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Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) is an exciting, active field in which analysts continually
learn new techniques and approaches to develop systems more effectively and efficiently.
However there is a core set of skills that all analysts need to know—no matter what
approach or methodology is used. All information systems projects move through the four
phases of planning, analysis, design, and implementation; all projects require analysts to
gather requirements, model the business needs, and create blueprints for how the system
should be built; and all projects require an understanding of organizational behavior concepts
like change management and team building. Today, the cost of developing modern
software is composed primarily of the cost associated with the developers themselves and
not the computers.As such, object-oriented approaches to developing information systems
hold much promise in controlling these costs.
Today, the most exciting change to systems analysis and design is the move to objectoriented
techniques, which view a system as a collection of self-contained objects that have
both data and processes. This change has been accelerated through the creation of the Unified
Modeling Language (UML). UML provides a common vocabulary of object-oriented
terms and diagramming techniques that is rich enough to model any systems development
project from analysis through implementation.
This book captures the dynamic aspects of the field by keeping students focused on
doing SAD while presenting the core set of skills that we feel every systems analyst needs to
know today and in the future. This book builds on our professional experience as systems
analysts and on our experience in teaching SAD in the classroom.
This book will be of particular interest to instructors who have students do a major
project as part of their course. Each chapter describes one part of the process, provides clear
explanations on how to do it, gives a detailed example, and then has exercises for the students
to practice. In this way, students can leave the course with experience that will form
a rich foundation for further work as a systems analyst. |