Business Analysis, Planning and Monitoring: Analytical Essay

Abstract

The case study is about the Victoria Infringement Management System (VIMS) that is used by the Sheriff's Office to enforce all infringement notices, court orders and warrants. After being the topic of concern for almost two decades, warrant enforcement appears to be an important, ongoing problem with more warrants being released than executed. This scheme presents a major issue because not all violation notices, court orders and warrants are being followed up by the Sheriff's office. Infringement Management and Enforcement Services (IMES) are accountable for upholding unpaid infringement notices and warrants. The IMES uses an information technology system called Victorian Infringement and Management System (VIMS) which is a system to manage court orders, and infringement notices and also records information about issuing, auctioning and finalising warrants. However, VIMS is an antiquated system and thus presents several inadequacies. This is a framework for handling infringements rather than a debtor management system. This way the criminal and civil matters referring to an offender aren't automatically linked to the system. The usefulness of this system is also hampered by the fact that it can record only one address of each offender and hence the Sheriff’s Officers are unable to track and update any new change of addresses of the offender. Another setback of this system is causing delays due to a large number of officers trying to access the system simultaneously. Furthermore, it takes several hours to develop queries and produce reports for each offender. This case study highlights all activities in core business research. These include business analysis, planning and monitoring, elicitation and collaboration, requirement lifecycle management and strategy analysis to name a few. Further, recommendations are also provided as to how to tackle the inadequacies in the Victorian Infringement Management System (VIMS).

Introduction

According to Victorian Ombudsman (2014), court fines and infringement penalties are the foremost common sanctions for criminal behavior in Victoria. For many members of the community, the only contact they’ll have with the criminal justice system is in the form of a violation notice, quite possibly for an offence related to driving or parking. As mentioned in the case study, in 2011-12, 4.79 million notices of violation and 1,518 million warrants were issued in accordance with crimes committed in Victoria State in association with road safety and traffic, public order, business control and environmental security with the road safety offences particularly being the largest crime category. According to the study of Victorian Ombudsman (2014), the objective of the new infringement management programme does not take place as outlined in their report. This includes ensuring continuity, reliability and assurance of system operations, balancing justice, performance, and efficiency.

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2. Core Knowledge area of Business Analysis

As defined in the BABOK guide, the six Core Knowledge area of Business Analysis are:

1. Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
2. Elicitation and Collaboration
3. Requirement Life Cycle Management
4. Strategy Analysis
5. Requirements Analysis and Design Definition
6. Solution Evaluation

These areas define the process of business analysis as it is implemented within the project boundaries or throughout the development and continuous improvement of enterprises. The diagram below represents the relationship among the six core knowledge area which is given in IIBA paper (2018).

2.1 Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

Business Analysis Planning and monitoring is one of the first core knowledge areas in the BABOK. It emphasizes on areas such as management requirements, documentation and collective planning. In this area, it explains how a business analyst identifies which tasks are needed to achieve the business analysis initiative. It includes a plethora of activities such as trying to gather information to identify the stakeholders, identifying the duties and responsibilities of a stakeholder, communication between the business analyst and the stakeholders, determination of the deliverables the business analyst would achieve, estimating the task for business analyst and finally, the metrics used to analyse activity on the market review are collected. These activities are planned to prepare the organization for requirement elicitation and finally to incorporate a solution that meets business needs. The planning and monitoring of a business analyst is said to be a blueprint of the project the analyst have (Milani 2019).The Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring includes several tasks to be performed. They are mentioned as below:

1. Plan Business Analysis Approach: “It defines the planning of business analysis work by selecting a methodology or a framework to plan an individual’s activities and deliverables” (IIBA 2009).
2. Plan Stakeholder Engagement: “It defines the understanding of which stakeholders are pertinent to the transition, the needs of business analysts from the stakeholders and the stakeholder's needs from the business analysts and the best way to cooperate” (IIBA 2009).
3. Plan Business Analysis Governance: “Components of the business analysis are described to support the organization’s governance function such as risk management, allocation of resources and requirements management. It ensures that decisions are taken correctly and regularly, and follows a procedure that ensures the decision-makers to have the needed information” (IIBA 2009).
4. Plan Business Analysis Information Management: “It describes how the information, its requirement and design are developed by the Business Analysts is captured, stored and integrated with other long term usage information” (IIBA 2009).
5. Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements: “ It monitors the business analysis work and how it is performed to ensure that the commitments are met along with the continuous opportunities for learning, improving, growth and progress are recognised” (IIBA 2009).

Elicitation and Collaboration

Elicitation and collaboration is defined in the BABOK (IIBA 2018) as the Business Analyst’s role in planning and performing elicitation tasks and activities, and confirms the results obtained. This also explains the interaction with stakeholders once they have gathered the information on the business analysis and the continuing cooperation with stakeholders during the business analysis activities. Elicitation of requirements with the cooperation of the stakeholder is the primary task of the Business Analyst, and it is one of the most relevant, dynamic and essential information areas to be unpacked by the Business Analysis (Ramos 2019). Hence, to manage this area is to gain crucial understanding of the needs and identifying the requirements correctly that can bring an impact to the overall business firms. The elicitation and collaboration area involves the following tasks:

1. Prepare for Elicitation: “Business analysts plan for elicitation by identifying the expected outcomes of the operation, taking into account the stakeholders involved and the goals of the project. It also requires the identification of sources of information or the planning of an experiment to see whether a shift in the process actually results in progress” (IIBA 2009).
2. Conduct Elicitation: “Describes the work carried out to recognise the needs of stakeholders and identify possible approaches that may satisfy those needs. This can include direct contact with stakeholders, conducting research, or conducting research” (IIBA 2009).
3. Confirm Elicitation Results: “It ensures that the stakeholders have a common understanding of elicitation results and it is recorded in an appropriate manner, and ensures that the business analyst have the necessary information from the elicitation activities” (IIBA 2009).
4. Communicate Business Analysis Information: “It provides necessary information to the stakeholder at the time of their need it and it includes the right concepts and in a useful form” (IIBA 2009).
5. Manage Stakeholder Collaboration: “ It describes the involvement of the stakeholders in the overall business analysis process to ensure the delivering of outcomes” (IIBA 2009).

Requirement Life Cycle Management

Requirement Life Cycle Management characterizes the activities, business analysts will undertake with a view to handling and retaining requirements and developing knowledge from the entire life cycle of requirements. These activities include establishing relationships between related requirements and designs, assessing changes to requirements and designs when changes are proposed and analyzing and validating all changes. The purpose is to ensure that the business, stakeholders and the solution requirements and designed are aligned to one another. Typically, requirements are created at the beginning of a traditional lifecycle environment, distributed and checked at the end, and requirements are defined in an agile environment by usable deliverables that are developed, optimized and tested in a continuous process (Ramos 2019). This area involves the following tasks:

1. Trace Requirements: “ It analyses and manages the relationship between requirements, design, solution components and other products for an effective impact analysis” (IIBA 2009)
2. Maintain Requirements: “The specifications and designs are precise and current throughout the life cycle and, where necessary, facilitate reuse” (IIBA 2009)
3. Prioritize Requirements: “It assesses the risk and value linked to the design to ensure that the work is delivered at the given time” (IIBA 2009).
4. Assess Requirements Change: “Changes assess new and evolving expectations of stakeholders to decide if they need to be implemented within the framework of a transition” (IIBA 2009)
5. Approve Requirements: “Works with stakeholders engaged in the governance process to achieve consensus and acceptance of specifications and designs” (IIBA 2009)

Strategy Analysis

In today's global and competitive climate, the speed of change allows companies to constantly reposition themselves to keep up or remain ahead of their competitors. In order to do this, companies understand quickly the need for an effective business plan. Strategic analysis describes the process of conducting research on a organization to formulate a plan and its operating environment. Victorian Infringement Management’s strategic analysis covers the processes surrounding the Victorian Ombudsman's study, and this strategic analysis is very important to effective management in order to make the organization's right decisions and function smoothly (Victorian Ombudsman 2014). Business Analysts are essential to help strategic planning companies, setting priorities and implement business strategies.

Business strategy analysis includes various tools such as SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter’s five force analysis, blue ocean strategy, war gaming strategy and value chain analysis to name a few. Strategy Analysis involves four basic steps. The first step involves the analyzing of the current state followed by defining the future state, then the risk assessment and defining the changes done. Strategy Analysis include the following:

1. Analyze Current State: “Understands the needs of the business and how they contribute to the manner in which the organisation works today” (IIBA 2009).
2. Define Future State: “It states objectives that demonstrate the satisfaction of the business needs and what aspects of the business need to adjust to achieve certain goals and objectives” (IIBA 2018).
3. Assess Risks: “It comprehends the uncertainties surrounding the transition, considers the impact that those uncertainties that have on the ability to produce value through a transition, and advises measures to resolve risks where possible” (IIBA 2018).
4. Define Change Strategy: “Carries out a gap analysis between existing and future status, examines options for achieving future status, and suggests the highest value strategy for achieving future status including any transitional states that might be needed along the way” (IIBA 2018).

Requirements Analysis and Design Definition

The method of determining the clients ' needs for an application to be developed or updated. Requirements Analysis includes all the activities undertaken to determine the needs of the various stakeholders. Therefore, it involves the analysis, reporting, testing and management of software or program specifications. The high-quality criteria are recorded, actionable, observable, testable, trackable, help recognize opportunities for business and are specified to promote the design of the programme. For a business analyst both requirements and designs are essential methods for identifying and facilitating change (Ross 1977). To distinguish between the requirements and the design is how and by whom they are used. They can be either high-level or quite specific depending on what's suitable for those who consume the knowledge. The core concepts involved are change, need, solution, stakeholder, value and context. Following are the tasks, involved in Requirement Analysis and Design Definition:

1. Specify and Model Requirements: “
2. Verify Requirements: “
3. Validate Requirements: “
4. Define Requirements Architecture: “
5. Define Solution Options: “
6. Analyze Potential Value and Recommend Solution: “

References

1. IIBA 2018, BABOK Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge, Version 3.0, Canvas Learning Management System, Swinburne Online, Swinburne University of Technology.
2. Milani, F., 2019. Business Analysis Plan and Monitoring. In Digital Business Analysis (pp. 111-125). Springer, Cham.
3. Ramos, E 2019, Elicitation and Collaboration, viewed 20 November 2019, < https://medium.com/swlh/elicitation-and-collaboration-the-main-path-for-business-analysis-d7eea834fe70>
4. Ramos, E 2019, Managing Business Analysis Information into Requirements Lifecycle, viewed 30 April 2019, < https://medium.com/swlh/managing-business-analysis-information-into-requirements-lifecycle-3254ee85ae96>
5. Ross, D.T. and Schoman, K.E., 1977. Structured analysis for requirements definition. IEEE transactions on Software Engineering, (1), pp.6-15.
6. Victorian Ombudsman 2014, Imposition and enforcement of court fines and infringement penalties in Victoria, viewed 17 November 2019, < https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/publications/imposition-and-enforcement-court-fines-and-infringement-penalties-victoria>