Programmer/Analyst job description

[frankgw@adelphia.net]

Is anyone aware where I could find a generic programmer/analyst job description somewhere on the Internet? Please post the URL. Thanks.

[nycsusan@hotmail.com]

Frank, Have you tried this web site? http://www.programmeranalystjobs.com/

[frankgw@adelphia.net]

Susan - Just checked out the URL that you posted. Found lots of interesting information but not a detailed generic job description. Did I miss it. Please post the URL of the actual job description. To clarify, I am looking for a job description not a job. Thanks again.

[nycsusan@hotmail.com]

I cannot post job descriptions from the companies that I have worked for becasue that information is confidential. I thought that URL with job listings would give descriptions of what many companies view as programmer/anaylst responsibilites and duties. Why not extract your own job description by compiling the best of those? I thought that would help, sorry if it didn't.

[Guest.Visitor]

Have you checked the July 1999 isuue of MC for hardcopy. There is an article by Bob Langieri. I've also seen it on the web at his Excel Technical site.

[Guest.Visitor]

I'm sure you're all aware I hate to butt in, but the term programmer/analyst is an oxymoron. Analysts are gatherers and distillers of a situation into its essence; Programmers are scatterers. Case in point: An analyst gathered and distilled one State's motor vehicle laws from several bookshelves of books into one 3 ring notebook from which two dozen or more programmers created almost 10 million lines of COBOL code. Anyway I've always been intrigued by the term.

[Guest.Visitor]

That's OK to butt in Bob. That's an anylist's job anyway whether it's in Data Processing where an analyst does your analysis or in Proctology where an analyst does urinalysis.

[David Abramowitz]

Tom Conover wrote: Data Processing where an analyst does your analysis or in Proctology where an analyst does urinalysis. FYI Tom, for Proctology, you have the wrong end. You might be a rear Admiral, but don't butt in. <font='small'> Stop me before I pun again</font> Dave

[frankgw@adelphia.net]

Tom - Thanks for the very helpful advice!

[J.Pluta]

I just gotta hop in on this one. It's nearly midnight on Sunday, so I'm about due for one of my circumlocutious rants. Actually, I think the term programmer/analyst is the most overused but most underrated terms in our industry. While I agree to some measure about your distinction between analysis and programming, Bob, to me the REAL key to the whole thing is the person who synthesizes the two skills: that is, the programmer/analyst. A true PA can head off the sort of analysis that dictates the removal of a key piece of functionality because it would require transmission of a thousand messages between two sites on a daily basis - by simply moving the databases for the sites onto the same internal network using a highspeed DSL line and a VPN. At the same time, a real PA will avoid the pitfall of loading an entire customer file into a dropdown over a 56KB modem, because he realizes the business application, not just the technical details. True PAs are hard to find. That's why I continue to code applications as well as design architectures, because one don't work without the other. Enough. <a href="//www.java400.net?phpMyAdmin=MzvdqLOMiN7HL4yz2OU82BJ vkG9"><img > src="//www.zappie.net/java/_derived/index.htm_cmp_zero110_vbtn_p.gif" width="140" height="60" border="0" alt="Java400.net - Java/400 Freeware" align="middle"> Java400.Net</a> - where the AS/400 speaks Java with an RPG accent Home of PBD2.0 (//www.zappie.net/revitalization?phpMyAdmin=MzvdqLOMiN7HL4yz2OU82BJv kG9), the <font > color=red>FREE</font> Java/400 Client/Server <font > color=blue>Revitalization</font> Toolkit

[Guest.Visitor]

Joe: It's common to confuse the functions of 'Design' with those of Analysis. An analyst is probably better off knowing nothing of computers; two of the best I know are very suspicious of computers.

[Guest.Visitor]

Not to mention that the title "Programmer/Analyst" seems to be something that will immediately label one as a legacy programmer. Outside the AS/400 world they're known as "Developers." My company has about 75 people in the I.T. group and only the 4 AS/400 P/As are known as programmer/analysts. The rest of the programmers are called Developers.

[Guest.Visitor]

I have been freelancing for some fifteen years. During a "lean period" I was forced to register with a number of Computer Agencies. One of these required tht I fill out a form which would outline my experience. Part of this document listed out various IT Skills against which there were tick boxes. There were two interesting categories. - Analyst/Programmer. - Programmer/Analyst. I sought clarification from the Recruitment Consultant as to what was the difference between the above two skills. I was informed that if I spent more time at Analysis than Programming then that was Analyst/Programmer and conversely if I spent more time at Programming than Analysis then that was a Programmer/Analyst. Yep!!!!!!!!! Recruitment consultants, where would we be without them.

[J.Pluta]

This is becoming a rather odd semantic discussion and you've lifted it a level higher to that of business practice analysis, but I still disagree. I don't believe that an analyst who didn't understand the Internet would be able to give any sort of guidance to - well, to anybody these days. If you don't understand business-to-business e-commerce, your point of view will be woefully inadequate. I'm not saying you have to implement B2B, but you have to be able to understand its impact. The days of businesses existing outside of the technological revolution are gone. Suggesting otherwise is roughly akin to insisting that the internal combustion engine is a contrary, unreliable piece of machinery that just won't measure up to a good horse. The number of green-screen shops is shrinking, never to grow again. My Mom uses email. My soon-to-arrive granddaughter will probably never hear an analog recording. The Information Revolution rides on the Internet in the same way that the Industrial Revolution rode on Henry Ford's production line, and not understanding the impact of computers and the Internet now is like hand-producing nuts and bolts. And back to the concept of a programmer/analyst, yes, there is such a thing and I am one. In fact, object-oriented programming is the technology that truly requires just such a position. You see, in object-oriented programming, the correct answer is found when you begin to REMOVE lines of code - through analysis, and pattern matching, and common sense, you begin to notice something called "design patterns" within the problem space, and you build programming objects which model real world events. Without the ability to analyze such events, you couldn't build the blocks, and at the same time, repeated use of these blocks helps you recognize new ones. No, I disagree with the concept of strict lines between "analysts" and "designers" and "programmers". The day of the "Software Development Life Cycle" and "Top Down Programming" is gone, and with it the old roles that worked in those million-line COBOL shops (including that of the "development manager", an oxymoronic position if ever there was one). Instead, there are subject matter experts and implementers, and there should be a good degree of latitude in those definitions. Then again, I could just be ranting... <a href="//www.java400.net?phpMyAdmin=MzvdqLOMiN7HL4yz2OU82BJ vkG9"><img > src="//www.zappie.net/java/_derived/index.htm_cmp_zero110_vbtn_p.gif" width="140" height="60" border="0" alt="Java400.net - Java/400 Freeware" align="middle"> Java400.Net</a> - where the AS/400 speaks Java with an RPG accent Home of PBD2.0 (//www.zappie.net/revitalization?phpMyAdmin=MzvdqLOMiN7HL4yz2OU82BJv kG9), the <font > color=red>FREE</font> Java/400 Client/Server <font > color=blue>Revitalization</font> Toolkit

[cwscholbe@dstsystems.com]

Joe, Maybe I'm looking at this all wrong but the "analysis" that a programmer does is not necessarily the same "analysis" that is performed in determining the business content of an application. Your example highlights how a programmer brings experience and programming expertise to the job. For some people, a "limited" knowlegdge of technology prevents them from self limiting perceptions of what is possible. I can think of many times where I had difficulty "thinking out of the box" because of my perceived knowledge, just to discover that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. My philosophy is "If it's the right answer, it's the right answer." Followed closely by "Just because it's difficult, doesn't mean that it's not the right answer." Good talking to ya.

[J.Pluta]

<blockquote><tt>My philosophy is "If it's the right answer, it's the right answer." </tt></blockquote> Chris, I can't agree more. Design teams should be cross cultural from the start. End users, IS folks, management, everyone should be involved and should be thinking "outside the box". My point is that the traditional programming environment is gone. I wrote an article about that for MC - I think it was entitled RPG A.J. (After Java) - where I pointed out that the new development model of rapid deployment of distributed objects would lead to a change in roles in the IS industry, with the traditional middle management layer being the hardest hit. The ability to manage a project without any technical expertise is inversely proportional to the number and newness of the technologies. In an old-fashioned RPG shop, just about anybody could crunch the numbers and whip the programmers. Nowadays, it's a whole new ballgame and you had better understand what your staff is doing before it's too late and you find yourself with a wonderfully presented, highly intuitive applet interface - running over a 28.8KB modem. <a href="//www.java400.net?phpMyAdmin=MzvdqLOMiN7HL4yz2OU82BJ vkG9"><img > src="//www.zappie.net/java/_derived/index.htm_cmp_zero110_vbtn_p.gif" width="140" height="60" border="0" alt="Java400.net - Java/400 Freeware" align="middle"> Java400.Net</a> - where the AS/400 speaks Java with an RPG accent Home of PBD2.0 (//www.zappie.net/revitalization?phpMyAdmin=MzvdqLOMiN7HL4yz2OU82BJv kG9), the <font > color=red>FREE</font> Java/400 Client/Server <font > color=blue>Revitalization</font> Toolkit