1 SYS366 Week 1 - Lecture 2 How Businesses Work. 2 Today How Businesses Work What is a System Types of Systems The Role of the Systems Analyst The Programmer/Analyst

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SYS366

Week 1 - Lecture 2How Businesses Work

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Today How Businesses Work What is a System Types of Systems The Role of the Systems Analyst The Programmer/Analyst

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How Businesses Work Types of Businesses:

Retail Financial Insurance Manufacturing etc

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How Businesses Work Business Areas

The organizational areas needed to support a business.

These can to equate to departments. An organizational structure made up

of executives, middle management, supervisory management and staff.

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How Businesses Work Organizational Roles to Support

the Business: Operational staff Management

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Organizational Roles Operational

people involved in the day to day processing of transactions

e.g. Bank Tellers; Mutual Fund Sales People; Sales Associate; clerks

attention span: right now, up to the end of the day

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Organizational Roles Management

Lower Management (Supervisors) make organizational and day to day decisions attention span: today, tomorrow

Middle Management (someone to blame) make tactical and day to day decisions have the most stress attention span: this week, this month

Executives (Top Management) make strategic and periodic decisions attention span: this month, this year or more

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How Businesses Work The personnel in the organizational

roles for each business area are the individuals who provide the information needed to understand what is required for development of automated computer systems.

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What is a system? A combination of hardware and software

that meets the needs of a business. A collection of inter-related components

that collect, process, store and provide as output the information needed to complete business tasks and to make business decisions.

A shared understanding of how things work.

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Types of systems? Operational (Transaction

Processing) Systems Take care of the day-to-day

processing of the business Information about the transactions

that affect the organization are captured and recorded

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Types of systems? Management Information Systems

Uses operational systems’ information to give management the information needed to make management decisions

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Types of systems? Executive Information Systems

Provide information to executives on how their company is doing relative to the industry

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Types of systems? Decision Support Systems

Systems that allow a user to explore the impact of available options or decisions

‘What if’ analysis

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Types of systems? Expert Systems

Simulate human reasoning and decision-making.

Artificial Intelligence.

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Types of systems? Office Systems

Productivity tools available to employees on a desk top.

Electronic Mail, Word Processing, Database Management, Spreadsheets, Desktop Publishing, Presentation Graphics and so on.

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Information Systems

IS PlanningLevel

Type of planning Typical IS applications

Organizational Unit

Responsible for Developing

Strategic Strategies in support of organizational long-term objectives

Market and sales analysis, Product planning, Performance evaluation

Senior Management/ Executives

Tactical Policies in support of short-term goals and resource allocation

Budget analysis, Salary forecasting, Inventory scheduling, Customer service

Middle Management

Operational Day-to-day staff activities and production support

Payroll, Invoicing, Purchasing, Accounting

Supervisors; Operational

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Systems Analyst A business professional involved in

the development of a computerized solution to a business problem

Requires extensive technical, business and people knowledge, communication, business and technical skills

Is fundamentally curious to explore how things are done with a desire to make them work better

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Systems Analyst Focuses on understanding the

business problem Focuses on the approach to be

taken to solve the business problem

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Systems Analyst

“…must thoroughly understand the problems the system will solve”

you might be the only person who understands the whole problembecause

you might be the only person who everyone talks to

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Problem Solving Approach

1. Research and understand the problem

2. Verify that the benefits of solving the problem outweigh the costs

3. Develop a set of possible solutions (alternatives)

4. Decide which solution is best and make a recommendation

5. Define the details of the chosen solution

6. Implement the solution

7. Monitor to make sure that you obtain the desired results

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Systems Analyst Skills Technical Knowledge and Skills Business Knowledge and Skills People Knowledge and Skills Integrity & Ethics

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Systems Analyst Skills Technical Knowledge and Skills

Computers and how they work Devices that interact with computers, including

input devices, storage devices, and output devices Communications networks that connect computers Databases and database management systems Programming languages Operating systems and utilities Tools and techniques for developing systems

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Tools and techniques for developing systems Tools are software products that help develop

analysis or design specifications and completed system components

Microsoft Access, PowerBuilder for developing systems

Integrated development environments (IDE’s) for specific programming languages (Java, C++)

CASE tools to store information about system specifications

Program code generators, testing tools, project management tools (to name a few)

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Tools and techniques for developing systems

Techniques are used to complete specific system development activities

Project planning techniques Systems analysis techniques Systems design techniques System construction and implementation

techniques System support techniques

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Systems Analyst Skills Business Knowledge and Skills

What the specific organization does What makes it successful What its strategies and plans are What its traditions and values are

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Systems Analyst Skills People Knowledge and Skills

How people think How people learn How people react to change How people communicate How people work (in a variety of jobs

and levels) Must be able to listen well

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Typical Job Titles for Analysts Programmer/analyst Business systems analyst System liaison End-user analyst Business consultant Business systems consultant Systems consultant System support analyst System designer Software engineer System architect

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The Programmer/Analyst job availability & descriptions check out Workopolis and search

forKeywords: programmer/analyst

Documents

1 SYS366 Week 1 - Lecture 2 How Businesses Work. 2 Today How Businesses Work What is a System Types of Systems The Role of the Systems Analyst The Programmer/Analyst