Systems Analyst Series – Chapter 4: How to be a Systems Analyst

Here are the tricks of the trade for the Systems Analyst.

Be The Machine

Seriously, get in the server room and touch those servers. Listen to them for whining fans or clicking drives. Smell for the lingering odor of the telltale burnt component. See that red light on Rack #5? That could mean something… Take the temperature in the server room, check the humidity and overall weather conditions to prevent runaway heat or loss of AC.

Monitor and Alert

There are a number of free monitoring and alert tools that will send an email, text message, phone call or turn a web page red to let you know there is a problem with any piece of equipment. In the old days we would get a page when a server was down but now we use smart phones instead. My favorite alerting software is called bigbrother which morphed into hobbit which had to change its name to xymon:http://sourceforge.net/projects/xymon/ At least this one is free and just as good as the expensive solutions.

Be Flexible

Sometimes you have to be physically flexible while working in tight spots behind the racks in the server room or sorting out cables under the user’s desk but the most common flexibility is interacting with other users. You have to open your calendar to accommodate any time, open you heart to engage with any user and open your mind to facilitate any scenario. Like the chameleon who matches the background the Analyst must fit in with all groups from the temps, to the execs or anyone in between. It helps to know a little about every group.

Be There

My cube is on the corner of First and Main and people always say I should move to a corner cube but my location says I am open for business and stop in any time. I could demand my own time and space but it seems like a cliché to be the grouchy old computer guy and this is not the season for being hard to work with, especially for us baby boomers.

Mess around with Stuff

It might seem counterintuitive but you need to break things on purpose so you get exposed to the error messages and solutions. If you are afraid of breaking things then you are a bad analyst. Anyone can break things and not feel bad about it; they are called regular users. The only thing that separates an Analyst from a regular user is the Analyst feels bad about it and wants to fix it as fast as possible. The regular user rarely realizes just how bad it's broken to begin with.

Be Picky

It's only natural for an Analyst to be a picky person. They can't help looking for faults and vulnerabilities. In everything. But don't get the idea that they are omnipotent or all observing because they are selective about what they scrutinize. What do you expect from a picky bastard?

Ignore Things

The other primary instinct of the average Analyst is knowing when to ignore things. You can't look at everything so it's really a matter of looking past most things to find the real rub. No sense chasing after wild geese when the cooked goose will come home to roost soon enough. So the next time you see a Systems Analyst looking all spaced out it might be their best work of the day.

Be Real

You might think an analyst would be clever and sharp but if they had those qualities they would get a better job. Instead you have those people who couldn't quite concentrate hard enough to be a real engineer. Like a Minor League player who never makes it to the Big League, they love to play, but not the pay, which is never enough.