Reference no: EM132995370

ITECH2305 Analysing the Modern Business

Business Analysis Case Study and Presentation Assignment

Overview

For this assignment, you will propose solutions to address an identified business need for an organisation. After performing strategy analysis of the current state of affairs, you will identify and manage a set of requirements, design possible solutions, analyse and compare the solutions for potential value and make a recommendation of a particular solution. You will communicate your analysis, designs, and recommendations through a written report and an oral presentation.

• K2: Discuss a variety of contemporary tools and techniques used for business analysis and when these are appropriate to use
• K3: Identify and explain the core concepts of business analysis
• S1: Analyse, document and manage business requirements
• S2: Investigate and compare various business analysis methods, tools and techniques
• S3: Identify and apply appropriate means of communication for disseminating information between stakeholders
• S4: Determine a variety of possible solutions and make recommendations to address business needs
• A1: Develop, manage, and effectively communicate business requirements
• A2: Analyse and critique the implementation of a business solution
• A3: Prepare and justify a case for business change

Assessment Details / Tasks
Overview
You are required to identify an opportunity for a change to an organisation or sector, where that change will involve an Information Technology solution. That means a change to or introduction of an information system which stores/manages/uses data in some manner.
You are then to perform a range of business analysis activities, in order to prepare a document proposing at least 2 solution designs, as outlined in more detail below.
The focus of your "opportunity" must be related to some current/recent issue as reported in reputable Australian news media. "Current" means anything that has come to the world's attention since January 2021 until September 2021. "Reputable media" means organisations listed in the Appendix at the end of this document.

Some past examples of "opportunity" involving an information system solution, include the following:
• When there are large-scale bushfire events which require citizens to be evacuated, people often want to know if their relatives from the affected area are safe and accounted-for. What sort of Information System solution could be developed to enable the authorities to coordinate the process of accounting for the whereabouts of citizens who normally live in the evacuated area so that relatives can know if they are safe, given mobile phone towers are offline?
• When the Coronavirus is identified in the general community, government health authorities need a way to be able to contact everyone that the person has been in contact with over a period of a fortnight. What sorts of information systems could be developed to help make the process of finding close-contacts be as quick and reliable as possible for the government to contact the close-contacts so that they can be tested?
• The government had a program of trying to recover from citizens, social security payments that had been made to the citizens, in the case where it was later determined that the citizens had possibly not been eligible to receive those payments. This process was being done by an automated information system which had a poor algorithm, that relied on poor data sources, and was referred-to by the media as the "Robo-debt" scheme (because of its automated nature). What would be a more appropriate design for a system to perform this function and how could the data sources be made more reliable?

You cannot choose those past examples. You will need to choose something that has arisen since January 2021. You should check with your tutor/lecturer that the issue you choose is appropriate. You tutor may even suggest possible topics.

In clarifying what the opportunity you end up focusing on is: it could be inspired by identifying an area for potential growth through observation of a current issue being experienced (as the examples listed above were), or from perceiving (from your own observations and experience) an opportunity to improve an organisation's current systems.

You cannot simply describe an already existent IT-based process; you must be proposing some change. (For example, if you had chosen the issue ‘contact tracing' which was applicable in previous semesters, you could not just discuss the CovidSafe App which was a solution the government proposed to the identified need which it addressed - you would need to propose your own alternative).

Once you have identified an opportunity, you are to imagine that you have been assigned the role of Business Analyst to work on this project. Important Note: You must not contact any actual organisations. Instead, you may conduct research using online and library resources and ask your tutor or other students / friends to provide different perspectives - any such assistance from other people must be fully acknowledged in your assignment.
Your role entails performing tasks from across various Knowledge Areas of the BABOK that are covered in the course (and listed below). You then need to present the outcomes of that work in a report.
Your report must:
• Include an Executive Summary (no more than 10 lines) of the report contents, providing a brief overview of the analysis and also the recommended design solution.
• Document the outcomes of the tasks you perform (see on next page), so that the analysis and design work you have undertaken is clearly identifiable. This should enable another person to see the work you have completed and understand the outcomes you have identified. (Some of the information may be difficult to represent professionally in a report, such as diagrams produced on computer- in such cases you may use screenshots where appropriate to show the relevant information, and submit the complete model-files separately from the report.)
• Be presented in a professional manner suitable for issuing to an executive team at the organisation. It should have a table of contents, and pages should be numbered. If you refer to any books or websites for any information, this should be cited in the body of the report, and the citation should appear at the end of the report under "references".

Tasks:
1. Perform analysis to Identify Current State
You need to gain a clear understanding of the current situation of the organisation or sector that has an issue that you have identified you wish to address.
Consider the aims and strategy of the organization/sector. Consider the existing processes and roles within the organsiation and how they interact. This is likely to help you to identify exactly where the problem or the opportunity sits.
In your report you need to give an explanation of your findings from this analysis, in particular you should:
• Explain the organisation or the sector of the economy where the issue arises - what are the key aims or business objectives of the organisation/sector, and who is served by the organisation/sector.
• Identify key processes or capabilities that are already in place - list these. Additionally, try to describe 2 of the processes using either BPMN or detailed use case descriptions.
• Try to identify, or else imagine, the current organisational structure - what roles exist within the organisation to support and execute the processes and capabilities.
• Identify key technologies that are already in use and briefly list or describe these.

Then having documented those things, give a brief introduction of what/where the identified issue or opportunity for change exists. This may be in the form of two or three very high-level business objectives. (The detail will be presented in the Requirements section).
Note that you are not to include a SWOT analysis or a Business Model Canvas for this assignment (though you might find these useful aids to think with).

2. Perform Elicitation to Identify and Document Stakeholders and Requirements
You need to perform various elicitation and requirements analysis techniques in order to identify a range of requirements that would need to be addressed by any solution that is to be proposed, and then to define the requirements architecture to present these appropriately in the report.
You will also need to identify and describe each group of relevant stakeholders who would be impacted by and who may need to be involved in informing this change project, and that will help you to identify requirements (by considering what each stakeholder needs the solution to be able to do). Describe what a typical member of each stakeholder group is like (e.g. job titles/roles, level of engagement with the issue/process/systems either now and/or after a change and also during elicitation).
In terms of requirements, you need to consider/identify:
• Business requirements
• stakeholder requirements (which should be broken down into functional requirements and
non-functional requirements),

• transition requirements
In your report you will need to consider the ways that you will present all of the requirements that you identify (this is called the requirements architecture). This can involve producing lists of requirements, detailed use cases, process models (such as BPMN diagrams). Also consider how you will show how the more detailed requirements can be traced back to more abstract requirements (such as business requirements) - this is called requirements traceability. You will probably want to use numbering to cross- reference requirements in different places in the report.
Make sure you explain what the key business objectives that need to be addressed actually are. Detailed requirements should somehow be derived from the key business objectives. Remember that business objectives are high-level descriptions - statements of goals, objectives, and outcomes that describe why a change needs to be initiated.

3. Propose a change/solution that addresses the identified issue / requirements (Design Definition)
Having identified the requirements that need to be addressed by a proposed design solution, it is now time to actually design the solution. (Refer to Lecture 8 about designing solutions).
You are to propose 2 alternative solutions. Both proposed design solutions must address the same requirements - that is, each "solution" should address a large subset of the requirements, but may leave one or two aspects out (for example, the first solution may address 10 of 12 requirements, and the second might address 8 of the same 12 requirements plus the 2 requirements that were not addressed by the first solution).
In particular, for each solution you propose you must include in your report:
• A (high-level) description of the key computation/information elements of the solution. For example, is a database needed? (If so, what key items of information will it store?) Does the system require special servers, and should these be hosted on-premises or in the cloud? Or is it just an app that runs on a laptop or mobile device? Are apps required to be built that work on mobile phones / tablets, or does a web-browser app or desktop app need to be developed? Do any physical devices (similar to Myki/Opal cards and their readers, as used on public transport) need to be involved in the solution?
• A description of three key processes that will be performed by different stakeholders of the updated system once it is set-up and running. These should be in the form of BPMN diagrams that describe something which puts information into the system, and something which produces output/notification from the system. Aim for at least 3 different processes.
• Consider whether a change to the organisational structure (reporting lines, roles required) is needed. Describe the key roles / job functions that will interact with the solution when implemented, and state which processes they will be responsible for, and link these back to the identified requirements. Are any new roles required? Are any old roles no longer required?
• Depending on the exact issue/topic you have chosen, and the current state of the organisation described earlier, you may need to also describe: changes to business policies and rules, additional software that might be required to be purchased to enable the solution; identify some vendors who may need to provide specific technology to implement/support the proposed solution; consider how security or integrity of the data or the system will be ensured. Summarise any of these issues that pertain to the particular solution you are describing.
• Construct a requirements traceability matrix that links the identified requirements to elements of the proposed designs (so that it is clear why elements are present in the designs).

You are not expected to go into technical detail, so you are not expected to produce class diagrams or database schema designs or collaboration or sequence designs or detail the exact software that should be installed on computers or servers. For example, you would just describe at a high level as to whether a

server may be needed and if so what is the role/purpose of the server, rather than saying it needs to run Linux and some specific web server.
A reasonable effort would involve about 2-4 pages for each solution (including diagrams and text for non- diagram elements of the solution).

4. Analyse Potential Value and Recommend One Solution
Having provided two potential solutions, you now need to analyse the potential value of each solution, and then recommend one of them with a proper justification.
In order to be able to analyse and justify, you will need criteria.
In your report, first describe the set of criteria by which you are going to analyse the anticipated value of the two proposed solutions against. Make sure to explain how you will assess solutions against the criteria (e.g. a rating system, or a direct measurement, or other possible technique of evaluation).
Suggested criteria can be found in the Week 8 Lecture (in the section "Analyze Potential Value and Recommend Solution"). Aim for at least 6-8 different criteria. The criteria must be things which can be determined about a proposed solution prior to an implementation of the solution (but may be based on vendor statements about capability).
Then, actually assess each solution against those criteria and possibly utilise another technique to analyse their potential value.
Then, make a recommendation of one solution, and say why it is the recommended solution (and why the other one is not recommended).

Oral-Presentation
In addition to your written report, you are required to present your work in an oral presentation, as though you are presenting to a group of stakeholders from the organisation who will be deciding whether to proceed with the change and if so, with which design, based on your presentation. It is therefore necessary that you pay attention to your presentation aids, your personal appearance and the quality of your spoken presentation, as you need to make a good impression and convince the stakeholders of the merits of your work. This presentation must be of no more than 6 minutes duration.
(Depending on government social-distancing restrictions and your education institution's policies, you may be required to do this presentation using an online conference system (e.g. Zoom or Teams) that allows your teacher and fellow students to be in attendance while you present, if you are not able to attend a classroom physically.)
In giving the presentation, you may assume that the attendees have access to your written report (although other students won't have these, and the report is actually due after you do the presentation), so you do not need to provide full details of all your work, but you do need to provide enough information in the presentation to enable people who haven't read the report to follow your reasoning.
The presentation should therefore:
• identify briefly the opportunity you examined, and how this aligns with the business objectives.
• outline the overall requirements of a solution to this opportunity that you identified as being the reason to investigate change (the "needs" that were to be addressed). You may find that the models you developed in completing the tasks included in the written report are particularly useful to present this information in a readable format in your talk.
• Discuss briefly the identified measurement and evaluation criteria you will use to judge between 2 potential solution designs.
• give details of the two solution design options proposed.
• recommend one of the designs, with justifications as to why this is the optimal solution.

Attachment:- Analysing the Modern Business.rar