A Limited Profile of a Systems Analyst [Abstract]

The systems analyst must have certain skills and characteristics to be successful in an organization. Those skills include technical, analytical, management, and interpersonal skills. While there are differences in the labels used by different people to identify the skills required of a systems analyst these four broad categories seem to encompass the qualities and skills employers desire in a systems analyst.

This paper not only discusses the skill requirements but also covers several difficulties that systems analysts must be able to recognize and deal with to be successful. The list of difficulties can be quite long but I will focus on communications, ethics, and stress. Communications problems occur because analysts and users are focused on different elements of the project. Users want the “what and when” and analysts are focused on the “how”. Issues related to ethics arise out of the organizations policies or the analysts own personal ethical standards. Stress results from having to deal with the two previous issues and many other factors including long work hours, and management’s lack of understanding of the role of IS among other things.

Finally, this paper discusses the impact of decisions of the analyst on personnel. There are many success stories that can be told about how a successful project has a positive impact on the organization and its personnel but there are also spectacular failures. As is shown in this paper it is essential to have the support of management and users of the systems for the analyst to be successful.

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