During the last semester of my post-grad studies, my group and I were asked to conduct an interview with someone who was involved in the system analysis & design processes for software in healthcare. Naturally I took to the Twitterverse and reached out to a couple of my contacts. I got a positive response from @colin_hung, Vice President of Operations at RL Solutions and an online interview was scheduled over Skype. Before I get to the interview, I would like to thank Colin for taking time out of his busy day to do the interview and also would like to thank my colleagues Matthew Maragnos & Rebecca Parker for collaborating with on this paper.

Abstract:

The tools used and methodologies followed by a System Analyst in any project have a direct influence on the quality of the developed system. If a system analyst does not collect the right requirements, with the appropriate level of details, and does not prioritize those requirements accurately, the effects will be sever during development, implementation, and post-implementation. Examining the methodologies and documentation used during the System Development Life-Cycle (SDLC) by RL Solutions allowed us to understand their Agile approaches to developing and customizing their systems.

Method:

Our primary source of information for this paper was an online interview over Skype with Colin Hung, VP Operations and Andy Yang, Senior Software Developer, which took place on October 14 2011. A list of potential questions were emailed in advance and only relevant points were discussed during the interview. After the interview, we have outlined 9 major themes/topics which were discussed: 1) Agile Software Development, 2) User Stories, 3) Software Testing, 4) Data/Process Modelling Tools (MS Visio), 5) Sequence Diagrams, 6) Use Cases, 7) User Manuals, 8 ) System/User Mock-ups, and 9) Data Flow Diagrams.

For each concept, we listed our questions and the interviewees’ answers. After each answer, we provide a definition for each concept and list advantages, disadvantages, and the relevance of those topics for a system analyst. This information was gathered from multiple academic and non-academic sources as well as drawing on the team’s personal experience in system analysis and design.

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