Business Process Analysis and Improvement Assignment

Assignment

In this assignment you will analyse and model a business process from a real organisation of your choice and then design improvements to it. Your submission will take the form of a report to the organisation from which the process comes. Groups of two must be formed within classes, not across classes. You can use the Discussion Forum to find another student to work with if necessary. When choosing who to work with, carefully consider the following points:

1.You must be able to identify a process that one of you has enough information about to succeed in undertaking the work required for this report

2.You must be confident that the person you are planning to work with has a commitment to the work that is equal to yours. Equal marks will be given to each student.

To successfully complete the assignment, you should:

1.Identify a business process to use as the basis for the assignment.  An ideal business process is one from an organisation where you have worked or a community organisation you have been involved with. This close association is best because it means that you will have the depth of understanding of the chosen process needed to model it accurately, and understanding of the issues associated with it that could be addressed by business process improvement.  Alternatively, you could interview someone else to gain knowledge about a process they are involved with. If you are unsure what process to use, please discuss it with your lecturer.

2.Model the process using BPMN in Microsoft Visio (unless you have approval to use another software package). As your BPMN modelling skills will be tested in the final examination each student in the pair must take primary responsibility for one of the two required BPMN process models. This will ensure that you have a good understanding of the notation.

3.Analyse the process to identify issues that could be resolved using business process redesign. Your As-Is model should provide a basis for this. 

4.Design improvements to the process. For example, consider automating some tasks by using information technology or changing the sequence of activities or making parallel paths in the process. As part of this you must consider why the To-Be process will be an improvement compared to the As-Is process and what performance indicators could be used to measure success of the redesign.

5.Model the redesigned process using BPMN in Microsoft Visio (or other approved software package). The other team member should take the main responsibility for this process model.

6.Create a report to the management of the organisation from which the process comes. Note that presentation of the report including formatting and table of contents is very important and that it should be written in professional language suitable for a manager to read. It should be structured as described below.