The business analyst role focuses on the business issues surrounding the system. This person helps to identify the business value that the system will create, develops ideas for improving the business processes, and helps design new business processes and policies. The business analyst will have business training and experience, plus knowledge of analysis and design. The requirements analyst role focuses on eliciting the requirements from the stakeholders associated with the new system. As more organizations recognize the critical role that complete and accurate requirements play in the ultimate success of the system, this specialty has gradually evolved. Requirements analysts understand the business well, are excellent communicators, and are highly skilled in an array of requirements elicitation techniques (discussed in Chapter 3). The infrastructure analyst role focuses on technical issues surrounding the ways the system will interact with the organization’s technical infrastructure (hardware, software, networks, and databases). This person ensures that the new information system conforms to organizational standards and helps to identify infrastructure changes that will be needed to support the system. The infrastructure analyst will have significant training and experience in networking, database administration, and various hardware and software products. Over time, an experienced infrastructure analyst may assume the role of software architect, who takes a holistic view of the organization’s entire IT environment and guides application design decisions within that context. The change management analyst role focuses on the people and management issues surrounding the system installation. This person ensures that adequate documentation and support are available to users, provides user training on the new system, and develops strategies to overcome resistance to change. The change management analyst will have significant training and experience in organizational behavior and specific expertise in change management. The project manager role ensures that the project is completed on time and within budget and that the system delivers the expected value to the organization. The project manager is often a seasoned systems analyst who, through training and experience, has acquired specialized project management knowledge and skills. More will be said about the project manager in the next chapter. The roles and the names used to describe them may vary from organization to organization. In addition, there is no single typical career path through these professional roles. Some people may enter the field as a more technically-oriented programmer/analyst. Others may enter as a business-oriented functional specialist with an interest in applying IT to solve business problems. As shown in Figure 1-1, those who are interested in the broad field of information systems development may follow a variety of paths during their career.
THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
In many ways, building an information system is similar to building a house. First, the owner describes the vision for the house to the developer. Second, this idea is transformed into sketches and drawings that are shown to the owner and refined (often, through several drawings, each improving on the other) until the owner agrees that the pictures depict what he or she wants. Third, a set of detailed blueprints is developed that presents much more specific information about the house