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Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis

Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis Author: Patrick McDermot Publisher: iUniverse Published: 2003 Pages: 175

Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis takes the reader down the road most traveled but rarely expressed. The wins and pitfalls of Systems Analysis are not often found in the tools or the models used, instead Systems Analysis lives or dies by how the System is expressed and understood by the various stake holders of a given system.

Patrick McDermot adopts a similar style of explanation as can be found in such classics as 'The Book of Five Rings'. Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis blends practical observation and experience with Koans (paradoxes to be contemplated and mediated about), those with a martial arts or oriental philosophy background will appreciate the value of this style writing.

Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis Chapters

Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis Chapters

1. Nirvana through Analysis
   • Getting Started
   • Yin and Yang
   • The Unpleasant and the Difficult
   • Five Why's will Make You Wise
   • Think Outside the Box
   • Everybody Knows About Chicken Feed
   • 'No Fishing from Bridge
     • The Legacy Curse
     '
   • Brain Lamb, the World's Best Interviewer
2. The Tao of Design
   • A Protest From One of the Inmates
   • Outline or Refactor?
   • Excerpts from a Status Report
   • Presentation Tips
   • Designs that Should be Flushed
   • Bad UI
   • Pickpocket's Paradise
   • Don't Over-Automate
   • What You Can't Give
   • Type, Status and Date
   • Payment Level
   • Redundant and Superfluous
   • Gates at the Gate
3. The Consultant as Guru
   • You Must Know the Answer to Every Question
   • Getting Your Expertise Used
   • Japan's Greatest Guru
   • Kaizen
   • The BART Train in Perspective
   • The Two Doctors
   • Machiavellian Modelers
     • Phony Completion Dates
     • Hidden Sources
     • If You Would Eschew the Subjunctive
     • Brainstorming Ulterior Motives
   • Consensus
   • Conspicuous Consumption
4. The Way of Business
   • The Strategy of Musashi
   • How Business and Information Systems Relate
     • Business
     • Software
     • Hardware
   • A Business Quiz
   • The Planning Paradox
     • Target Unknown
     • Bottom-up or Top-Down Planning
   • Bugs and Quality Control
   • The Terrible Twins
     • Analysis Paralysis
     • Scope Creep
   • Personal Objectives
   • Measuring
   • What's Success?: Mallory vs. Hillary
5. The Zen of Economics
   • Les Programeurs Miserables
   • Faster, Cheaper, Better
   • Sunk Opportunities
     • Sunk Costs are Junked Costs
     • Opportunity Cost
   • The Boehm Curve
   • Luddites
   • Metcalfe's Law
   • Learning Curve
   • The Pareto Principle
   • Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
   • Changes in Closet
6. The Karma of Culture
   • A Problem Like Any Other
   • The Two Cultures
   • Feasibility Studies
   • A Hot New Video
   • Teamwork
   • Perceptions Are Reality
   • Empathy with Users
   • Apple Corps
   • The JAD Session from Hell
   • Of Hottentot and Analysts
   • International Bus Tour
     • Why Did it Rain?
     • No Problem?
     • Writing it Down
   • A Puzzling Contradiction
   • The Dangerous One
7. Methodological Mindfulness
   • The Power of Babel
   • Religious Wars
   • Sashimi isn't SAD
     • Which is Methodology is Best?
   • Brain Typhoon
     • The Process
   • Naturally Normal
8. Meditations on a Model
   • The Sound of One Hand Clapping
   • How Can You See What Cannot Be Seen?
   • How Many Words is One Picture Worth?
   • What is the Ultimate Data Model?
   • What Should One Model?
   • When is a Fact About a Thing In Fact a Thing?
   • Is there Organization Object Ontology?
   • What is the Metaphysics of Metadata
     • Data and Metadata
     • DDL
     • DML
   • Who am I?

Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis Appendices

1. Bibliography
   • Things Japanesey
   • Things Programmatical
   • Things System Developmental
   • Things Technological
   • Things Eclectic
   • Japanese Management
   • For A Good Story
2. About the Author
3. Index

Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis doesn't deal directly with modelling, or implementation, which is where most of the time is consumed by a Systems Analysis, instead the reasoning behind system analysis and how to make system analysis effective is explored. Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis is a Sky Scraper view of System Analysis that quickly plummets and plumbs specific interactions that always seem to pop up in System Analysis and Software Development.

Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis is overall an entertaining read, it works very well if you have already experienced some of the Koans and approach the discipline of Systems Analysis in a similar style. Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis is good system analysis book to have in your armoury of read material, it is a quick read, and the information stays with you along the path of a System Analyst.