Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The SAD Interview (3)

The deal is, we have to interview a systems analyst, and ask him what skills and characteristics must a systems analyst develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process.

The company we picked was Davao Light and Power Company. The specific branch for the interview was the Bajada branch.Here is a little description about Davao Light and Power Company (this is from their official website).

“Davao Light and Power Company is the third largest privately-owned electric utility in the Philippines. It holds the franchise for distributing electric power to Davao City, the largest city in the world in terms of land area, as well as Panabo City and the municipalities of Carmen, Dujali, and Sto. Tomas in Davao del Norte. On September 29, 2000, the franchise was renewed for another 25 years by virtue of Republic Act 8960.

High-end computers, sophisticated software, and other devices are being used to speed up meter reading, streamline billing, provide efficient and prompt response to customer inquiries, generate management information, and analyze electrical grid information.

Special attention has been devoted to improving Davao Light’s service standards. Innovative re-engineering efforts have cut down service cycle times. Outsourcing of tasks and reallocating manpower and other resources has allowed the utility to improve productivity while keeping costs relatively stable. Current efforts focus on teamwork, service excellence, professionalism, and innovation in preparation for a deregulated and competitive environment.

Now and in the future, Davao Light is committed to deliver reliable and efficient service at reasonable rates.”

According to our interviewee, there are several skills needed for a Systems Analyst like him to be more effective in any design modeling process. Here are some of those qualities and characteristics.

A systems analyst should have technical skills. That is, he or she has to know the systems that exist in the company that he or she is working for. It’s just automatic for the systems analyst to be like that, because he won’t know what he’ll be working with or what he’ll be analyzing if he doesn’t know the system of the company. Just like what our professor at another subject lectured about, in other companies, there are what they call “legacy systems”. These are the systems which the company has been using for a long time, hence the word legacy. After a new IT professional is hired, he is to use that system; hence he is handed down the legacy. He or she then has to be acquainted with that particular system, so he will be able to analyze what really are the problems with that system. I have something that describes intrapersonal skill from my assignment from the previous thread. Here are some excerpts from it:

“This skill here is essential (although I think all skills are essential and important), because there is no use in analyzing systems if you don’t know what you’re analyzing, am I right? That’s why you have to have the knowledge on different computer hardware, operating systems, different software and programming languages, and other technical things. And even though the systems analyst is not a graduate of any computer-related course, he / she has to have even at least a little knowledge of computers, because I think most of the time they will be working with computers. At least, they aren’t ignorant of what they are doing. ”

The analyst should have some kind of intrapersonal skill. That is, he or she has to have a good communication with the users, so he / she can point out to the users what must be done with the project and what its goals and objectives are. And that is, to help the company with all its transactions, activities and etcetera by analyzing the problems of the company’s system and providing solutions for it. As from what I have said from assignment number one:

“Systems analysts don’t just the need the technical knowledge to be able to be good systems analyst. They have to develop their personality as well. They have to be what you call a “people person”. That means he must be able to socialize with people well, know how to communicate with them, how to talk to them with respect. ”

Focus for the project is also a must for the systems analyst. When the project is divided into teams in different departments, then the task given to that team must be the task that they should focus on, because other teams are also given tasks that they have to complete and also which they have to focus on. The outcome would be good if the analyst also made the separation of tasks correct and also if the tasks are given to the teams which are capable of doing that specific task. If that’s the case, then they also have to have a good systems analyst, because the programmers are under the analyst, and the analyst just gives the instruction to those under him.

And as to also with some jobs, there also has to be some patience with the systems analyst. Why? Because sometimes, even though you are satisfied with what how you project has been doing, and also if you are impressed yourself with the outcome, and then your client isn’t still satisfied with what you and your team has done, then all will be useless. Even though you think that you have done the right things to be done, as long as your client doesn’t like what you’ve accomplished, then your project would just be considered unsuccessful.

References:

http://www.davaolight.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=55

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