a) An agent of change is the one who brings about change. It is through an agent of change
that new things come about. This is the thing that brings or initiates the change. In
systems development, a systems analyst is taken as the agent of change. A system analyst‘s
role in system development can be said to be the role of designing the programs and
systems as a whole to perform the data processing work. The analyst is regarded as an
agent of change due to he nature of his roles. The roles of the system analyst are:
o Systems analysis- involves methodological study of the current system so that
asystem of user requirements is obtained and a feasibility study carried out.
o Systems design- involves specification of input and output, storage or files,
theprocessing, hardware and software and data processing security controls. At the
end of systems design, a program specification is produced from flowcharts used to
document the system‘s programs.
o Program and system testing- involves uncovering errors in the programs of
thesystem and in the operation of the system as a whole. Testing ensures that errors
are uncovered and corrected thus guaranteeing the quality of the systems programs.
o Training- involves educating users on the operation and security aspects of
thesystem so as to ensure smooth changeover.
o Post implementation review- the analyst conducts it to ensure that the system is
asuccess
b)An analyst is the person who analyses information for the purpose of use by the
organization. A systems analyst is the one who analyses the information before the
development of a system. An external systems analyst is advantageous due to the
following reasons:
1.An external analyst will carry out his work objective i.e. without fear and favour. The
external analyst does not have any interest to protect or anything to do with the
business and thus has a higher chance of doing good work.
2.An external analyst will carry out his work thoroughly and will not assume some
aspect of the analysis. This is because he is trained for this work and hence thorough
work will be carried out.
3.An external analyst will be more suited for the work as this is basically his/her
profession thus quality work will be done.
4.The external analyst will possess the required expertise and employee to carry out the
work more quickly.
5.The external analyst will not use the information obtained in his favour. This is
because he is bound by professional standards in addition of having an interest in the
business.
6.Employees will find it easier to deal with an external analyst as some may feel the
selection of an internal analyst is biased and hence will not divulge the information.
gregorymasila answered the question on February 15, 2018 at 20:33
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