Path: utzoo!yunexus!davecb
From: davecb@yunexus.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Engineers are just as much in the dark as programmers.
Summary: sidebar on analysts
Message-ID: <2042@yunexus.UUCP>
Date: 31 May 89 12:26:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: yunexus.2042
References: <24857@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <4514@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Reply-To: davecb@yunexus.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Organization: York U. Computing Services
Lines: 22


>In article <24857@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) writes:
>}... just what the hell is a "Systems Analyst," ...

In article <4514@ttidca.TTI.COM> hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:
>In theory, at least, a person who determines user requirements and
>converts them to system specifications.  Programmers turn system specs
>into code.

   I'm not sure that's a theory.  I suspect its IBM policy (;-)).

   A real systems analyst is someone who understands (in the sense of
being able to model & predict) the behavior of complex interacting
(sub-)systems.  They **are** occasionally found in industry, but in most
cases the term is a job-title for a senior programmer who has done at
least one major project without it failing completely, and now is excused
from further programming.

--dave (who actually studied systems theory) c-b

ps: the above is quasi-humourous. flames to /dev/null