This concentration prepares students to function as both a Business Analyst (BA) and a Systems Analyst (SA). In general, both a BA and a SA are charged with understanding the issues of the business or organizational unit and ensuring that IT projects meet those business needs. Typically, the emphasis for a Business Analyst is upon ferreting out and organizing the needs of a user department or a project, as well as ensuring that those needs are tied to the functional requirements of its IT systems. Business Analysts should have outstanding communication skills, a desire to work with people, and strong organizational abilities. For a Systems Analyst, the emphasis typically is upon designing and overseeing the development of a workable IT system that will meet those functional requirements. Thus, a Systems Analyst may be involved in requesting and analyzing bids, developing hardware requirements, setting and overseeing testing standards, directing programming activity, and coordinating the installation of information systems. Systems Analysts should have strong knowledge in methodologies and modeling techniques, solid communication skills, in-depth knowledge of the IT field, a strong inclination toward lifelong learning, and outstanding organizational ability.

Learn more about admission to this program.

Online Learning Options

This concentration is available online. CDM online degrees are delivered mostly through COL-enabled courses, although other delivery technologies are also used. If a course is COL-enabled, any student registered in the course has access to the course playback. Students are strongly encouraged to utilize the COL resource wherever available. To complete this degree a student may take any combination of online and on campus courses. For more information on online learning at CDM visit the Online Learning page.