1. Introduction
The aim of this coursework is to enable students to apply the concepts and techniques introduced during the lectures to a case study and assess their understanding and ability to perform the tasks in business domain and requirements analysis. Students are required to conduct the task based on the scenario described in this coursework document, and are expected to carry out the process of business domain and requirements analysis to the scenario in order to provide a systematic analysis of the problem domain that facilitates the project initiation, management and execution at a later stage (the project initiation, management, and execution issues themselves are outside the scope of this coursework). The learning objectives of the coursework include the acquisition of critical thinking, analysis and writing skills.
2. Coursework Requirements
You task is to conduct a business domain and requirements analysis for a new training system for Emeritus, to report your findings and to make a business case based on the case scenario described below. Case Scenario – Emeritus Consulting Ltd (A fictitious company) Emeritus Consulting has been in business for 15 years providing process improvement consultancy to an ever-growing portfolio of clients, across all sectors of the economy. Emeritus’s consultancy services use a number of well-known process improvement approaches, such as Lean Thinking, as well as their own approach to process improvement which they market as ‘E-DAPT’. Many of Emeritus’s consultancy assignments also require them to provide their clients with training. This is needed so that the staff can continue the process improvement work after the consultants have left. Following several recent training requests, Emeritus’s directors have decided that a training division should be set up to provide training as a formal part of the Emeritus services. The training division will have two initial objectives: 1. to design, develop and deliver training programmes to clients for whom consultancy support is currently provided, and 2. to sell training programmes to new clients and offer process-improvement consultancy to these clients. It is envisaged that the new division will require a dedicated training website through which to market Emeritus’s training services. One of Emeritus’s principal consultants, Anita Patel, has been designated as Managing Director of Emeritus Training Ltd, a new company formed as a vehicle for the training venture. She has been assigned two of the company’s experienced consultants as subject matter experts and course presenters, and she has also hired an experienced trainer to undertake course design and development. Ideally, Emeritus would like to launch the new venture in six months’ time. However, Anita Patel and the Emeritus directors also wish to ensure that they offer excellent training products to their clients in order to build a good reputation for Emeritus Training and maintain the parent company’s highly-regarded brand. To do this, they wish to research the training services domain and the characteristics of a training business system. The existing Emeritus website is a ‘shop window’ for the consultancy services but it does not mention the training courses and is not designed as a sales platform. Consultancy assignments are secured through meetings between clients and Emeritus’s senior consultants and directors. However, it is intended that the website for Emeritus Training will provide information about courses offered and will enable existing and potential clients to use the website to research courses, book training course places and request additional details about the training offered. Emeritus have set up a project to investigate the feasibility of the new business and the options for the new processes and website. This will require research into the training domain and the elicitation, analysis and documenting of the business and system requirements for the new website. The company has decided that it will use the services of external business analysts to conduct this work, which will take place under the overall guidance of Emeritus’s Chief Information officer, Clive Goodwin. Although the content of Emeritus Training’s new website will be very different from that of the parent company, Emeritus’s Marketing Director, Gail Nordstrom, is insistent that it should be visually compatible with it and that the overall ‘branding’ should be consistent across both. It is fair to say that Emeritus’s Board of Directors is not unanimous in its support for the new venture. One director in particular, David Angelis, feels that Emeritus Training will encourage customers to develop internal consultancy teams who will offer the services that the Emeritus’s consultants provide. David feels that a more limited training service would enhance the consultancy services without risking the loss of business. However, the majority view on the Board is that the consultancy and training offerings are complementary; consultancy assignments will give rise to the clients’ desire for training and clients’ attendance on courses will generate consulting opportunities. Consider the development of the new training system for the new Emeritus Training Division. You should also take into consideration of the current Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit situations in your analysis. Where conditions are underspecified, make reasonable assumptions (nothing extreme) about Emeritus Training Ltd based on the description above. Useful websites: https://www.qa.com/ https://irmuk.co.uk/ https://www.globalknowledge.com/en-GB The websites would provide the following: – General insights into the business domain – Specific insights into potential competitors – Examples of portfolios (i.e. course coverage) – Examples of how such a business would conduct online marketing – Help consider factors applicable to a PESTLE analysis or Five-forces analysis.
3. Criteria for Assessment and What to Deliver:
Students must produce an individual written report that documents the results of business domain and requirements analysis of the scenario provided above. The report will be in two self-contained and separate parts: 1) Executive Summary Report (2 pages*) 2) Business Domain and Requirement Analysis Report The complete report should not exceed 20 pages of A4 (with a variation of 10%) with a minimum font size of 10, including tables and diagrams/illustrations, but excluding references and appendices. An appendix can be used to include more detailed material to back up the main body points but will not be assessed. The report should contain all the aspects of business domain and requirements analysis covered in the module. The total of 100% will be allocated to the following aspects of the report, which should also be used as a guideline to structure the report: 1) Executive Summary Report (10 marks –TWO pages*) The executive report should effectively summarise within the page limit the business case i.e. outcome of the analysis conducted as in the Busines Domain and Requirements Analysis report aimed at senior level management/project sponsor, including: the background; problem or opportunity; options available and considered; cost/benefit analysis (immediate and longer term, tangible and intangible); impacts and risks; and recommendations. * Note the length for the executive report is two pages; if it exceeds two pages, the third page onwards of the Executive report will be excluded from the assessment. 2) The Business Domain and Requirements Analysis Report (90 marks) This report provides the academic and analytical detail of the business domain and requirements analysis conducted and to back up the approach taken and the findings and recommendations used in the executive summary report. You should examine the following: – The business domain for training and consultancy services. – The external business environment for a new training company – The background to the new training division – The options for the new training business system, including an overview of the possible business system, the definition of key business process and a representation of the requirements for the training website. The risks of these options should also be identified and assessed. – The conclusions and recommendations for the new training business system Your report should cover the following sections: • Introduction (10 marks) The introduction should include the Terms of Reference, i.e. background and problem to be addressed, motivation, scope, and assumptions. It should also outline how the report is structured. • Business domain and requirements analysis (50 marks) Your analyses should cover the following, including justification of methods and techniques used: – Strategy analysis you should carry out the strategy analysis to support the needs for the new training business system and align it with the business objectives/strategy – Organisational analysis you should conduct organisation culture and structure analysis in which the new training business system is introduced to demonstrate the understanding of the organisational context, and align it with the business objectives/strategy. – Stakeholder analysis you should identify the key stakeholders, describe their roles and responsibilities in the context of the training business system/website developed (e.g. RACI/RASCI chart); make an assessment of the stakeholders identified (e.g. power/interest analysis) and devise a strategy for stakeholder management. – Business system modelling this should include (a) identifying and analysing the business perspectives for the key stakeholders by using CATWOE framework, (b) developing a conceptual business activity model (BAM) for one business perspective by using suitable approaches and notations, (c) identifying the functional and non-functional requirements of the new training website and (d) modelling the functional requirements of the training website by using UML use case diagram – Business process modelling to present the “as-is” and “to-be” processes this should include discussion on how the system model as shown in the previous section will guide business process modelling in terms of taking the resultant use case model as input to create a business process model by using BPMN or UML. If more than one process is involved in the scenario, choose the one that you think best highlights the difference between the ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ processes. • Managing changes (10 marks) In this section, you should analyse and discuss (1) issues involved for the introduction of the new training business system and (2) devise change management strategies so as to sustain the changes. Make use of theory and models in the literature to support your arguments. • Conclusion, critical evaluation and future improvements (10 marks) In this section, you should conclude your outcomes, identify and discuss the limitations of your proposed/preferred solution and suggestions for further improvements. This might include the assessment of the suitability of the assumptions made e.g. the costs, benefits, impacts, potential risks, and ethical issues if any, analyses conducted, as well as further improvements in relation to the business case. Quality of the report (10 marks): There are 10 marks allocated to the quality of the report as follows: • Clarity of organisation and structure/presentation e.g. consistency, logic of arguments, overall flow, coherence and integration • Style of writing, use of English, effective use of tables and diagrams, proper use of citation and referencing in an Author-Year (e.g., Harvard, APA) format, length/page limit.
