Stage 1: Background
and Organizational Analysis

 

Before you begin work on this assignment, be sure you have
read the Case Study on Chesapeake IT Consultants (CIC).

Overview

 

As a business analyst in the Chief
Information Officer’s (CIO’s) department of Chesapeake IT Consulting (CIC), you
have been assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a set of system requirements
and recommend an IT solution to improve the hiring process for CIC. This work will be completed in four stages, and
each of these four stages will focus on one section of an overall Business Analysis and System Recommendation
(BA&SR) report to be delivered to the CIO.

 

Section I: Strategic Use of Technology (Stage 1) – The first step is to look at
the organization and explain how an IT system could be used to support CIC’s
strategies and objectives, and support its decision-making processes.

 

Section II: Process Analysis (Stage 2) – Next you will evaluate current processes and workflow and
explain how CIC can use IT to improve its processes and workflow.

 

Section III: Requirements (Stage 3) –Then you will identify key stakeholder expectations for the
new technology solution to support CIC’s hiring process and develop a set of
requirements.

 

Section IV: System Recommendation (Stage 4) – Finally, you will review the provided Vendor brochure for
a proposed solution and explain how it meets the requirements and what needs to
be done to implement the system within CIC.

 

The sections of the BA&SR
will be developed and submitted as four staged assignments. In stages 2, 3 and 4, you will also
incorporate any feedback received when the previous stage was graded to improve
the effectiveness of your overall report and then add the new section to your
report. At the end of the course, you
will submit a complete BA&SR document that includes all the sections and
changes that resulted from previous feedback. Part of the grading criteria for Stage 4
submission includes addressing previous feedback to improve the final report.

 

Assignment – BA&SR: Introduction and Section I – Strategic Use of
Technology

 

Write an appropriate
Introduction to the entire BA&SR Report (guidelines are provided
below). Section I of the BA&SR
document contains an organizational analysis and identifies ways in which
information systems can help CIC, the organization in the case study, meet its
strategic goals and meet the information needs of various levels of management.

 

Using the case study,
assignment instructions, Course Content readings, and external resources,
develop your Introduction and Section I: Background and Organizational Analysis. To start, review the Business
Perspectives Module (week 1 content), particularly the sections that describe
the example of Booz Allen Hamilton, a services company with a business model
similar to that of CIC in the case study.
The case study tells you that the executives and employees at CIC have
identified a need for an effective and efficient hiring system. As you
review the case study, use the assignment instructions to take notes to assist
in your analysis; in particular, look for objectives to support the strategies
in the table below, and decisions that the various individuals make in the hiring
process as expressed in the “interviews.”

Use the outline format, headings
and tables provided and follow all formatting instructions below. For Stage 1, create
a title page and reference page that will be used for all 4 stages.

 

Apply specific information
from the case study to address each
area.

 

Introduction

 

Begin your report with a
clear, concise, well organized introduction to explain why you are writing and
what is to come. This should briefly set
the context for CIC – business purpose, environment, and current challenges
related to hiring. Then specifically
provide what is to come in the full report (not just Stage 1). Keep your audience in mind – this is an internal
report for the CIO of CIC. Provide an
introduction in one paragraph that
engages the reader’s interest in continuing to read this report.

I.
Strategic Use of
Technology

A.
Organizational
Strategy – Briefly describe the organizational strategy using the
Business Strategy statement and information from the Case Study, and explain
how a new hiring system would support that strategy. (Use two to three strong sentences that
explain how the system would support the strategy and justify your position
with specifics from the Case Study.)

B.
Competitive Advantage – Explain how and
why CIC can use the new hiring system to increase its competitive
advantage. Your explanation should
demonstrate your understanding of what competitive advantage is as well as how
improving the hiring process will help achieve CIC’s competitive advantage.
Include how CIC can use the type of data/information that will be in the hiring
system for strategic advantage.
(Paragraph of 2-3 sentences)

C.
Strategic
Objectives– Review the four Strategic Goals in the Strategic Plan section
of the CIC Case Study. The CIO has asked
you to come up with an example of an objective to meet each goal and explain
how a new hiring system would help achieve that objective. As you can see from the example provided in
the table below, an objective is a statement that is clear (not vague) and is
something that can be measured or evaluated to determine whether it has been
met or not. First, insert an
introductory opening sentence for this table.
Then, for each of the rows listed below, complete the table with the
requested information. (Provide an
introductory sentence and copy the table.
Create an Objective for each of the 3 remaining Goals and explain using
2-3 sentences for each.)

 

 

D.
Decision Making – In the Information Systems (IS)
course module (included in the Week 2 Learning Resources), you were introduced
to the information requirements of various levels of the organization. First, insert an introductory opening
sentence for this section. Then, for
each of the management roles listed below, complete the table with the appropriate level (as defined in the
course module), an example of a specific decision supported by the Hiring System to be made at that level, and what type of information from the hiring
system would be needed to support that decision. Think about what information the hiring
system could provide about applicants, etc. and then identify an example of a
decision that might be made by each level of management. A decision is a choice
or conclusion that the management might make about business operations or
future planning. This is not about the
decisions about implementing a new technology solution or about general
responsibilities of each role. (Provide an introductory sentence then copy the
table and insert information within.)

 

Formatting Your Assignment

 

Consider
your audience – you are writing in the role of a CIC
business analyst and your audience is CIC and your boss, the CIO. Don’t discuss CIC as if the reader has no
knowledge of the organization. Use third
person consistently throughout the report.
In third person, the writer avoids the pronouns I, we, my, and
ours. The third person is used to make the writing more objective by taking the
individual, the “self,” out of the writing. This method is very helpful for effective
business writing, a form in which facts, not opinion, drive the tone of the
text. Writing in the third person allows the writer to come across as unbiased
and thus more informed.

 

·
In
Stage 1, you are preparing the first part of a 4-stage report. Use the structure, headings, and outline
format provided here for your report.

·
Write a short concise
paper: Use the recommendations provided
in each area for length of response.
It’s important to value quality over quantity. Assignment should not exceed 4 pages
excluding title and reference pages.

·
Content areas should be double
spaced; table entries should be single-spaced.

·
To copy a table: Move your cursor to the table, then click on
the small box that appears at the upper left corner of the table to highlight
the table; right click and COPY the table; put the cursor in your paper where
you want the table and right click and PASTE the table.

·
Ensure that each of the tables
is preceded by an introductory sentence that explains what is contained
in the table, so the reader understands why the table has been included.

·
Create
a title page that includes: The
company name, title of report, your name, Course and Section # and date.

·
Use at leasttwo resources
with APA formatted citation and reference. Use at least one external reference and one
from the course content. Course content should be from the class
reading content, not the assignment instructions or case study itself. The
final document should contain all references from all stages appropriately
formatted and alphabetized.

·
Begin
a Reference Page for resources required for this assignment. Additional research in next stages will be
added to this as you build the report.

·
Running headers are not
required for this report.

·
Compare your work to the Grading Rubric below
to be sure you have met content and quality criteria.

·
Submit your paper as a Word document, or a
document that can be read in Word. Keep
tables in Word format – do not paste in graphics.

·
Your submission should include your last name
first in the filename: Lastname_firstname_Stage_1

 

 

GRADING RUBRIC: