Written primarily for undergraduates Systems Analysis & Design courses in CIS and MIS programs. It is designed for courses seeking a streamlined approach to the course due to course duration, lab assignments, or special projects. The text reflects current changes in systems analysis and design. The move to structured analysis and design in the late 1970s was considered to be a revolution in how systems development was conducted. We are undergoing another revolution in systems development now, as we move away from complex, plan-driven development to new approaches called "Agile Methodologies." Although the best known Agile Methodology is eXtreme Programming, there are many other approaches. More and more systems development involves the use of packages in combination with legacy applications and new modules. Coverage of the make versus buy decision and of the multiple sources of software and software components has been moved forward in the book to highlight the salience of these topics.
Joseph S. Valacich (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and is The George and Carolyn Hubman Distinguished Professor in Information Systems for the College of Business and Economics at Washington State University, Pullman. He is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and is a Charter Member of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). He is currently serving on the joint ACM-AIS task force designing the curriculum for Master of Science Information Systems Programs. He was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Service Award from the Washington State University College of Business and Economics in 1997, and is vice-chairperson of ICIS 1999 in Charlotte. Dr. Valacich was recently identified as one of the ten-most productive Information Systems researchers in the world and his current research interests include technology-mediated group decision-making, electronic commerce, the diffusion of technology in organizations, and distance learning. Dr. Valacich serves on the editorial board of Small Group Research and is an Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly.
Holy heck I am not a systems analyst! Had to read this for a class and while I can't complain about the writing of the book at all, the topic was not very exciting for me.
Horribly written! If it were not for an assignment, I would have thrown it out the window! Thank you Google for helping to find all the supplemental materials I needed to get the conscepts the book was supposed to teach.