The topic about the chapter 1 is the system analyst as a project manager. After the topic was delivered, I was able to describe the analyst’s role in a system development project and describe the various types of systems an analyst might work on. I was also learned the concept of an information system, the key role of system analyst in business and the important skills that the analyst must have mush as technical knowledge, good communication to people, and business oriented.

The first subtopic of charter 1 is about of what is an information system. According what is presented, an information system is a collection of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and then provide an output for the information needed to complete a business task. So therefore, information system will be the output provider for the good of the business from the processed data which was collected and stored from an information system. The following are the major types of an information system that the system analyst might work on the future:

· Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – it involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes; principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. In short, it is composed of methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way.

· Supply Chain Management (SCM) – it includes product development, product acquisition, manufacturing, and inventory management.

· Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) includes intranet application to maximize employee access to financial data for planning and control.

· Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) – it is the collection of technologies and methods used to define how products are to be manufactured. It is also designed to assist in reducing operational overheads and supporting operational efficiencies in discrete, process, and mixed-mode manufacturing environments.

· Collaboration Support System (CSS) includes integrates order-processing and fulfillment system with SCM, support customer orders (mail, phone, and web).

· Knowledge Management (KM) - comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizations as processes or practices.

The Examples of information system are course registration system, online order system, online banking system and other system that has collect, process, and store activity. Information system can be also other system that uses the Input, Process, Output (IPU) system or deals with inputs, customer support system which includes hardware, software and people, and then produce an output. But here in University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP), examples of an information system are the Student Record Management System (SRMS) for the students and the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) for the employee and faculty of the university, there was also systems for finance and accounting. In the SRMS, it is consist of registrar and database, the registrar is the one who collect, process and store in database the data about the student, then database will provide the output as a the certificate of registration, transcript of records and etc.

But then, why an information system is important for a system analyst? It is because of the following:

· It supports business functions; just like in the SRMS it makes the enrolment easier and more comfortable. It makes the some of the business transactions become faster, less hustle and easy to be done.

· It makes business more competitive, USEP’s SRMS makes the university compete from the other university in terms of what the student experience in enrolment or getting his/her records.

· It enhance productivity and profits, because of SRMS the enrolment process of USEP helps more efficient that can be able to serve the student in a minimum time that means more student will be served at the end of the day.

The second subtopic of the chapter 1 is about on system analysis and system analyst, it tackles of what is system analysis, what the role of system analyst and what is system analyst are doing about. So what is system analysis? It understands the goals and strategies of the business that can be able to help for the success of the business, defining the information requirements that support those goals and strategies this helps to determine on what are the things needed in strategy to accomplish the business goal. Then, what is the system analyst? The system analyst basically is the business problem solver. The system analyst is also the one who investigate, analyzes, design, develop, installs, evaluate, and maintains a company’s information systems. Therefore, a system analyst is a business professional who uses analysis and design techniques to solve business problems using information technology. A system analyst is not all about analyzing the system instead system analyst also do the following:

· Investigation on what is the problem and what are the solutions of the problem.

· Analysis on what is the best and suitable solution of the problem, understanding in details on what a system should accomplish.

· Design and develop of the system that may answer the needs of user and the affected parties, or the application of the solution based on the investigation results. Also specifying in details how components of an information system should be physically implemented.

· Installation of the solution, or deploying the system to the affected parties.

· Evaluation either the solution answer the problem, or not. It is based on the response of the users of the system deployed.

· Maintains the system to support the further need of the user.

The next topic was about the strategic planning. The system analyst must accomplish strategic plans to solve the business problem. The strategic planning is a process during which executives try to answer such question:

· Where the business is now? Or what is the current state of the business, is it productive? These questions determine the strength and weakness of the business. It also helps to develop their strength and compliment their weakness.

· Where they want the business to be? Or what they wanted their business will be after five or ten years? These questions set a goal for the business, and sets business to improve by motivating those goals.

· What they have to do to get there? Or what are the steps they will do to achieve their goals? These questions determine the things that the business should do to reach their goals.

Therefore, strategic planning determines the starting, and finishing points of the business. It also determines the needs and procedure undergo by the business to become better and be able to reach the finishing point.

But what is the role of an analyst in strategic planning? The role of analyst is to develop the information system that supports strategic planning. As stated earlier that the system analyst is the problem solver of the business, this means that the key of strategic plan on a certain business to become successful is depending to a system analyst. System analyst needs to develop an application plan which is a description of the integrated information systems that the organization needs to carry out its business function. This application architecture plan will be the pattern on what must do in accomplishing strategic plans. System analyst also needs to develop a technology architecture plan which is a description of the hardware, software, and communications networks required to implement planned information systems. This technology architecture plan will be the compilation of what are the tools needed in doing the strategic plan.

Strategic plans are used for solving problems of a business. Then, as a rule of system analyst is to solve the business problem. In solving those problems, system analyst must know some steps of approach as follows:

1. Research and understand the problem – in this step, system analyst conduct gathering of data regarding to the problem matters. Then, the data collected will analyze and determine the cause of the problem and think if there is possible way to solve the problem.

2. Verify benefits of solving problem out weight the costs –determine the benefits that can give by aiding the problem. Determine if the cost of solving problem is better than accepting the effect of the problem.

3. Define the requirements for solving the problem – if the cost of aiding the problem is lesser than the cost of accepting the problem, and then identify the things and tools needed to solve the said problem.

4. Develop a set of possible solutions (alternatives) – after determining the requirements for solving the problem, think what possible solution to solve the problem are.

5. Decide which solution is best and recommend – among the solutions identified in the previous step, choose the best solution that will perfectly aid the problem

6. Define the details of the chosen solution – when the best solution was identified, discuss it in more detail things. Determine what are the things needed to accomplish the solution.

7. Implement the solution – in this step, the solution was been applied with a guarantee that that was the solution of the problem.

8. Monitor to ensure desired results – after deploying the solution, it need to be monitor to confirm that it is really the right solution of the problem

It was said that system analyst solves the problem of the business, and businesses address those problem by strategic planning. So what are the usual problems that the system analyst and business wanted to solve. These are typical problems system analysts typically solve.

· Customers want to order product anytime of the day, it was normal situation in a business especially when it is online where the customers able to order anytime they want. But it is hard to difficult for the company to monitor their customers, so to avoid the loss of sales and to serve their customer immediately the aid of a system analysis is needed. Then, what system analyst and business do is improve the Customer Relationship Management and Manufacturing Management.

· Marketing want to know customer needs better. It is difficult to determine the needs of the customers especially on what are their responses on a business function. The business and system analyst usually do is create a forums, and chat rooms.

· Management wants to analyze financial information more efficiently. The management of the business wants to analyze financial information for the transparency. So the system analyst do is to develop the Financial and Accounting Management for easy access to financial information.

· Including to the topic in chapter 1 was as a system analyst was also required traits and skills to them become a real business problem solver. The following traits are those system analysts must have:

· They need to have a computer technology knowledge and programming expertise. As the definition of a system analyst is the one who uses analysis and design techniques to solve business problems using information technology which mean it is essential to a system analyst to have knowledge about the computer technology.

· They can really understand the business problems. How system analyst solves a problem if they did not understand the real problem. Meaning system analyst need to understand the problem first before they can solve the problem.

· They use logical methods for solving problems. To make a reasonable solved problem it need to use logical methods of solving to be able to provide effective proof.

· They have fundamental curiosity. Curiosity is very important for a system analyst because it is the foundation of new ideas. New ideas that could be very useful in solving problems and could be the foundation of another new idea.

· They want to make things better. Creating something is not the end is was just the beginning of another something new. This means that as a system analyst it is not absolutely done in creating new things. Instead, it needs be enhance more better and develop more.

On the other hand, the important knowledge of being a system analyst must have is divided into category as follows; technical knowledge, business knowledge and people knowledge. In terms of skill in was divided into two from the two areas, the hard and soft skills.

The technical knowledge of a system analyst refers to having knowledge about the hardware and software used in computer. Even the system analysis was not focus on programming, but still it is important have knowledge about the technologies especially now at modern days. So as system analyst it is need to know how to use some tools in programming, communication network and connectivity, database management system, and operating systems for more efficient work. That knowledge can be very useful in project planning, systems analysis and design, database and network design, construction, implementation, and support to the system.

The business knowledge refers to the knowledge about the business functions performed by an organization, strategies, plans, traditions, and values of the organization. It also refers to knowledge about the organizational structure, organizational management techniques, and functional work processes. This knowledge helps to a system analyst to analyze more on what are the possible solutions of the business problem because it gives an idea to the system analyst on what are they need and what are they want.

People knowledge refers to the ability to understand on how people think, learn, react to change, communicate, and work. System analyst must predict what are the possible reactions of people on how they adopt on the new environment that will be deploy as an information system. The interpersonal and communication skills of an system analyst are crucial in obtaining the require information from the business and the customer, motivating people to make some changes and aim for the goal, getting cooperation from the people surround because the key of the success of an information system project depends on how the people interact and help the system analyst, and understanding the complexity and workings of an organization in order to provide necessary support.

Hard skills are the skills in technical areas such as database design, programming, and telecommunication which are the necessary skills in doing information system by using the tools of being a technical system analyst. Then, the soft skills are the skills in non-technical areas such as interviewing other people, team management, and leadership. These soft skills are the skill of a system analyst on how they communicate to other people, either to their customer or to their teammates

As a system analyst, they have an access to confidential information about the business, such as salary, an organization’s planned projects, security systems, and so on. Therefore, system analyst must have integrity and ethics like they must keep the any business information in private; they must make plan security in systems that could protect confidential business information because any impropriety can ruin an analyst’s career and reputation.

Being a system analyst, they must be able to make ERP software related, conduct business analysts in different business functions such as auditing, compliance, and security. A system analyst must consider all possible aspect in making an information system.