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Recommended Citation: Fisher, C W. An Empirically-based Technique for Improving Communication Skills of Systems Analysts. In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2000, v 17 (Philadelphia): §401.

An Empirically-based Technique for Improving Communication Skills of Systems Analysts

Refereed

Craig W. Fisher    [a1] [a2]
Information Systems
Marist College    [u1] [u2]
Poughkeepsie, New York, USA    [c1] [c2]

Few would argue with the premise that communication is critical to an Information Systems professional's success. While researchers recognize the importance of communication, organizations and individuals continue to have communications problems because remedial action is rarely suggested. The purpose of this paper is to recommend an interpersonal communications technique that helps a systems analyst develop much more convincing arguments and presentations to users. The technique has been used and documented in the classroom, where it provides an interesting, fun, convincing, and memorable experience for the students. Classroom experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique have been extremely favorable. The technique is regularly used by the professor in teaching Systems Analysis and Systems Design. The focus of the paper is on the classroom experiment, and the conclusions that can be applied to the profession as a whole based on those experiments.

Keywords: systems analysis, presentations, requirement specifications

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