Systems Analysis

censuspro

Wondering if anyone can tell me, in the context of software development, what systems analysis is?

I work in an accountancy practice and a client of ours has asked for our help in hiring an accountant with systems analysis experience.

NeverSayDie

The Wiki page has a reasonable overview, though it's a fairly vague term in any case;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_analysis

Re software development, doesn't directly relate to it per se, more a case of systems analysis potentially being involved very early on in a project in order to describe and understand in detail the business/operational system you'll need to model in the software. It'll help with clarifying requirements and drafting functional specs; figuring out processes, behaviours, workflows and data models, that sort of thing.

"This business/operational/industrial process has these separate parts/components/areas, and they fit together like so", basically. When you're a software engineer building tools and systems to support such processes, that kind of info is essential in one form or another.

It can relate to other things though, not necessarily software development alone. For instance, if you're going to remodel your manufacturing process/system, you'll presumably use some systems analysis to find out how exactly it currently fits together one piece and one step at a time, and how you can improve/change it.

That's my understanding of the term anyway.