ITECH2305
ITECH2305 Assignment 2 Specification (2021-s2) ITECH2305 Analysing the Modern Business (2021-S2) Assignment 2 – Business Analysis Case Study and Presentation 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. This is an individual assignment. The work must be your own work. Timelines and Expectations Percentage Value of Task: 40% (comprising: Written Report 30%, Presentation 10%) Oral Presentation Due: in Week 10 Lab class (Week commencing 11 October, 2021) Written Report Due: 11:59pm, Sunday 17 October, 2021 (end of Week 10). Minimum time expectation: 10 hours Maximum time expectation: 30 hours Learning Outcomes Assessed The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment: 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 CRICOS Provider No. 00103D | RTO Code 4909 ITECH2305 Analysing the Modern Business (2021-20) – Assignment 2 Page 2 of 10 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.) ITECH2305 Analysing the Modern Business (2021-20) – Assignment 2 Page 3 of 10 • 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”. Remember, a report is not an essay. It is a technical/business document, which will include paragraphs but also diagrams/figures. 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 ITECH2305 Analysing the Modern Business (2021-20) – Assignment 2 Page 4 of 10 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