What does a system analyst need to know?
Process analysis and modeling: the ability to break down complex processes into components and visualize them (for example, using BPMN or UML diagrams).
Requirements management: collecting, analyzing, and documenting customer requirements.
Fundamentals of Programming and databases: understanding how IT systems work in order to effectively interact with developers.
Communication skills: the ability to communicate with customers, developers, and other project participants.
Knowledge of development methodologies: Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and others.
How does system analysis differ from business analysis?
Business analysis focuses on improving business processes and solving business problems, such as increasing profits or optimizing costs. System analysis, in turn, focuses on the technical side: it examines how systems work and suggests solutions to improve them. If a business analyst answers the question "what does a business need?", then a system analyst answers "how to implement it technically?".
What is system analysis and why do lawyers need it?
System analysis is the process of studying a system (for example, a business process or an IT solution) in order to understand how it works and suggest ways to improve it. This can be useful for lawyers in the following cases::
Automation of routine tasks: System analysis helps identify processes that can be automated, such as contract review, legislative analysis, or deadline management.
Creating LegalTech solutions: If you want to develop your own IT products for the legal field, understanding system analysis will allow you to correctly formulate requirements for developers.
Legal support for IT projects: Lawyers who understand systems analysis can interact more effectively with technical specialists, which is especially important in projects related to artificial intelligence, blockchain or big data.
How does system analysis differ from business analysis?
Although both directions are related to process analysis, their goals and focus differ.:
Business analysis is aimed at improving business processes: increasing profits, reducing costs, optimizing workflow.
System analysis focuses on the technical side: how systems work, how they can be improved, and what technologies to use for this.
For lawyers who want to work in IT, it is important to understand both approaches, but system analysis provides a deeper understanding of the technical component.
How is system analysis applied in LegalTech?
LegalTech is an area where technology is being actively introduced into legal practice. System analysis plays a key role here:
Process analysis: For example, how customer requests are processed or how documents are managed.
Requirements development: What functions should a LegalTech solution have in order for it to be useful for lawyers?
Technology integration: How to integrate artificial intelligence, machine learning or blockchain into legal processes.
What skills do you need to work at LegalTech?
If you want to develop in this direction, you will need:
Basic programming knowledge: You don't have to be a developer, but it's important to understand how IT systems work.
Data management skills: The ability to analyze large amounts of information and find patterns in it.
Understanding legal processes: To create useful solutions, you need to know well how the legal industry works.
Communication skills: The ability to communicate with technical specialists and explain your ideas to them.
How do I start applying system analysis in legal practice?
Learn the basics: Start with books and courses on systems analysis and business processes.
Automate your routine: Try to identify processes in your work that can be simplified with the help of technology.
Experiment with LegalTech tools: Use ready-made solutions to understand how they work and how they can be improved.
System analysis is not just a tool for IT specialists. This is an opportunity for lawyers to become more efficient, innovate in their work, and even create their own technological solutions.
If you want to delve deeper into the topic, watch our interview with a systems analyst, where we discuss how to start a career in this field and what skills will be useful: link.
The Botman.one platform will help you with prototyping, creating questionnaires to form software requirements, generating software documentation based on templates, and many other aspects of the work performed by a system analyst who creates a legaltech solution.