You are completing enterprise analysis. Management has asked you to create a document that will help them create a go/no go decision to invest and more forward with a proposed project.
What document does management want you to create?
A national branch of a global company is struggling to improve business processes of its Public and Government Affairs (PGA) department. To work with external stakeholders effectively, PGA employees need to collect, manage, and exchange a vast amount of information. Complex cases involve collaboration of many employees from different departments. The ability to share information and to coordinate corresponding activities is crucial for the company's growth plans. Their current tools and practices do not serve the purpose well. The existing system, which was deployed a couple of years ago, has only a few active users. The majority of PGA employees avoid using it because the system is hard to use and lacks needed functionality. Consequently, available information is mostly unstructured and stored either locally or on a shared network drive. Some of the information exists only in a paper form.
The branch's PGA head, who sponsors the project, wants to implement a configurable solution that two other branches successfully deployed several months ago. Both deployments were done by three solution consultants, who will be available to assist in the project. They will be responsible for tailoring the solution to PGA needs, as well as for training the PGA staff. With their help, the sponsor plans to complete the project in approximately three months.
The solution consultants reside in another country 7 hours ahead of the rest of the project team. They will be available part-time, but are planning two one-week long trips to the PGA central office to conduct initial training and to participate in the final deployment of the system into production. The consultants, in turn, expect a business analyst (BA) to assist in collecting necessary data and defining customization requirements.
A BA suggests interviewing employees to elicit user requirements and then performing a gap analysis to identify solution customization requirements. However, the sponsor believes that it will be a waste of time because the employees do not know how the process should work in the future. The sponsor expects the solution to help shape their process and wants to start with the solution as is, amending it as necessary based on the user feedback.
What should the BA do?
You are the business analyst for your organization and you are preparing the business case for a proposed solution. You need to include the management horizon in your business case. What is the management horizon?
You are the business analyst for your organization and are about to conduct requirements elicitation for a process to streamline the customer fulfillment system your organization uses. You need to understand how the people, processes, and technology within the customer fulfillment system operates before you begin the elicitation process. What type of analytical thinking are you participating in this scenario?
A non-profit utility company has 900 employees, a majority of whom are hourly employees and must track their time using a paper-based process. A few years ago the Director of Human Resources purchased a software system to eliminate the current paper-based time reporting process. No requirements specific to the utility company were defined prior to the purchase. A team was formed to implement the software. During implementation process, the team discovered the software lacked functionality and was not robust enough to support the general ledger requirements. The company stopped the effort and incurred a $500,000 USD loss on the cost of the software.
This year, the Director of Finance requested that a team investigate the current paper-based time reporting process and recommend solutions. The Director of Finance feels that the Director of Human Resources must be involved as a critical stakeholder. The Director of Human Resources is still bitter about the last effort because the process 'stopped'.
During a brainstorming session on improvement opportunities, the Director of Human Resources repeatedly interrupts the group and states why the proposed ideas will not work. Which approach should the business analyst (BA) take to refocus the group?
