Assignment 1

Instructions

Students who are expected to find their own "real-world" case study; please discuss with your campus lecturer.

Presentation: search for examples of consulting company reports, your assignment should have a professional look and feel; put your name, student number, course and semester only on the cover sheet - the rest of the assignment should look like a professional Business Analyst's report.

Note the numbering of assignments and tasks has been changed to conform with the Course Specification

Assignment 2

TASK 2.01 Project Journal

Develop and maintain a project journal for this phase of your project with date, summary of activities undertaken, actions completed and actions planned.

TASK 2.02 Background

Briefly introduce your organization in terms of name, the industry it operates within, products and services, clients, suppliers, major competitors and competing products/services, major processes, ownership, key personnel and key issues/challenges.

TASK 2.03 Draft a problem/opportunity definition.

For your business analysis project

TASK 2.04 Define options to address problem/opportunity

Structure options in a table with pros, cons, risks, expected costs, benefits.

TASK 2.05 Write a System Vision statement.

TASK 2.06 Write the Objectives for the project

TASK 2.07 Write a scope statement - list what is in-scope and what is out of scope

TASK 2.08 Conduct stakeholder analysis and identify all persons, groups and institutions who may have an interest in the project and the nature of their interest

TASK 2.09 Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS)

Analyse the project and produce a 1-page Work Breakdown Structure

TASK 2.10 Draft an interview agenda for your interview with the CEO, refer to the text and on-line for examples.

Assignment 3

The tasks below build upon the work you have undertaken in Assignment 2:

TASK 3.01 Provide an "AS IS" process using Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) or UML (Unified Modelling Language)

TASK 3.02 Develop a "TO BE" process using BPMN or UML

TASK 3.03 Write a list of the key functionalities of the system (write a brief functional and non-functional specification)

TASK 3.04 Build a product backlog for the system by decomposing the features into stories (using Agile format "As a .... I want to .... so that..")

Product backlog should be in a spreadsheet format

Task 3.05 Compare your As is and to be diagrams to prepare a briefing note for the Organisational change and Training Team regarding the anticipated business impact of the system. You should make recommendations on how these business impacts can be managed

TASK 3.06 From a business perspective categorise the backlog using the MOSCOW method and identify the stories that makes your minimum viable product

TASK 3.07 Develop a screen design for two MUST stories created in Task 3.06 and identify any business rules; justify your design

TASK 3.08 Write all acceptance criteria for these two stories to be done

TASK 3.09 Write a Job Description for a Business Analyst

ASSIGNMENT 4

Breaking news!!! Your Case Study organization's CEO says they now want all software development and maintenance to be outsourced; this includes existing systems as well as new systems. Your job is now to assist in that process through undertaking the following tasks:

TASK 4.01 Journal

Start a new journal so you can keep a log of activities undertaken in this project. Your columns should include item reference number, date of entry, activity name, activity description, responsibility, outstanding issues, open or closed, and notes. You should make an entry every time you do any work on your assignment.

TASK 4.02 Objectives

Write the Project Objectives (i.e. what might the CEO be trying to achieve via outsourcing - do research on the pros and cons of outsourcing. Outline the different outsourcing delivery models the CEO might want to consider using as part of the solution).

TASK 4.03 Scope Statement

Write a Project Scope Statement, list and describe what could be outsourced and expected service bundles the outsourcer would be expected to deliver.

TASK 4.04 WBS

Outline how you will approach your outsourcing project through developing a WBS. For each task or work package show the expected duration and the role and organisation (e.g. internal IT operations, IT delivery, commercial, legal, external outsourcer legal etc.) that will perform each task.

TASK 4.05 Project Plan

Draft a Gantt chart project plan for the Outsourcing project. You can do this in an MSWord table, or use other tools and then copy into a Word document as an embedded object.

TASK 4.06 RFT

Draft the Executive Summary and Table of Contents only for your RFT. You will need to find examples on the internet.

TASK 4.07 Evaluation Methodology

Prepare a document to explain to potential suppliers how Tenders will be evaluated including the culling criteria to select a short-list for more detailed evaluation. Include a list of the KPIs and SLAs you would expect the outsourcer to deliver the services to. You will need to research KPIs and SLAs.

TASK 4.08 Communications and change management

This project may have significant impacts on internal stakeholders. Prepare a briefing note for the project's Organisational change and Training Team identifying the stakeholders, their interest and potential impacts of the project on them. Your report should cover People, Structure/organisation, Technology and Equipment, Processes/services (use these as sub-headings) and make recommendations on how these business impacts can be managed.

TASK 4.09 Report to CEO

Presume you have completed the project and found a suitable solution(s) and supplier(s). Write a one-page report to the CEO. This report at a minimum should include the objectives, background, processes undertaken, solutions evaluated and recommendations to the CEO. You will need to simulate some of this information since you will not actually advertise an RFT, you need to imagine what you might have done to get to this point.