Systems Analysis–How It Gets Ignored
OBSERVATION
More often than not, I observe clients wanting to jump past the systems analysis phase and move straight into development. Meanwhile, there continues to be a perception about software development that projects are always “over budget and behind schedule.” I think there is a connection here.
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS LOOSELY DEFINED
Systems analysis is the phase of a project where an experienced I.T. professional gathers requirements and assesses the capacity required to produce a working system. In a way, systems analysis in creating software is similar to creating architectural documents for building a sky scraper. The difference is that a sky scraper is never attempted without an architect, yet software projects are plunged into every day with little or no formal analysis.
Deliverables of a good analysis can include but are not limited to requirements documents defining scope, technology stack diagrams, flow charts, user stories, low-fi screen shots, budgetary estimates, project plans, timelines with dependencies, and entity relationship diagrams for databases.
Deliverables like those listed above are essential to any purchaser of a software project because they set expectations about costs, chronology, general process, and completion timeline. Without this, customers often get blind-sided and left in the age-old scenario of feeling “behind schedule and over budget.” In the end, the software industry is always to blame (the customer IS always right).
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
If you have a systems project–and are shopping software vendors to create a system, think twice before being turned off if a vendor tells you after your first meeting that he/she cannot produce a quote from what you have described, and that some formal billable systems analysis will be required. Just make sure you ask what deliverables (like the ones listed above) will be produced so you can avoid an endless hourly-billable consulting situation.
If you are a newer software vendor–and a client you are quoting is trying to convince you that systems analysis is your “cost of doing business” in preparation to produce a quote, be wary. If a project is more complex than you can understand it CLEARLY AND ENTIRELY in a 1-2 hour meeting with a client, your best practice would be to bill some formal analysis time up front before promising a quoted price that will affect your reputation (if you need help convincing them, feel free to send them to this blog post. 
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If you are a company, department, or corporate unit–and you are shopping for a vendor, but you went to your I.T. department first, try to remember that although your I.T. department is competent technologically, they may not be project managers who have experience managing outside vendors and software projects. It’s very easy to take the project to them, allow them to analyze it, and jump on their shoulders to manage it the whole way through. They are most often not qualified to do systems analysis, manage a software project, nor to manage outside vendors or a team of software developers. They are valuable to have involved, but a good software vendor should manage the project and their involvement, not the other way around.
