The State of Systems Analysis and Design

Systems Analysis and Design (SA&D) is one of the fundamental areas within most Information Systems (IS) curricula. The complexity of teaching this course continues to grow as most of the traditional learning outcomes are required along with an increasing set of skill-related out-comes associated with integrated Computer Aided Systems Engineering (CASE) tools and Ob-ject-Oriented Analysis. This paper addresses a survey and analysis of what is currently being taught in the Systems Analysis and Design (SA&D) course as identified by the educators who teach the material. It discusses the perceptions IS educators have about various SA&D topics and concepts, and explores the common problems and obstacles that are associated with teaching the SA&D course. Some IS topics identified as very important are allotted small quantities of instructional time, and some important topics are given no time at all. This di-chotomy is a surprise. A new chronology of topic areas is developed based on the survey