CIS498 Final Project

project_deliverable_2.docx

Running Head: BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS –DELIVERABLE 2

13

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS –DELIVERABLE 2

Business Requirements –Deliverable 2 Student Name Course Title Professor Institution Affiliation Date

Introduction

Business requirements are essential in developing the functional and non-functional system requirements because they provide a guideline of the operations to be automated through the system. Companies also need to perform a business requirements analysis to identify the feasibility of the project in terms of economic feasibility and organizational feasibility (Alexandrova, 2012). In this project, the company operates in ecommerce field where there is need to diversify the operations through implementation of information systems, database systems and a network infrastructure. The organizational goals is to maintain the costs low and increase the revenue implying that the project will reuse the current systems and upgrade them before procurement of additional components. The project will cover specific items described in the scope and scope control and address some risks that the project might face.

Business requirements constitutes of elements like risks and risk management plan, scope and scope control, project assumptions and constraints (Alexandrova, 2012). In general, the project will cover the two stories of the new building by installing and configuring a computer network, information system and expand the databases into a data warehouse. The success of the project will be measured by the customer success because the ecommerce business is usually customer oriented. Therefore, the customer requirements will play a major role in establishing business requirements.

Scope of the Project

This scope provides a description of elements that the project will address to meet the objectives of the company. This project involves several areas that the project team should accomplish to meet the business needs of the company. The following are the scope of the project based on different components of the solution:

Applications: the organization requires implementation of several applications to help manage the customers and business operations. The major applications that the ecommerce company requires include data reporting applications, data integration applications, web application or ecommerce website and data analytics applications. Additionally, the company needs to integrate external applications with the current operations. Applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relation Management or CRM application are of significant importance to the company. Examples of specific application in the mentioned category include mart application, Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), Online Analytical Processing or OLAP and predictive analysis application. The application will enhance online payments because some of the customers of the company are remotely located while others need faster means of payment without compromising security of information (Kemper & Neumann, 2011).

Sites: The main site that the project will address is the three-story building that is acquired as the new premises of the company. The three stories will be installed with a Local Area Network, information systems and be connected to the data warehouse. All the business offices, operation offices and the business areas will also be part of the project sites. In addition, the project will address the challenges of remote employees through implementation of web services rather than installation of IT architecture in those remote sites.

Process re-engineering: the entire information system, It architecture and available databases need redesigning and reassigning of components to meet the growing demands of the company. The systems will be redesigned so that the new and better workflows of the company can be able to integrate the new data warehouse, computer network and information system. In addition, only the identified applications will undergo redesigning because they handle critical information.

Customization: the company needs completely new and customized architecture and information systems because of the scalability and need to support future growth of customers and operations. The database warehouse require customization of the existing relational databases by involving a star schema for dimensional modelling and implement outriggers for the data warehouse. Other components including the information systems and hardware components needs customization to integrate external applications and systems.

Interfaces: the scope will also address the interfacing needs of the company. Since the project involves a solution to help the company tap into an international market, there is need to implement user-friendly interfaces for both the customer applications and business applications. The interfaces will be developed with consideration of user-interface best practices and different categories of users (Lee, Eastman, Taunk, & Ho, 2010).

Architecture: both the technical architecture and applications architecture are components that are in the scope of the project. The application architecture will ensure the project team integrates aspects of database management, network access and control, database connectivity and middleware. This architecture will outline various components of the networks and allow specific functions within each network section. Technical architecture will ensure that the logical and physical networks of the Local Area Network are implemented properly and support the needs of users. The project will also ensure that there is proper positioning to allow future growth and expansion of the network as well as security control integration.

Conversion: since the company handles large volumes of different types of data in a daily basis, the project will ensure it implements different types of conversion for the data assets. The conversion will involve splitting the data sets into business data, historic data and operations data. The conversion of these data will then be performed separately according to the needs of each data set. The schema development will ensure that the three data sets or categories are considered.

Testing: the project will also provide testing of different components of the system that will be installed. A comprehensive testing procedure will be deployed by developing a testing plan to ensure that the systems meet the project objectives and company objectives. The testing process will require the project team to identify the system errors, bugs and failures and fix them accordingly to allow proper functioning of the system. The types of testing that are in-scope are integration testing, system testing and unit testing. One other type will be involved in need arises.

Funding; funding for the project is a major concern for the project because the project requires some scope items to be covered by using some money. The project owner (the company) will be the primary source of finances for the project. The company will be the sponsor of the project where the management will liaise with the commercial banks and venture capital to fund for the project. Each department will also contribute for their additional requirement that are not in the project scope. Teleworkers will also contribute towards the project in case they require a local area network within their premises of work.

Education: the project will also need to provide information to the users about new subsystems, policies and even functionalities. Apart from the user training, there will be an option for self-support services that each system will have. The project team will develop a quick “help” section for each system interface to educate the users on system usage. The web application will also contain system awareness and education as part of the marketing plan for the company through online platforms. Each application will also contain a list of Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ with their answers to help the users of the systems understand some basic concepts.

Scope Control

All elements described in the scope will constitute the in-scope elements while the rest will be out of scope. The project scope will be controlled by analyzing if an element is in scope or out of scope (Khan, 2006). For instance, in the sites, the regions that handles the business data and other types of data related to the organization in a daily basis will be considered to be in scope hence their implementation according to the scope.

The scope will also have its control through the available human resources. Each individuals of the project team will be allocates specific component according to the project scope. These individuals will perform their activities in relation to the scope and meet the project objectives. Additional activities will be considered out of scope.

The data that is directly associates with the company’s business operations will have to be considered in all circumstances. Handling other data like the employee’s personal data should be restricted because it does not constitute business data. Similarly, hardware components and software components of the network for handling the project should relate directly to the business operations. Personal components like the ones in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) technology will not be considered hence no resource will be allocated to meet these subsystems.

Risks

Risk identification is one of the major steps of risk management process and it involves identifying all the risks that might face a project. However, according to Project Management Body of Knowledge or PMBOK, risks can be categorized into various sections of a project like resources, scope, schedule, stakeholders and other categories (Project Management Institute, 2013). The following is a list of the risks according to these categories.

Resources risks: These risks are likely to be caused by various characteristics of the resources that a project manager will use. The following are the resources risks:

1. Lack of resources with the required skill sets and experience. The project manager may fail to get project team with the required level of skills hence making some of the project objectives not to be met. For instance, the team members may not have adequate skills in system configuration or installation of a particular software. This will make the project to take longer than expected.

2. Lack of enough team members: the acquired team members may not be enough to perform the project tasks within the require timeline. This may be due to environmental issues, legal-political issues and other external factors.

3. Lack of adequate training for the available team members to ensure they have the required skills to accomplish the project tasks. Training may be required for specific vendor components and due to lack of training from the vendors; the team members may not have the adequate skills to handle the components.

4. Poor performance of the project resources. The staff members for the project may fail to deliver according to the expectations of the project manager and other stakeholders.

Communication Risks:

1. Misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the requirements may lead to poor performance of the project through development gaps between hardware and software developers.

2. Language barriers among the project team members may lead to no communication of critical aspects of the project such as progress, requirement analysis and other elements.

Scope risks:

1. The scope may omit some critical element of a project or involve errors in a particular item thus leading to unsatisfactory results on that task.

2. Uncontrolled and continuous growth of the scope due to unmanaged changes may lead to poor delivery of project milestones in terms of time and budget (Project Management Institute, 2013).

Schedule risks:

1. Underestimation of task duration will lead to the project staying behind the schedule.

2. Omitting a critical task from the schedule will lead to extra time for the project.

Technical risks:

1. The hardware and software components acquired may fail to meet the minimum requirements under various legal frameworks, policies and regulations.

2. Incompatibility issues for the acquire hardware and software may lead to additional resources to be allocated for addressing the incompatibility issues.

3. The technologies acquire may be old fashioned and full of patch management issues, security issues and expose the company to threats.

Constraints of the Project

1. The Information Technology department and an external auditor need to approve all the procured data applications, information systems and hardware components.

2. The project stakeholders should gain state approval before commencement of the project.

3. The project is up for completion within sixty working days.

4. The project requires to meet the security measures by using the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability triad as a benchmark.

Assumptions of the Project

1. The project team works only from Monday to Friday except during the public holidays. The working day has a minimum of eight hours.

2. The project does not have any funding now apart from the project owner’s funding.

3. The organization has some hardware and software in place that the project will reuse.

Interfacing with other Systems

Database and interfacing: the project will ensure expansion of the current database to develop a data warehouse that will be interfaced with all system applications. The project will involve converting all the current databases into data warehouses for efficiency in data management. The database schemas, logical databases, physical databases and conceptual database models should be in line with the database warehouse processes (Rifaie, Kianmehr, Alhajj, & Ridley, 2008). Interfacing will ensure that the ecommerce website feed the data warehouse with the require information that the organization employees can fetch and work upon.

Security integration: the security integration will ensure that all the project components like databases and data warehouse, information systems, wired LAN and wireless LAN have appropriate security controls. This integration will involve having an encryption method for the Information Technology (IT) network, authentication and access control methods for the information systems and access control for the network resources through the local area network (Aydın, Zaim, & Ceylan, 2009).

Networking: the project aims to integrate the networking aspect into the system by having components such as the file servers, database servers, web server, firewall, routers, personal computers and connecting media or cables supporting the communication. The project will implement a local area network with different network location such as main office network, public network employees’ network. The networks will have a very fast backbone cable like the optic fiber to reduce latency and packet loss and allow fast communication with the outside world.

Definition of Terms

Data warehouse: a large central database within an organization to which all sources of data are connected. A data warehouse is used for managerial purposes.

Information system: a software application for accessing and managing information in the organization. Information systems provide an interface for manipulation of the organizational database.

IT infrastructure: a network architecture or collection of computer network devices of the organization.

OLAP: an acronym for Online Analytical Processing. The processing is used to provide analytics services to the company.

OLPT: an acronym for Online Transaction Processing. The processing is used aid online purchase during ordering of products (Kemper & Neumann, 2011).

References

Alexandrova, A. (2012). Business requirements analysis and development for legacy system replacement projects in government organizations. In 2012 20th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, RE 2012 - Proceedings (pp. 337–340). https://doi.org/10.1109/RE.2012.6345833

Aydın, M. A., Zaim, A. H., & Ceylan, K. G. (2009). A hybrid intrusion detection system design for computer network security. Computers & Electrical Engineering, 35(3), 517–526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2008.12.005

Kemper, A., & Neumann, T. (2011). HyPer : A Hybrid OLTP & OLAP Main Memory Database System Based on Virtual Memory Snapshots. ICDE, 195–206. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICDE.2011.5767867

Khan, A. (2006). Project scope management. Cost Engineering, 48(6), 12–16. https://doi.org/doi:10.1201/b15011-4

Lee, G., Eastman, C. M., Taunk, T., & Ho, C.-H. (2010). Usability principles and best practices for the user interface design of complex 3D architectural design and engineering tools. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68(1–2), 90–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2009.10.001

Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK ® guide). Project Management Institute. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20125

Rifaie, M., Kianmehr, K., Alhajj, R., & Ridley, M. J. (2008). Data warehouse architecture and design. IEEE International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration, 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1109/IRI.2008.4583005