The Role of Analysts and Designers

The primary role of systems analysts and designers is, of course, to produce a computer system solution to a problem that meets the customer’s requirements. This task can easily be so absorbing in itself that there is seemingly no time left over for thinking about the non-technical issues surrounding the introduction of a new IT system, much less for setting up a people project to address them. So even if the people project is not driven by analysts, designers, or even IT managers, it needs their active support. Many of the tasks carried out by analysts in the early stages of an IT development project have outputs that the people project will need to draw on. For example, the process of creating data models and data flow diagrams may raise questions of data ownership, which need to be fed to the people project to resolve, perhaps through a redefinition of rolesand responsibilities or the introduction of a new procedure. Likewise, if systems analysts have done a detailed assessment of costs and benefits, this will give the people project some idea of the messages they can use to sell the new IT system to users and managers.

Analysts can also draw on the people project for valuable help in areas such as human–computer interface design, discussed in Chapter 15. The look and feel of the HCI can be one of the most significant factors in determining a user’s response to a system. The people project can help create the conditions in which
HCI design can be done collaboratively, thus ensuring that both sides get what they need from this all-important aspect of the system. Very often, analysts and designers do more communicating about an IT
Project than any other group. Analysts have extensive contact with the people who will ultimately use the system, as well as with the budget-holders who are actually paying for and steering