Good systems analysis in increasing programmer productivity

During the 1960’s and early 1970’s, the field of systems development was run by either a programmer or a system analyst. There were more analysts than programmers at that time yet since computing was just new in the corporate arena and there were those who could still look at systems as a whole. But there was so great a need for people who could program computers, thus the rise of programming.

Programming was so much a trend that many authors started writing books on how to boost programmer productivity, which led to the introduction of Structured Programming in the late 1970’s. Shortly thereafter, the Computer Aided Software Engineering or the CASE movement followed.

In the 1980’s, the rise of programming has led to the tremendous decline in system analysis, with trade groups slowly folding up. New job titles were introduced such as analyst/programmer and software engineer. The emphasis of the former title was more on programming, not systems analysis. At present, programmers are so much in demand in the corporate world, particularly in the Information Technology field.

Although a programmer and systems analyst may have pretty much the same scope in performing tasks, the two are still set apart by several characteristics. The programmer is more introverted and puts more focus on technology. A systems analyst, on the other hand, studies a business’s information requirements and designs system solutions that satisfy them.

Moreover, as the middleman of the programming staff, the analyst is responsible for specifying software requirements as well. Most analysts are also usually extroverted and business-minded and they should also be able to communicate well both verbally and in written in order to work effectively with the programming staff and the end-users. Additionally, they should also be able to conduct interviews, create presentations and look at things in a bigger scope.

The systems analyst knows and understands the problems encountered by end users as well the operations of the users’ department. In fact, analysts can make great candidates for top management positions. However, this has not materialized for some time now because the demand for analysts has dwindled for many years already.

Proper systems analysis plays an important role in increasing programmer productivity as analysts can provide quality specifications for application tasks. Programmers may lose valuable time without the help of systems analysts, as they may have to make second guesses as to what the end users want. As a result, this could lead to constant rewriting of software.

Simply put, programmers can improve their productivity through quality data and processing specifications that systems analysts can provide. In fact, this is even found to be even better than any available programming technique or tool there is. With good systems analysis, programming is made easier because the focus is on upfront work.

System problems cannot be completely solved with the mere use of programming techniques and tools alone – it also needs good systems analysis as well. And apart from its vital functions, good systems analysis can actually be an important factor in increasing programmer productivity too.