Business Informatics, Systems and Accounting

Henley Business School

University of Reading

Assessed Coursework Set Front Page

Module code: INMG95

Module name: Business Domain and Requirements Analysis
Lecturer Responsible: Dr Yin Leng Tan

Work to be handed in by:

Full-time students : 1st June 2018 2pm
Part-time students : 29th June 2018 2pm

This coursework contributes to 100% of the overall module assessment.

NOTES:
Coursework must be submitted to Turnitin via Blackboard which gives it a date
and time stamp, by 2.00pm on the deadline day.

The following penalties will be applied to coursework which is submitted after the
deadline for submission:
• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any
formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available
for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day
(or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the
original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark
of zero will be recorded.

If a student believes he/she has a valid reason for being unable to meet the
deadline he/she must complete an Extenuating Circumstances form and submit it
as soon as is practicable (in principle before the deadline) to the Programme
Administrator at HBS Admin Deck office.

NOTE: It is recommended that you keep a copy of all coursework that you
submit.
 INMR66 /INMG95– Business Domain & Requirements Analysis
Coursework

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 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.

Coursework Requirements

You task is to “Designing a system to support the collection and sharing of

environmental data” based on the scenario described below.

In the country of Wonderland (imaginary, evidently) the data about the

environment is collected by two ministries:
- Ministry of Land (MoL) – responsible for providing policy direction, national
standards and coordination of all matters concerning lands, housing and urban
development
- Ministry of the Environment (MoE) – responsible for safeguarding the natural
environment, food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy
i.e. from food we eat, air we breathe to the water we drink.

Wonderland is a western-style democratic state, has a high level of education, a

high usage of the Internet and mobile phones, and a guaranteed freedom of
speech. It also has a strong bureaucratic system in which each ministry has its
own strategies and goals, and has been traditionally been poor in inter-ministry
communication. This resulted in each ministry collecting the same set of
environmental data such as temperature and rainfall, and each created their own
system of managing them. However, as the climate change and pollution issues
become more serious the government of Wonderland has decided that the data in
these ministries should be shared and managed, and a common web-based system
should be developed. Specifically, the environmental data collection and sharing
system should include the following characteristics:

- The new system should be made available to the public. In addition, to raise
public awareness and interest in climate change as well as other pollution issues,
the system will also accept data collected by members of public using mobile
devices i.e. to utilise the concept of crowdsourcing/collective intelligence where
members of public will be able to download a mobile application to do so. Such
data will be first checked by the MoE for suitability before added to the system.
- The data can be aggregated and visualised on a map according to different
regions (imagine something similar to Google Maps®).

Consider the development of the web-based system above. Make reasonable

assumptions (nothing extreme) about Wonderland based on the description
above.

Useful information:

- UK Environment Agency http://apps.environment-

agency.gov.uk/wiyby/default.aspx

- Stevens, M. & D’Hondt, E. (2010). Crowdsourcing of pollution data using

smartphones. In Workshop on Ubiquitous Crowdsourcing, UbiComp’10, Sep 26-
Sep 29, 2010, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Available at
http://soft.vub.ac.be/Publications/2010/vub-tr-soft-10-15.pdf)

- Muller, C.L., Chapman, L., Johnston, S., Kidd, C., Illingworth, S., Foody, G.,
Overeem, A. and Leigh, R.R. (2015), Crowdsourcing for climate and atmospheric
sciences: current status and future potential. International Journal of Climatology, 35:
3185–3203. doi: 10.1002/joc.4210
(Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.4210/full)

-Giuliani, G., Ray, N., De Bono, A., Dao, H., Van Woerden, J. V., Witt, R., Beniston,
M., and Lehmann, A. (2011). Sharing Environment Data through GEOSS,
International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, 2 (1), 1-17, (Available at
http://www.unige.ch/climate/Publications/Beniston/JAGR2011.pdf)

Criteria for Assessment and What to Deliver:

Students must produce a 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:
A) Executive Report (2 pages*)
B) Business Domain and Requirement Analysis Report

The report, such that A + B, should contain approximately 5,000 words (with a
variation of 10%) including any diagrams but excluding the references. An
appendix (outside word count) can be used to include more detailed material to
back up the main body points, but will not be assessed. The minimum font size
for the body text should be 10pt.

The report should contain all the aspects of business domain and requirements
analysis covered in the module. The total of 100 marks will be allocated to the
following aspects of the report, which should also be used as a guideline to
structure the report:
A. Executive Summary (10 marks –TWO pages*)
The executive summary should effectively summarise within the page limit the business case
(i.e. outcome of the business domain and requirements analysis conducted (as in Section B)
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 summary is two pages, if it exceeds two pages, the
third page onwards of the Executive Summary will be excluded from the assessment.

B. The Business Domain and Requirements Analysis Report

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 as in
(A). The report should cover the following sections:

1. Introduction (10 marks)

The introduction should include the Terms of Reference, i.e. problem to be addressed,
motivation, scope, and assumptions. This should also include how the analysis tasks are
to be carried out i.e. methods and techniques. It should also outline how the report is
structured.

2. Business domain analysis (20 marks)

This should include the strategy, organisational, and stakeholder
analyses. You should also provide an outline of how the business domain
analysis is conducted (i.e. justification of techniques and methods used).

 Strategy analysis
In this sub-section, you should carry out strategy analysis to support the needs for
the new information system and align it with the business objectives/strategy.

 Organisational analysis
In this sub-section, you should conduct the organisation analysis (e.g. organisation
culture and structure analysis) in which the new information system is introduced
to demonstrate the understanding of the organisational context, and align it with
the business objectives/strategy.

 Stakeholder analysis
In this sub-section, you should identify the key stakeholders, describe their roles and
responsibilities in the context of the information system developed (e.g. RACI/RASCI
chart), and make an assessments of the stakeholders identified (e.g. power/interest
analysis) and devise strategies for stakeholder management.

3. Business Requirements analysis (20 marks)

This should include the business requirements specification, business
systems modelling and business process modelling. You should also
provide an outline of how the business requirements analysis is conducted
(e.g. justification of techniques and methods used).
  Business Requirements specification
In this sub-section, you should summarise the business requirements of the
information system (functional and non-functional requirements), based on the
investigation and results in the business domain analysis in section 2.

 Business systems modelling to represent a holistic view of the business

situations
In this sub-section, you should incorporate the requirements identified above and
conducting the business systems modelling with sensible discussion and justification.
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 for one business perspective by using suitable approaches
and notations (i.e. BAM notations), and (c) modelling the business system functions
by using UML i.e. a use case diagram.

 Business process modelling to represent ‘as-is’ process and ‘to-be’ process

In this sub-section, you should include discussion on how the system model as shown
in the previous section (e.g. the use case model 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.

4. Managing changes (10 marks)

In this section, you should analyse and discuss (1) issues involved for the introduction of
the new information system and (2) devise change management strategies so as to
sustain the changes.

5. Conclusion, critical evaluation and future improvements (20 marks)

In this section, you should conclude your outcomes, identify and discuss the limitations
of your proposed solution and suggestion 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: There are 10 marks allocated to the quality of a report as
follows:
o Clarity of organisation and structure/presentation e.g. consistency,
logic of arguments, overall flow, coherence and integration
o Fluency, style of writing, referencing and use of Harvard System
referencing.

Note:
Where conditions are underspecified, make reasonable assumptions based on
existing organisations or literature, providing the source of information.
The criteria used for grading assignment:

Aspects/Criteria % Range Descriptors

Executive 70% and A coherent, well-focused, persuasive business case
Summary (10%) above with excellent support and justifications
60-69% A generally clear and coherent business case with
good focus, support or justification.
50-59% An easy to follow business case but lapses in
organisation; arguments not always well focused
and supported.
49% and The business case lack focus or support and/or
below have a significant degree of irrelevance.
Business
Analysis Report
(80%)
Introduction 70% and A highly effective introduction, defining area,
(10%) above setting context and indicating content that will
follow.
60-69% A good introduction, possibly omitting one of the
above areas or lacking in definition of one of these.
50-59% Adequate introduction incorporating one or more
of the above, yet lacking in clarity in some area(s).
49% and A basic introduction with a narrow or limited
below reference to defining the area, setting the context
and indicating content that will follow.

Business 70% and A coherent, well-focused, original analysis that is

Domain Analysis above powerful and persuasive, entirely relevant to the
(20%) tasks with very good support and justifications for
the methods/techniques used.
Wide background reading; excellent original
synthesis and very good use of relevance
sources/concepts/literature in supporting the
arguments/viewpoints.

60-69% A generally clear and coherent analysis with good

focus, support or justification, which is directly
relevant to the tasks. Clear rationale for the
approaches taken.
Good background reading; generally good use of
concepts and relevant sources/literature in
supporting the arguments/viewpoints.

50-59% Reasonable analysis but prone to descriptive or

narrative with little critical thoughts; little
rationale for the approaches taken. Familiarly with
key texts, literature from a limited range of
sources. Coherent reasoning and some formulation
of arguments though not always well
focused/supported, generally relevant to the stated
tasks.
 49% and Weak rationale for approach and little relevant
below analysis. Failure to understand the purpose of the
assignment. Unsubstantiated assertions and factual
inaccuracies.
Little evidence of appropriate reading or ability to
synthesise information.

Business 70% and A coherent, well-focused, original analysis that is

Requirements above consistent with the business domain analysis,
Analysis (20%) entirely relevant to the tasks with appropriate
support and justifications. Clear and
comprehensive diagrams and correct use of
notations for the business system and business
process modelling, and are consistent with the
requirements specification.

60-69% A generally clear and coherent analysis with good

focus, support or justification, which is directly
relevant to the tasks and generally consistent with
the business domain analysis. Appropriate
diagrams and correct use of notations for the
business system and process modelling with only
minor errors, and are generally consistent with the
requirements specification.

50-59% Reasonable analysis but prone to descriptive or

narrative with little critical thoughts; Coherent
reasoning and some formulation of arguments
though not always well focused/supported,
generally relevant to the stated tasks. Adequate
diagrams and correct use of notations for the
business system and process modelling but with
errors and inconsistent with the business domain
and requirements specification in some part.

49% and Little relevant analysis. Unsubstantiated assertions

below and factual inaccuracies.
Basic diagrams and use of notations is not entirely
correct; the business system and process modelling
are inconsistent with the business domain and
requirements specifications in most part.

Managing 70% and A coherent, well-focused, original analysis that is

changes (10%) above powerful and persuasive, entirely relevant to the
tasks with very good support and justification and
application of theories/concepts to practice.

60-69% A generally clear and coherent analysis/discussion

with good support or justification, which is
directly relevant to the tasks. Clear rationale for
the approaches taken and application of
concepts/theories to practice.

50-59% Reasonable analysis and discussion but prone to

 descriptive or narrative; little rationale for the
approaches taken or application of
concepts/theories to practice. Generally relevant
to the stated tasks.

49% and Little relevant analysis/discussion. Failure to

below understand the purpose of the task.
Unsubstantiated assertions and factual
inaccuracies. Little evidence of appropriate reading
or application of theories/concepts to practice.

Conclusion, 70% and Very good analysis of the evidence with clear and
critical above illuminating conclusions that is very well-justified
evaluation and and related to the business case.
future
improvements 69-69% Clear and orderly analysis of the evidence with
(20%) good and appropriate conclusion with adequate
support and justification in relation to the business
case
50-59% Some critical analysis but prone to descriptive or
narrative; evidence supports the conclusion, but
not always very directly /clearly. The question is
not fully addressed.
49% and Largely descriptive. The discussion is limited in
below scope and/or relevance. The question is only partly
addressed.

Quality of the 70% and Meticulously presented and original structure;

report (10%) above excellent standard and style of writing;
appropriate diagrams; guides reader at all times.
Clear indication of sources and perfect use of
Harvard system for all references

60-69% Very well presented and structured; integrating

theory and practices coherently very good standard
and style of writing; guides reader at most time;
clear indication of sources and use of Harvard
system of referencing

50-59% Well presented; good organisation and clear

structure, perhaps lacking integration, good
standard and style of writing; adequate use of
approved system of referencing

49% and Poorly presented work; report lacks coherence of

below organisation and structure; poor standard of
writing with many typing and spelling mistakes;
failure to cite references appropriately.

Please note student who attained a mark of 60% or above at the first attempt will
be eligible for the BCS Practitioner Certificate in Business Analysis Practice (BAP).