Business Process Analysis for Brexit and COVID-19 Affected UK/US/European Publicly Traded Business

Justification of Techniques and Tools

This assessment is designed to demonstrate a student’s completion of the following Learning Outcomes:

• Critically evaluate, and reflexively apply, methods, techniques and tools for assessing, controlling and improving organisational processes (number 1 in the module descriptor)
• Critically demonstrate an appreciation of issues relating to the analysis of business processes in organisations (number 2 in the module descriptor)
• Create appropriate visual representations of their analysis via use of an appropriate tool (number 3 in the module descriptor)

You are working as a business analyst in a UK based consultancy firm. You are assigned a task to provide 3000 words report of business analysis for a publicly traded UK/US/European business that is highly affected by Brexit and COVID-19. The report is required to be of  appropriate format, the standard of presentation and content. The purpose of the report is twofold: to discover, analyse and comment on the inadequacies of the company business processes; and, in doing so, to justify and evaluate an appropriate selection of Business Analysis techniques and tools.

This assignment is potentially very broad in scope: it is up to you to determine the business, exact scope of investigation and justify this. You need to cite the sources you refer to in finding out more about this process. You will need to select, apply and evaluate techniques and tools which provide for all five activities (strategy analysis, investigate situation, considerperspectives, analyse needs and define requirements) and, by necessity,encompass at least two of the three paradigms (socio-technical, functional and object-oriented). The following table is a reminder of those which we have, or will, cover in class. Other techniques and toolsmay be appropriate; confirm these with the Module Leader on or before the 11th week of the module.

Task 1 (300 words): An introduction that includes a definition and justification of selection of a publicly traded business, scope, a brief description of the context and nature of the problem and the current level of operational performance as depicted in external sources, where appropriate citing sources according to the Harvard system. The selection of the business must be based on evidence such as cashflow statement, balance sheet and net income profit.

(Hint: For publicly traded businesses cash flow statement, balance sheet and net income profit statements are available on Yahoo Finance or their websites under the investor relation section)

Task 2 (300 words): A justification of your chosen package of techniques and tools (preapplication), by reference to your own criteria, where appropriate citing sources according to the Harvard system.

Task 3 (1500 words): An application to the scenario of your chosen package of techniques and tools for all five activities (strategy analysis, investigate situation, consider perspectives, analyse needs and define requirements), produced using a CASE tool if appropriate, together with assumptions and appropriate description/documentation.

Task 4 (400 words): Comments and observations on the inadequacies of the current system, including recommendations to the QAA, where appropriate citing elements of your application (#5) together with sources according to the Harvard system.

Task 5 (500 words): An evaluation of the ‘fit’ of your chosen package of techniques and tools to this specific context (post-application), by reference to your own criteria (#4), where appropriate citing sources according to the Harvard system.

Refer to lecture notes for guidance on how these should be done. As an example, if you use DFDs to define requirements you should include here for that part of the fifth activity:

a) Level 0 DFD, produced using a CASE tool, and assumptions

b) Level 1 DFD, produced using a CASE tool, and further assumptions

c) External Entity Descriptions

d) Elementary Process Descriptions for each process at its lowest decomposed level

e) Input/Output Descriptions for data flows that cross the system boundary