Information technology (IT) is a fast-moving industry. Its impact on the modern world is also immense, whether in personal, business, or governmental domains. Almost no medium-sized businesses can survive without a robust IT policy. Despite being critical, those interested in joining the IT workforce will find their skills, gained through education, become quickly outdated. Twenty-five years ago, I gained knowledge from textbooks like this by earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science, yet the field has shifted dramatically since then. Computer security, cloud computing, and agile methods – now dominant concerns – had minimal-to-no discussion during my education. So I picked up this book to get a bird’s eye view of the industry again.
It’s worth noting that this book was published in 2017 and is itself quickly becoming outdated. Nonetheless, it has been published recently enough to point to major industry trends still at play. My work as a developer provides an excellent place to solve individual problems through detailed problems, but this book allowed me to zoom out to see the enterprise as a whole. Sure, I skimmed some sections because I knew them so well, but I also slowed down at others that provided more detail.
The book focuses on workers who are not programmers but instead the people through whom programmers interface with the business. Topics include project management, systems analysis, design, implementation, support, and cybersecurity. Comprehensive in scope, this book referred to several tools that I rarely use in my work. By reminding me of their existence, it put a few tools back into my toolbox. It also introduced me to a few new ways to accomplish work more intelligently, like GanttProject.
Nothing that this book says is revolutionary. It’s more of a textbook than an argument for a new paradigm. I wish it’d have more notes to the original literature so that I could find another work or two on a given area instead of the usual Amazon or Google search. Nonetheless, it provided a thorough, broad view of the “shoreline” of IT – something I could always use. A textbook is less inexpensive and less stressful than going to a conference, so I believe my time here was well spent.
Systems Analysis and Design
By Scott Tilley & Harry Rosenblatt
11th Edition
Copyright (c) 2017
Cengage Learning
ISBN13 9781305494602
Page Count: 572
Genre: Computer Science
www.amazon.com