taking my masteral degree. Oh, just now, after stating the previous sentences I realized that I should take my masteral degree right after i graduate (hehe) and maybe start creating the system (the paperworks to start with) during my free time in my masterals’. In that way, I could still apply in my system what I will learn during the masteral and I could spend my free time productively and not on senseless matters.

Those are the first two things that I wanted to fulfill after I graduate as a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology student. Hopefully I could achieve those by the year 2013, that is two years after graduating Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. However, if I will not be fascinated and engrossed with creating systems, if the 'i-want-more' attitude of mine will occur and my interest in taking up Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering is still alive, then I will surely enroll as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering student in a university who is known to produce great Computer Engineers! In addition, I will make sure that while I am studying BSComEng I will have a part-time online job -- a job that is somehow related and fitted to a person who had finished her Masteral Degree in IT. It could be an online job under the leading Internet search engine, offering targeted search results from billions of Web pages, no less than the Google Inc. Eventually, my position and/or my income will buildup. Within five years or less, I will be able to finish BSComEng, currently there is no licensure examination for Computer Engineers but if ever there will be on the years to come I will surely take that licensure examination. So by the year 2019, I will be a regular and one of the most treasured employee of Google Inc.

Before this post ends, I would just like to share what Tom Landry (an American football player and coach, legendary for his successes as the coach of the Dallas Cowboys and ranked as one of the greatest and most innovative coaches in NFL history) said: "Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan."

References:

http://finance.aol.com/company/google-inc/goog/nas/company-description

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Landry

ISNA Submitted

What a relief! We have submitted our ISNA yesterday. Sir RSG gave our ISNA a grade of 1.75. We are so happy that at last..after those sleepless nights... we have finally finished and submitted our ISNA.

Thank you groupmates namely, Edsa Fe Esio and Emilio Jopia Jr. for the cooperation and understanding. Thanks to our family and friends who financially and emotionally supported us. Thank you Sir RSG for appreciating our effort. Lastly, I thank HIM, for everything. :)

ISNA First Consultation

We had our first ever consultation on our Information Systems Needs Assessment.

My feeling was so unexplainable... I haven't eaten my breakfast.. I was confused on what I felt..

Was I nervous because of the consultation? or I was just trembling because I skip my breakfast?

Anyway, I had surpassed the feeling.. *sigh of relief*

Our ISNA's temporary grade is 2.5, but it will increase if we will do the revision that our professor suggested. We immediately revised it because that was just a minor revision, just for spacing, justifying and omitting a paragraph..And yeah, a comma for the denomination.

We ringbound the ISNA and we are ready to pass it, after we finish our assignments. :)

SWOT and STEEP Documentation

Our group agreed to meet today (oh well, yesterday) for us to continue our documentation for our major paper. Supposedly, we had to meet 2:00 pm at McDonalds Bajada but due to some circumstances we had started our documentation 6:30 pm. We divided the task, the SWOT analysis was assigned to Edsa and Emilio, and the STEEP analysis was assigned to Karen. The first 3 hours of our documentation was going well but the next hours were strenuous.

It was already 12:00 am when we left at McDonald.

Final Interview on ANFLOCOR

On this day, we had our interview at ANFLOCOR. We arrived there at 12:30 pm and we had to wait 30 minutes because office time is 1:00 pm.

We had so many questions that we asked from Mr. Giovanni Pimentel, the IT-Senior Manager of ANFLOCOR. The questions were more about on STEEP and SWOT analysis. We asked him about the Sociological, Technological, Economical, Environmental, and Political factors that are external to the organization. Then, we asked him about the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of their organization. We also asked him about the structure of their company and a brief history of there IS.

We ended our interview at 2:30 pm.

Follow-up interview approved,

During the last few days we have been checking our email account but there is still no reply from Sir Giovanni. So we decided to call them. Fortunately, we were able to talked to Sir Giovanni. We first asked for an apology (thank God! He understands.). Finally, we will have our interview this Friday, September 25, 2009 at 1:00 pm.