ICT system analyst

ICT system analysts specify the system needs to meet the end user requirements. They analyse system functions in order to define their goals or purposes and to discover operations and procedures for accomplishing them most efficiently. They also design new IT solutions to improve business efficiency and productivity, produce outline designs and estimate costs of new systems, specify the operations the system will perform, and the way data will be viewed by the end user. They present the design to the users and work closely with the users to implement the solution.

Excludes people performing ICT programming.

The following job titles also refer to ICT system analyst:

system analyst
network analyst
ICT systems analyst
systems analyst
IT systems analyst
ICT system analysts
ICT systems analysts
IT system analyst

Bachelor’s degree is generally required to work as ICT system analyst. However, this requirement may differ in some countries.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

ICT system analyst is a Skill level 4 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to ICT system analyst.

software analyst
software tester
ICT system architect
knowledge engineer
embedded system designer

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of ICT system analyst. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of ICT system analyst with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of ICT system analyst.

Systems development life-cycle: The sequence of steps, such as planning, creating, testing and deploying and the models for the development and life-cycle management of a system.
Software architecture models: The set of structures and models needed to understand or describe the software system, including the software elements, the relations between them and the properties of both elements and relations.
Decision support systems: The ICT systems that can be used to support business or organisational decision making.
Levels of software testing: The levels of testing in the software development process, such as unit testing, integration testing, system testing and acceptance testing.
Online analytical processing: The online tools which analyse, aggregate and present multi-dimensional data enabling users to interactively and selectively extract and view data from specific points of view.
Ict infrastructure: The system, network, hardware and software applications and components, as well as devices and processes that are used in order to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control or support ICT services.
Ict performance analysis methods: The methods used to analyse software, ICT system and network performance which provide guidance to root causes of issues within information systems. The methods can analyse resource bottlenecks, application times, wait latencies and benchmarking results.
Software metrics: The metrics that measure a characteristic of the software system in order to determine the development of the software and evaluate it.

These skills are necessary for the role of ICT system analyst.

Identify customer requirements: Apply techniques and tools, such as surveys, questionnaires, ICT applications, for eliciting, defining, analysing, documenting and maintaining user requirements from system, service or product.
Apply statistical analysis techniques: Use models (descriptive or inferential statistics) and techniques (data mining or machine learning) for statistical analysis and ICT tools to analyse data, uncover correlations and forecast trends.
Analyse business processes: Study the contribution of the work processes to the business goals and monitor their efficiency and productivity.
Analyse ict system: Study the activity and performance of information systems in order to model their usage and weaknesses, specify purpose, architecture and services and discover operations and procedures for accomplishing them most efficiently.
Manage ict legacy implication: Oversee the transfer process from a legacy (an outdated system) to a current system by mapping, interfacing, migrating, documenting and transforming data.
Monitor system performance: Measure system reliability and performance before, during and after component integration and during system operation and maintenance. Select and use performance monitoring tools and techniques, such as special software.
Analyse the context of an organisation: Study the external and internal environment of an organisation by identifying its strengths and weaknesses in order to provide a base for company strategies and further planning.
Solve ict system problems: Identify potential component malfunctions. Monitor, document and communicate about incidents. Deploy appropriate resources with minimal outage and deploy appropriate diagnostic tools.
Design information system: Define the architecture, composition, components, modules, interfaces and data for integrated information systems (hardware, software and network), based on system requirements and specifications.
Interact with users to gather requirements: Communicate with users to identify their requirements and collect them. Define all relevant user requirements and document them in an understandable and logical way for further analysis and specification.
Manage system testing: Select, perform and track testings on software or hardware to detect system defects both within the integrated system units, the inter-assemblages and the system as a whole. Organise testings such as installation testing, security testing and graphical user interface testing.
Execute feasibility study: Perform the evaluation and assessment of the potential of a project, plan, proposition or new idea. Realise a standardised study which is based on extensive investigation and research to support the process of decision making.
Define technical requirements: Specify technical properties of goods, materials, methods, processes, services, systems, software and functionalities by identifying and responding to the particular needs that are to be satisfied according to customer requirements.
Identify ict system weaknesses: Analyse the system and network architecture, hardware and software components and data in order to identify weaknesses and vulnerability to intrusions or attacks.
Analyse software specifications: Assess the specifications of a software product or system to be developed by identifying functional and non-functional requirements, constraints and possible sets of use cases which illustrate interactions between the software and its users.
Perform security vulnerability assessments: Execute types of security testing, such as network penetration testing, wireless testing, code reviews, wireless and/or firewall assessments in accordance with industry-accepted methods and protocols to identify and analyse potential vulnerabilities.
Create data models: Use specific techniques and methodologies to analyse the data requirements of an organisation’s business processes in order to create models for these data, such as conceptual, logical and physical models. These models have a specific structure and format.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT system analyst. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Haskell: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Haskell.
Erlang: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Erlang.
Sas language: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in SAS language.
Ruby (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Ruby.
Common lisp: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Common Lisp.
Lisp: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Lisp.
Hardware platforms: The characteristics of the hardware configuration required to process the applications software product.
Visual studio .net: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Visual Basic.
Java (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Java.
Mdx: The computer language MDX is a query language for retrieval of information from a database and of documents containing the needed information. It is developed by the software company Microsoft.
Computer programming: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms (e.g. object oriented programming, functional programming) and of programming languages.
Data mining: The methods of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and databases used to extract content from a dataset.
Prolog (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Prolog.
Openedge advanced business language: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in OpenEdge Advanced Business Language.
Javascript: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in JavaScript.
Xquery: The computer language XQuery is a query language for retrieval of information from a database and of documents containing the needed information. It is developed by the international standards organisation World Wide Web Consortium.
Perl: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Perl.
Smalltalk (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Smalltalk.
Php: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in PHP.
Assembly (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Assembly.
C#: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in C#.
R: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in R.
Groovy: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Groovy.
Asp.net: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in ASP.NET.
Apl: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in APL.
Object-oriented modelling: The object-oriented paradigm, which is based on classes, objects, methods and interfaces and their application in software design and analysis, programming organisation and techniques.
Sparql: The computer language SPARQL is a query language for retrieval of information from a database and of documents containing the needed information. It is developed by the international standards organisation World Wide Web Consortium.
Outsourcing model: The outsourcing model consists of principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture.
Hybrid model: The hybrid model consists of principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture.
Audit techniques: The techniques and methods that support a systematic and independent examination of data, policies, operations and performances using computer-assisted audit tools and techniques (CAATs) such as spreadsheets, databases, statistical analysis and business intelligence software.
Unified modelling language: The general-purpose modelling language used in software development to offer a standard visualisation of system designs.
Service-oriented modelling: The principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture and application architecture.
Microsoft visual c++: The computer program Visual C++ is a suite of software development tools for writing programs, such as compiler, debugger, code editor, code highlights, packaged in a unified user interface. It is developed by the software company Microsoft.
Typescript: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in TypeScript.
Distributed computing: the software process in which computer components interact over a network and send messages to communicate on their actions.
Resource description framework query language: The query languages such as SPARQL which are used to retrieve and manipulate data stored in Resource Description Framework format (RDF).
Coffeescript: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in CoffeeScript.
Objective-c: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Objective-C.
Query languages: The field of standardised computer languages for retrieval of information from a database and of documents containing the needed information.
Ml (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in ML.
Ldap: The computer language LDAP is a query language for retrieval of information from a database and of documents containing the needed information.
Open source model: The open source model consists of principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture.
Ajax: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in AJAX.
C++: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in C++.
Sap r3: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in SAP R3.
Swift (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Swift.
Matlab: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in MATLAB.
Linq: The computer language LINQ is a query language for retrieval of information from a database and of documents containing the needed information. It is developed by the software company Microsoft.
Python (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Python.
Scratch (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Scratch.
Vbscript: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in VBScript.
Cobol: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in COBOL.
Hardware architectures: The designs laying out the physical hardware components and their interconnections.
Pascal (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Pascal.
Abap: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in ABAP.
Saas (service-oriented modelling): The SaaS model consists of principles and fundamentals of service-oriented modelling for business and software systems that allow the design and specification of service-oriented business systems within a variety of architectural styles, such as enterprise architecture.
N1ql: The computer language N1QL is a query language for retrieval of information from a database and of documents containing the needed information. It is developed by the software company Couchbase.
Ict process quality models: The quality models for ICT services which address the maturity of the processes, the adoption of recommended practices and their definition and institutionalisation that allow the organisation to reliably and sustainably produce required outcomes. It includes models in a lot of ICT areas.
Scala: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Scala.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT system analyst. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Provide ict consulting advice: Advise on appropriate solutions in the field of ICT by selecting alternatives and optimising decisions while taking into account potential risks, benefits and overall impact to professional customers.
Execute analytical mathematical calculations: Apply mathematical methods and make use of calculation technologies in order to perform analyses and devise solutions to specific problems.
Conduct quantitative research: Execute a systematic empirical investigation of observable phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques.

2511 – Systems analysts

 

 

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References

1. ICT system analyst – ESCO