Role of the business college in the education and training of computer systems analysts for public sector jobs

This project was undertaken in an attempt to determine whether the present curriculum in those business schools which offer courses in computer-based systems concepts can provide educational preparation appropriate for government careers in automatic data processing systems development. For the purposes of this paper, the context in which the term “systems analyst” will be used will be restricted to computer-related tasks. This does not eliminate those individuals engaged in what is variously called “applications analysis”, “information analysis”, “systems coordination”, etc. from the scope of the study, so long as their work leads to a computer-based systems proposal (and, in most instances, eventual implementation). The study is further limited to the functions of systems development for what are generally classified as “business” applications—whether they occur in business per se or in government. Business applications are those characterized by the manipulation of large data volumes and the traditional file-handling processes of creation, maintenance, retrieval, formatting, reporting, summarization, and sorting—with only a minimal amount of complex mathematical computation.