Business Analysis

• Session 2

Class Projects

1. Analyse the competitive strategy of your company. What kind of ISs will provide the company with a competitive advantage?

2. How much does IT matter to your company? Analyse.

3. Prepare a business case for a new IS for your company.

4. Analyse business processes of your company. Identify the areas of improvements/ redesign/ outsource.

Class Projects

5. Whether your company is selecting and funding the right IT projects?

6. Whether your company is going to compete effectively with ISs.

7. What characteristics must be changed in a retail chain to make them ready for today and tomorrow?

8. How can you analyse a business opportunity into a business project? Take the example of IS.

Project Details• Today date : 18/10/2009• First Review : 22/11/2009• Final Submission : 6/12/2009• Presentations : 13/12/2009

(No report will be accepted after its last date)

Weightage: • Marks 30

– Report Submission 10– Presentation 20– Report is to be submitted in hard copy alongwith a soft copy (may have

30-40 pages)– Being a group activity, all the members of the group would give a

presentation. Each group would be given 30 minutes.

Business Analysis: Recap of Session 1

Business Analysis

• Why?

• What?

• Who is a business Analyst?

Business Analysis – Why?

• To identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems.

(Solutions often include a system development component, but may also consist of process improvement, or organizational change (strategies, goals, policies)

• Majority of the IS projects fail because of the communication gap between the business managers and the technical experts.

Contingencies and their Contribution to Uncertainty

ContingencyType

Degree ContributiontoUncertainty

Project Size SmallLarge

- +

Degree ofStructuredness

SmallLarge

+ -

User Task Comprehension IncompleteComplete

+ -

Developer’s Task Proficiency HighLow

- +

Business Analysis What?

• Business analysis is the discovering, modeling and specification of the logical requirements of a business in order to design and build effective IS solutions.

Business Analyst – Who?

The business analyst, acting as an intermediary between the business and technical communities, analyzes competing business needs and develops plans to implement the projects that support stakeholder objectives.

A Business Analyst is a

• Strategist• Architect• Systems Analyst

……thus the course on Business Analysis …….

……….intends to sensitize the Managers to the skills they will soon need to practice for developing effective and efficient systems…………..

System

Input OutputProcess

A set of inter-related elements working towards a common objective(s).

Exercise-1

• Which one(s) of them represent a System? – Respiration – A Rickshaw– A Hotel

System and Environment

Environment

Boundary

Systems

System and Environment

• A system is a set of interrelated elements that collectively work together to achieve some common goal or objective..

• All systems function within some sort of environment. The environment, like the system is made up of elements. These elements surround the system and often interact with it.

Types of Systems

• Closed Systems

• Open Systems / Cybernetic Systems

Cybernetic System

Input OutputProcess

Involves a feed back control Loop

Feed Back Control Loop

....Systems Approach

• Every system is held together by way of Information Exchange.

Classical

Systems

The Changing Business Environment

• Globalization

• Transformation of Industrial Economy

• Transformation of Enterprise

Increased Capability of Information Technology

• Processing Capability

• Portable Computing

• Global Networking

• Enterprise Networking

• Distributed Computing

• Graphical User Interface

What is Information?

• It is Data organized in a form useful to the recipient.

• Examples:– Today’s headlines– The highest ever score in one day cricket– The top scorer in a class – The top 10 business houses of India.

What is Data?• A stream of raw facts about events as they

occur in a system or the environment.

• Examples:– All Events in the world.– Record of all the players in one day cricket

matches.– Detailed Marks of all students in a class.– Business data as obtained from various

business houses.

So What is Information ?

• Tells something the receiver did not know

• Reduces uncertainty

• Has a surprise value

• Has a real / perceived value in current / prospective decision.

Business Dimensions of Information

Top Management

Operating Management

StructuredProgrammedHistoricalExactInternal

UnStructuredNonProgrammedFuturisticInExactExternal

What is an Information System

• A set of interrelated components which– Collect, retrieve, process, store and distribute

information – Support decision making and control

• A means of connecting the managed operating functions by way of information exchange.

• A support to the functions of management for planning, organizing, control and decision making.

What is an Information System

Computer Based Information System

• An information System in which computers play a vital role.

In today’s scenario, any information system practically, cannot operate without a support of computers.

Computer Based Information System: Components

• Hardware & Software

• Modelbase

• Database

• People

• Procedures

Effects Of Information Systems

• People Are Working Smarter

• The Notion of Industry is changing Globally.

• Ideas and Information have precedence over money.

• People working with Information Dominate.

Types of Users

• Hands on Users

• Indirect End Users

• User Manager

• Senior Management

Management levels in organizations

•Strategic Level

•Middle Level

•Operational Level

Management and Information Needs

Top Level

Middle Level

Low Level

Figure 2.4 Interaction Between Levels Of Management

Policies Budgets Plans Objectives

Revenues Costs Profits

Schedule Measurements

Goods Services Performance

Organizations and Information Needs

• High similarities in the same industry.

• Only back end similarities in different industry.

• Information needs affected by Mergers and Acquisitions.

• Information needs depend on the organization’s product line, structure, culture and environment.

Types of Information Systems

• Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)• Management Reporting Systems (MRS)• Office Automation Systems (OAS

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

Management Reporting Systems

Executive Support Systems

Expert

System

s

Decisi

on Sup

port

System

s

Office

Auto

mation

System

s Strategic Level

Middle Level

Operational Level

Group Exercise - 1

• Consider any organization that you have been visiting– Identify various activities involved in the

organization– Identify the ways in which activities are

grouped in the organization– Identify the information exchanged across

various levels.– Discuss possible benefits the organization

might/has accrue(d) by deploying IS/IT.

What Bad Things Happen To Good Projects

Time Overshoots

Cost Overshoots

System Failure

Low Quality Unsatisfied User

Why Bad Things Happen To Good Projects

System Result in Result in Failure

Causes Problems

Project Size

Unstructuredness

User’sTaskComprehension

Developer’sTaskProficiency

TimeOvershoots

Cost Overshoots

Unsatisfied User

Low Quality

Contingencies and their Contribution to Uncertainty

ContingencyType

Degree ContributiontoUncertainty

Project Size SmallLarge

- +

Degree ofStructuredness

SmallLarge

+ -

User Task Comprehension IncompleteComplete

+ -

Developer’s Task Proficiency HighLow

- +

Why Does a Project Need a PM and a BA?

• The PM is responsible for ensuring that the product is delivered to the customer on time and within budget.

• The BA is responsible for ensuring that the product is built according to the requirements and is built correctly

• The product will be built correctly, according to requirements, on time and within budget!

PM vs BAThe Project Manager• Is usually the first person assigned to the project. • Is responsible for planning the project and ensuring the team follows the

plan. • Manages changes, handles problems and keeps the project moving. • Manages people, money and risk. • Is the chief communicator of good or bad news to the Business Sponsors

and IT Management. The Business Analyst• Is usually assigned to the project after it has started. • Is responsible for bridging the gap between the business area and IT. • Learns the business inside and out. • Essentially serves as the architect of effective business systems. • Is viewed inconsistently across the industry in regard to job title, definition

and responsibilities.

Skill Set -Similarities

Skill Set -Differences

Job of BA

• requirements development ;and requirements management.

• elicits, analyzes, validates and documents business, organizational and/or operational requirements.

• Solutions often include a systems development component, but may also consist of process improvement or organizational change.

Approaches to Systems Development

•Structured Approach

•Flexible (Iterative) Approach

Approaches to Systems Development

• Structured Approach•Waterfall Method (Linear Sequential)

• Flexible Approach•Prototyping•Iterative Enhancement•Spiral Model•Rapid Application Development (4GL; JAD)

• Hybrid Approach

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

PreliminaryInvestigation

Maintenance

Testing

RequirementsAnalysis

SystemsDesign

Coding

Problems with SDLC

•Real Projects are generally iterative, not sequential

•Difficult to state all requirements in the beginning

•Customers need to be patient as working version not available until late.

Prototype Model

Start

Stop

RequirementsGathering and

RefinementQuick Design

BuildingPrototype

EngineerProduct

CustomerEvaluationRefining

prototype

Problems With Prototype

•Customer may request a few fixes in the working version, unaware of quality

•Developer may apply inefficient solutions for quick design, later forget the reasons for inefficiency.

Spiral Model

Planning Risk Analysis

CustomerEvaluation

Engineering

Towards a completed system

Problems with Spiral Model

• It may go uncontrollable

• Demands considerable risk assessment

• Relatively new model; less experience

Joint Application Design

• A structured Process in which users, managers and analysts work together for many days in a series of meetings to specify or review system requirements.

• Proposed by IBM.

Fourth Generation Techniques

Requirements Gathering

Design Strategy

Implementation using 4GL

Testing

Problems with 4GTs

•4GLs exist for very specific domains

•Current tools not sophisticated

•Tough to maintain

•Produce inefficient code

Hybrid Approach

...Combining various Methodologies

Operational System

Preliminary requirements gathering

RequirementsAnalysis

Prototyping 4GT Spiral modelfirst iteration

Design

Coding

Testing

4GT

PrototypingLast iteration

4GT

Spiral modellast iteration

Maintenance

Operational System