Systems Professional vs. Department Manager

In making decisions on everything that we do needs critical thinking in order for us to decide not only for the good of the result but to acquire the specific idea we have in achieving better results. Considering the conversation of a systems professional, John Juan, and a manager of a department targeted for a new information system, Peter Pedro, both parties would have different views and opinion in developing a target plan which is the new information system for the department managed by Peter Pedro. As I was reading through their conversation, I can say that both of them have the same point. Even though they have different perspectives on how to deal with the new system but their ideas are most likely needed in the process because somehow, from what they said, all of it will lead into having new or revised system. In order for us to understand both parties, let me first introduce John Juan and Peter Pedro.

John Juan is a systems professional and is hired to make a more progressive system in the department under Peter Pedro’s management. John Juan’s idea on making the new information system is by doing examination on the old system existing in the department, the examination of system includes the reviewing of key documents and observing the employees on how they perform their task using the current system. In this manner, they can determine which part of the system must they focus on revising and they will also determine which part of it would be preserved because it might not be giving problems in the system. As a systems professional, they know what to do in dealing with certain systems that need revisions or new versions and as for John Juan, analyzing the old system’s performance is the best foundation on dealing with a new one because I can say that it would cost time and effort to change what was being implemented already. His idea is that through examining the old system, he might stumble on a problem that would cause trouble to the department and by that he can focus on that part only. Systems professionals are particular on what they are doing, on the time that would take them to deal with a system, and the effort they will put into for them to deliver the right system to the clients.

On the other hand, Peter Pedro is a manager of a department and is planning on having a new information system for their department. Peter Pedro’s idea on dealing with his targeted information system is that making a list of the requirements needed. Take more time on analyzing and defining what system they really want for their department. After that is systems professionals can butt in to determine the portions of the system that needs to focus in. Peter Pedro does not want to just observe the old system and the systems professional would just modify the old one. According to him, they have been doing what was told by John Pedro before and they end up not getting the new system as promised but they just get a modified version of the old system. He insists on having new information system and not the revised and modified system only. As the manager of a certain department, it is necessary for him to envision what problems they might deal with the old system that they have. He can aptly determine what went wrong in his department considering that the system they are using is old and cannot support new operations unless it is under observation for a better system.

Based on the first thing that they did, they had a conversation over the matter and as dealing with a systems professional-client relationship, communication is the most important factor needed in order to understand both parties and as a result of that, they can have a unified idea that can lead to a better solution to the problem. John Juan and Peter Pedro expressed their ideas on dealing with the targeted new information system. As mentioned above, they have different methods on arriving to the new system. On John’s first step in dealing with the problem, examining the system which includes reviewing of the documents and observing the tasks performed by the employees, I can say that he has a point on that matter. A systems professional must be concern on the people who are using the system. He must know the opinions of each employees dealing with the system in order for him to determine which part of the system he should deal with. He must also know what key documents he has to deal with because the main reason on why he was hired is that he must meet the need of the client and that is having a system that would make their department more productive and competitive to other departments. In other words, John wants thorough investigation on what part of the system he should deal with in order for him to narrow his scope considering all parts of the system because through his idea, he can be able to determine what part must be focused and give more attention. The negative aspect of John’s idea is that analyzing the whole part of the old system in order for you to have knowledge on what you are dealing with. By this approach, John would really take time in understanding the old system especially if he was not the systems professional who handled the old system. Examining the old system is a salient part on deriving to a targeted new information system but the cost of time would really be present in this situation.

On Peter Pedro’s side, he is hesitant on just adopting the old system and make revisions out of it. He wants to have the targeted system not basing on the previous one but to start on knowing what requirements are needed. In other words, he wants to make a system that is different from the ones being implemented before. He also wants to give emphasis on what they really want the system to do to their company. He suggested that they should be focusing more on that in order for them to really meet what they need. He doesn’t want to stick with the old system because he might think that the system would just waste their effort and time but still they won’t gain profit or be productive while using the system. The negative side on what Peter wants is that he doesn’t want to relate the old system to the new system. It is difficult not to adopt the previous system because there would be more complicated aspects that would come upon developing new system. The result might be of big difference to what they want to improve and achieve to meet their needs.

Peter and John obviously have different views on handling the targeted new information system. If I were to choose on whose position I would sympathize the most, I would prefer to be on John Juan’s side. The fact that Peter Pedro is the manager of the department and he has the right to demand on what he wants to do with his system, in the process of developing the system, the systems professional has more power over it because he has more knowledge on dealing with the system. As what I discussed on our previous assignments, certain skills and characteristics are possessed to systems professionals to make a good system. Here are some skills those systems professional must have when dealing with systems. Identifying the client organization’s needs, in order for him to have a specific system to deal with, he must identify the needs of the business organization. The organization may comprise of different departments and of different needs and it is the job of the Systems Analyst to find out what those needs are. Drawing up plans for a modified or replacement IT system, before a system can be develop, it has do undergo through lots of planning and analysis. After several phases of planning and analysis, a Systems Analyst should not implement his system directly and replace the existing system of the business organization, he should first plan for the modified system and seek approval to the client. Carrying out feasibility studies of proposals and making recommendations, after the problem has been identified, the Systems Analyst should make feasibility studies on the future system and seek recommendations on which part of the system should they revise or upgrade before developing it. Working closely with programmers and software developers to build the system, the work of Systems Analyst is to analyze the problem, understand the problem, make some plans on how to solve the problem by developing a system, and design the system to solve the problem. In order to implement the system, he needs the help of a programmer and software developers to actually implement the system. In other words, Systems Analysts cannot stand alone in implementing a system. Overseeing installation and testing correcting problems before the final version is released, Systems Analyst may deploy an initial system or trial version to check whether bugs may occur as the system runs, if there are no bugs found, final version may be released. Providing staff training and instruction manuals for the new or upgraded system, in order for the clients to embrace the new or upgraded system the Systems Analyst has deployed, he must provide manuals or guidelines with regards to the functionality of the system.

Based on the skills I mentioned for a systems professional, I can say that John thinks that way. Even if Peter has a point on accumulating the requirements needed to make the system, the idea of John gives more fairness on making the system because in order for you to determine what requirements must be needed to meet the need of the department; you must know the performance of the previous system. The decisions you have are based on what were examined before. John can conclude what problems the system might deal with based on studying the old system. After concluding on what part of the system he must focus, he can now list some of the requirements needed to modify the previous one like what Peter said. Peter’s idea is useful on the process of developing the system. It is true that through listing the requirements needed, they can determine what system the department needs to handle with. It is not necessary that when the clients experienced some technical issues on the system, they already want a new one just to serve them right, it would be a help to the systems professional to base what they deal with on the old system. 

Method that I would propose to them…

In our previous assignment, we have been tasked to describe each of the models that we chose to tackle with and the most common model for all even to others who are professionals now is the Waterfall model. Let me give you some information regarding the Waterfall model and what makes me think I recommend this model to the two workers. 

Project Definition

Project definition phase in a simple understanding is the phase where a systems analyst must define the goals of the project, the requirements, and its specification. By defining the goal means investigating first the need of the client. In dealing with this phase, we must be able to interpret what the client wants through communicating with them and sometimes communicating with them may not be as easy as picking up the phone and list the orders that the client wants to be delivered, some say that it is the crucial part of the first phase since misinterpretation at this phase may give rise to the software that is being developed. After the goal has been defined and the requirements have been noted, we must be critical enough to make sure that the specified needs of the client are detailed and accurate in order for us not to meet any ambiguity as we get along with the system. By doing this, it will make the clients confident enough to rely on the system that is handled by you. In this phase also, we as systems analysts must not only meet the need of the clients, that is, to have a new system or an improved system, but consider also that the main reason why they made decision on having a new system is that in order for them to gain more profit than what they have on their previous systems.

System Design

System design phase is the phase where we as systems analysts identify the software requirements along with the hardware requirements because as what was acquired from the previous phase, the requirements are broken down into logical units so that the software process can be easily implemented. In this phase also, we must also interpret the design used to create the system. the accumulated logical units are interrelated to each other so that there would be connection on all the parts needed to create the system and to do that, we are to recognize different algorithms and providing diagrams on the plan can make the work easier to understand and follow. In other words, this phase would focus on the fundamental work for programming and implementation. Documentations are present in this phase because this phase is considered as the crucial phase on developing a working system.

Coding and Implementation

It is clear in this phase that we are to deal with coding after the design has been identified. The source code of the program is written in this phase. It is where the algorithms and diagrams are translated into a functional system. After arriving from a functional system, implementation takes place to check in the produced system has met the need of the client. Any revisions on the system would occur on the next phase which is the testing phase.

Integration and Testing

Integration and testing phase would not be possible if the system has not been implemented. Implementing a system does not necessarily mean that the system is ready for operation but implementation phase is done to check whether certain conditions from the clients are met and if so, testing phase is next to it. It is now the work of the client to test the system according to its, functionality, integrity, capacity to perform the desired outcome, that is to make the lives of the client easier in order for them to gain profit easier also. If the clients noticed some bugs along the implementation, further revision may be done and most probably the system would undergo to another repetitive step or the phases and start in the designing phase to identify the bug and fix it for improvements.

Deployment and Maintenance

This is probably the last phase of the Waterfall Model, where the system has being tested and is checked by the clients for the acceptance, is now ready for deployment. The work would not end here for it is necessary for the systems analyst to execute maintenance on every system that they deploy because as clients go along with the system, they may be stumbled on a foreign procedure on the system and it is the work of the systems analyst to explain each part of the system so that clients would be familiarized to it and would be dependent to the systems analyst just for a short while. Other changes and improvements that the client wants for their system would make the entire process under revision and also it will start again from the first phase of the Waterfall model.

The Waterfall model starts with the Project Definition, in relation to John and Peter’s argument, John’s idea on observing the work of the system to the workers and examining the old system fits the first step of the Waterfall model. They should first analyze the system that was implemented and base that one to make new system. The next step is to design the system. In this part, the idea of Peter takes place. Designing the system would not be effective if the requirements are not determined. Requirements are needed to know what kind of system, John needs to deal with. Other steps follow after determining the two main steps.

Conclusion

To some, customers would always be right but in the situation like what John and Peter encounters, I can say that the final decision would be on the expert of the system, John. Peter pointed out that what they experienced before are just revisions on their previous systems and because of that, same problems may arise. To John, adopting the old system would let him determine the problem of the system and it would be easier for him to deal with the new system since he has the background of the previous one. The primary concern of Peter is to have new information system and not just a revision of the old one but for John, it is not necessary that the system is new because it would also take time for the part of the employees since the system is new, they need to adopt the new system and need to learn how to deal with the new one. In my own point of view, John’s idea is more accurate than what Peter wants to have. As a systems analyst, there is really a need on adopting the old ones, reviewing what possible problems they meet, and how other employees would deal with the previous system in order to determine what system they want. John only wants to make the previous system more functional and more productive than the previous one. I can say that he refuses to have more cost on time making new system as what Peter wants to have in their department. Certain conditions may be adopted on how John will handle the system but in the end, it would be on Peter’s decision if he will adopt what system John made. As long as there is unity on the ideas and perspectives of the clients and the system professional, anything would be possible and the targeted new system would be attained.