A realistic approach to teaching systems anlaysis at the small or medium-sized college
It is difficult for the small or medium sized college to offer and staff the broad spectrum of system analysis and design courses that some curriculum designers are currently recommending. This article proposes a single senior level capstone course in systems analysis and design to partially solve this problem. The course, carefully designed and orchestrated, will teach the essentials of systems analysis and structured design and still develop the interpersonal skills necessary to produce a well-trained systems analyst. INTRODUCTION There are a variety of approaches to teaching systems analysis in colleges and universities. These range from not offering a course to offering as many as seven courses. In fact, a reasonably strong case can be made for the extreme of offering a sequence of seven courses in the area of systems analysis. Dinerstein [4] presents such a case. Clearly, at least one course should be offered. A recent study by Archer [i] reveals that business and industry list systems analysis as the most important course in a list of typical computer science courses offered in the small college. Table ~ summarizes these findings.