Business Analysis

The basic idea of business analysis is simple. It is the practice of identifying and clarifying a problem or issue within a company, then working with the various stakeholders to define and implement an acceptable solution. However, actually conducting a business analysis can be quite complex and time-consuming.

Starting Point

The first step in the process is to identify a problem, an issue, or some other business need. Let's say that you are the owner of a small motorcycle dealership. In addition to selling bikes, your store does repairs and maintenance, sells riding gear, and custom orders parts for your customers. You have received numerous complaints from the staff and customers about the accuracy of your inventory system. The problem is the inventory system often shows parts and merchandise as being in stock, when none are actually available. This often means that a repair job is not finished on schedule, which really irritates your customers.

In a 5-8 page paper using APA format, please describe the following:

1. Introduction- Briefly describe the organization and business process to provide contextfor your project.

2. Business problem- Identify and describe a business problem for your project.

a. Create a flowchart of the current business process using Visio.

b. If you do not have Visio installed on your computer, you can access this application via the iLab tab in the Course Home unit.

3. Identify stakeholders- Provide a stakeholder tracking matrix based on eachstakeholder's position and responsibilities, the level of their involvement and their importance to the project.

What level of involvement and how much time will be expected of each stakeholder?

Importance - How important is the stakeholder in the requirements elicitation process? Are they required in order to document all of the critical project requirements, or are they optional in that they can add clarity to processes that may further refine requirements?

4. Conduct elicitationusing one of the methods listed and provide the documented resultsfrom your activity in the Appendix of your paper:

Surveys - develop a set of 5-8 multiple choice questions pertaining to the business problem that will enable you to document a list of requirements for your project, administer the survey to elicit responses from 10 participants

Interviews - develop a set of 5-8 open-ended questions pertaining to the business problem that will enable you to document a list of requirements for your project, conduct interviews to elicit responses from 10 participants

Observation - develop a list of 5 topic areas pertaining to the business problem where you can observe employees acting out the steps in the business process, document your observations and record issues that will enable you to document a list of requirements for your project

Document analysis - Gather and review at least 5 sources of existing documentation that is pertinent to your business problem or that may hold data related to a relevant solution. According to BABOK, such documentation may include, business plans, market studies, contracts, requests for proposal, statements of work, memos, existing guidelines, procedures, training guides, competing product literature, published comparative product reviews, problem reports, customer suggestion logs, and existing system specifications.