Foreword

The past decade has been one of striking change for the discipline of systems analysis. As recently as the mid-1980s, analysts everywhere were still inclined to dictate to their users what the new system would be like. They typically passed down their pronouncements in the form of a written specification. Today, that approach will no longer fly anywhere. Today, we analysts find ourselves serving not so much as inventors of the new system but as catalysts for the invention process. Instead of text, we rely on models of all kinds: function models, data models, object schemas, state models, prototypes, GUI frameworks, and the like.

At the key interface between analyst and user, the dialogue has changed, too. Before, we tended to say, “Here’s ...

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