INF80014 Contemporary Issues in Business Analysis
Semester 2, 2018
Assignment 1
The Role of the Business Analyst
Due Date: 11:59pm on Sun Sep 2, 2018
Required Length: 2,500 words
Assessment type: Individual
Marks Allocated: 30%
Case Study: Integrated Library System
Let's consider the example of an integrated library system (ILS), which is much like the library community's equivalent of an enterprise resource planning system. An ILS is a large enterprise software that drives a lot of the library's business operations. In this example, a public library system was migrating to a new ILS from its previous administrative system, which combined a vendor-supported and customized system with the library's original homegrown system.
The library's acquisitions staff was responsible for purchasing and acquiring books, movies, periodicals, and other items that constituted the collections, as well as entering all of that information into the ILS and establishing a unique barcode for each item. Under the old system, the staff members would barcode all copies of a single item, such as all copies of a particular book, at the same time, with each copy receiving a sequentially numbered barcode. For example, 12 copies of the Harper Lee novel To Kill a Mockingbird might be numbered 101–112.
During implementation of its brand-new ILS, the library discovered a significant and showstopping difference in how the ILS handled the process for barcoding multiple copies of the same item. The Acquisitions module of the new ILS required the information for each unique item to be entered individually—meaning that the information for the library's collection of To Kill a Mockingbird would have to be entered 12 times—once for each copy of the book. If the library staff had to enter all the information for each acquisition one at a time, coding all the countless newly acquired items per year would simply be unachievable.
According to the ILS vendor, reworking the Acquisitions module to allow multiple items to be barcoded collectively—like the way that the library's old system worked—would necessitate customizing the module.
You (as an experienced business analyst) have been asked to facilitate the customization of ILS module. As a part of this assignment, your task is to present an abstract level view of activities that should be performed in six of the Core Knowledge Areas of Business Analysis - as listed below. You are also required to highlight the underlaying competencies and tools appropriate for conducting each of the knowledge areas.
CORE KNOWLEDGE AREAS
1. Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring
2. Elicitation and Collaboration
3. Requirements Life Cycle Management
4. Strategy Analysis
5. Requirements Analysis and Design Definition
6. Solution Evaluation
Note: Feel free to take any reasonable assumptions in terms of stakeholders, scope, cost or time of the project. The above-mentioned case study is partially borrowed from www.informit.com
Guidelines for your Report Layout
Your report should be presented in a structured format with adequate cited evidence from literature sources (journal articles, refereed conference proceedings and academic books). The evaluation criteria for this assignment are as follows:
Presentation and Report format (20%)
Your report should be structured with an introduction, body and conclusion. You will receive marks for the layout, clarity of presentation and logical structure.
Evidence and arguments (60%)
This section should include a clear statement of issues, and your discussion should use evidence from literature to support your views. You will receive marks for the flow of logical arguments, and validity of recommendations and conclusions you make.
Reference and citation (20%)
Your selection of references, correct bibliographic format and adequate citation of references are important for this portion of the marks. You must specify any references that you have used using the recommended Swinburne referencing system which can be found at the following site: www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/guides/harvard_system.pdf
END OF ASSIGNMENT 1