MIS604 Requirements Engineering Case Study 1 Sample

Task Summary

This Assessment requires you to respond to a case study. The same case study will be used for all three assessments so that you can develop insights into the different facets of Requirements Engineering. For this assessment, you are required to produce an individual report of 1500 words (+/-10%) detailing a requirements elicitation plan for the case organization. The report should contain the following:

1. A Stakeholder Engagement Plan detailing:

a. Stakeholder list

b. Areas of influence and Power mapped on a Power/Interest Grid

c. Definitions of the stakeholder’s power and interest.

2. An Elicitation Activity Plan detailing:

a. Four elicitation methods

b. An explanation of each method and why it has been selected

c. A tailored and customised example of the information gathering tool you will use for each method

d. Which stakeholders will be engaged for the elicitation activity and why?

Context

Business Analysts work with organisations to improve organisational processes and systems. One of the most important parts of a Business Analysts job is to elicit requirements from stakeholders so that there is a clear understanding of what will be required from the new system. This requires a Business Analyst to understand who their stakeholders are, how to engage with them and which elicitation methods to use. This assessment aims to develop your knowledge and skills in this area and to lay down the foundation of knowledge for your future professional practice.

Task Instructions

1. Please read the attached MIS604_Assessment_Case Study.

2. Write a 1500 words (+/-10%) requirements elicitation plan for the case organisation.

3. Review your subject notes to establish the relevant area of investigation that applies to the case. Re- read any relevant readings for module 1 and 2 for this subject. Perform additional research and investigation and select five additional sources in the area of elicitation methods to add depth to your explanation of method selection.

4. Plan how you will structure your ideas for your report and write a report plan before you start writing. The report does not require an executive summary or abstract.

5. Please structure the report as follows:

A professional custom title page with the subject code and subject name, assignment title, student’s name, student number and lecturer’s name

An introduction (100-150 words) which will also serve as your statement of purpose for the report. This means that you will tell the reader what you are going to cover in your report. You will need to inform the reader of:

• The key concepts you will be addressing,

• What the reader can expect to find in the body of the report

The body of the report (1200-1300 words) will need to cover two specific areas:

• A Stakeholder Engagement Plan including:

i. Stakeholder list

ii. A Power/Interest Grid

iii. Definitions of each stakeholder’s power and interest

• An Elicitation Activity Plan.

i. Four elicitation methods

ii. An explanation of each method and why it has been selected

iii. A tailored and customised example of the information gathering tool you will use for each method

iv. Which stakeholders will be engaged for the elicitation activity and why?

The conclusion (100-150 words) will summarise any findings or recommendations that the report puts forward regarding the concepts covered in the report.

6. The report should use font Arial or Calibri 11 point, should be line spaced at 1.5 for ease of reading and page numbers on the bottom of each page. If diagrams or tables are used, due attention should be given to pagination to avoid loss of meaning and continuity by unnecessarily splitting information over two pages. Diagrams must carry the appropriate captioning.

7. You are strongly advised to read the rubric which is an evaluation guide with criteria for grading the assignment. This will give you a clear picture of what a successful report looks like.

MIS604: Requirements Engineering Case Study

Student Gigz Pty Ltd is a recently formed student start-up company in a university accelerator program in Adelaide. Their business focuses on ensuring that organisations can call on students, in short notice, to fulfil their short-term vacancies/ needs for specialised skills. Student Gigz Pty Ltd is building a web and mobile application combination. This application should allow organisations that require short term assistance to register for the service online to source students with the appropriate skills. The company will be funded by a pro rata commission charged per hours worked by each student. The web will be a portal for organisations s where they will be able to sign all contracts and undertakings and post listings for their short-term employment needs. They will be able to send job alters to students with the appropriate skills in their listing, who are able to work in their location via a message broadcast. The organisations will also be able to review student profile’s and send targeted message to students with the experiences in a specific area. The mobile application is designed as the primary student interface. Students will be able to create a profile where they will be able to select their skills from a pre-existing list as well as the locations where they are able to work. Typical jobs might include project support, accounting support, wire framing, high fidelity html prototyping and marketing. Contact can be made post-matching for students to find out more about the job or the organisation to find out more about the student’s availability. Once the job is completed, payment can be made securely through the app. The organisation will also be able to rate and review the student. Your company has been engaged by Student Gigz (Pty Ltd) to help them with the requirements analysis for this project.

Solution

Introduction to case

Business analysis is a popular method used by companies to develop understanding of requirements or need and developing a solution for the stakeholders. In this paper, business analyst is analyzing a recent project in an Australian university. Uni Assignment Help, Australian based start up Student Gigz Pty Ltd has initiated university accelerator program. A program is developed for students so they can fulfill the vacancies posted by the consumers in a short notice. Through requirement engineering elicitation of information the analysts will extract as much information as it is possible so that the project can be developed accurately.

The Analysis of Company Stakeholders

Stakeholders here are all those who are going to be impacted when the project will be launched (McGrath & Whitty, 2017, p. 721). Hence the list of the stakeholders is first needed to be made.
The internal stakeholder list:

• The student stakeholders: The first stakeholder identified is the students who will be using this application using smart phone or laptop and then apply for the jobs posted.

• Company administration: The admin of the company is the group of stakeholder who will monitor the project, make coordination and arrange for the platform and launch.

• IT team and experts: This group of stakeholder are the program developers.
The external stakeholder list:

• Consumers: These are the stakeholders who will post jobs.

• The service provider: The network and cloud service provider will offer the platform and space where the project will be launched and which users will be using.

Grid Showcasing Stakeholder Hold

In the current project it is recognised that some motivation as well as influence is there which the stakeholders possess. The diagram is developed to understand this.

Source: Created by self

The Power and the level of Stakeholder influences

It stakeholder power/interest: The power/interest grid which is showcased above has aided in making a stakeholder analysis and for every group some recommendations are made. Some stakeholders require to be managed more and some less on the basis of their interest or power. The IT personnel and team for example are engaged in the project development and their work performance is dependent on it. They have a high interest in project accuracy and functionality and are accountable for it as well. Their power is less and hence they will work as per supervision of their manager or admin (Vuorinen & Martinsuo, 2019, p. 750). This group of stakeholder requires to be managed and supervises also. With proper management they will work as per management expectations.

Consumer stakeholder group: the consumers are the crucial stakeholder group for the company. They have a very high level of influence as well as power. The program is developed to fulfill the needs of the consumer. Only if their needs are met and they are satisfied they will be using this program and hence care must be taken to keep them satisfied.

Recommended activities for stakeholders detected:

• Both control and the relevance at higher levels: Management is needed to closely manage them. These are engaged in the development, maintaining and purgation of the application developed.

• Control is high but relevance is less in level: Satisfaction level of these stakeholders must be maintained at all times (Yoo, 2017, p. 238).

• Control is reduced but there is high level of interest or relevance: These stakeholders are to be kept informed about the project and developments.

• Power control as well as relevance is low for both:

Proper monitoring of these stakeholders are required to be made.

Elicitation Activities Determined:

• Focused groups
• Interview sessions
• Brainstorming sessions
• Observation of stakeholders

Elicitation Methodology Use for Different Stakeholder Groups

Elicitation from focused groups: Using the focused groups user opinion and feedback about the project which is being developed by Student Gigz is made. A focused group of people are chosen and a small survey questionnaire is sent to them. Here a group of potential consumers are chosen who voluntarily answers to survey questions. The questions will help understand their basic expectation about the project being developed.

Elicitation by Interviews: The interviews are another important method of elicitation of data for cases where many feedbacks are needed. So the company for example has narrowed down multiple potential vendors for the cloud platform (O’Hagan, 2019, p. 69). To finalise one they need to know about their functions, service offer, policies and security measures. For this personalised interviews are made with each so the management can narrow down.

Source: Created by self

Elicitation by brainstorming: The brainstorming method of elicitation of information is aimed for the company admin, the IT experts, manager, seniors students and the cloud vendor stakeholders. The app being developed by Student Gigz is an additional source of revenue. Hence the product developed must be of high functionality. Brainstorming is going to give an open platform where the people from the team throw ideas. The experienced team for example needs to gathers data about security and risk management of client data.

Elicitation by observation: Another way to elicitate information is through observation. The project manager will review similar projects or applications working in the market which are successful by observing their market performance. The data is shared and discussed with the IT and developers. In this way the Student Gigz Pty Ltd project can incorporate all those functions which are important based on the observation.

Following processes Can Aid in Capturing Data:

Focus group: Zoom or GotoMeeting are online programs which can be used for communication with the groups members (Grant, 2020, p. 94).

Interview: Survey Maker is an online tool for posting survey related questionnaires which then will be sent to chosen members.

Brainstorming: MindMup is a tool used for carrying out online sessions for team brainstorming.

Observation: eObservation is an online observation tool for information on the web.

Stakeholder engagement in each elicitation activity reasons:

For focused group, a set of potential consumes are taken in consideration by the project head at Student Gigz. Questionnaires are developed which are structured and are sent over using online tool to the group of consume stakeholders selected. Admin will be making the email communication to inform and take consent of these client stakeholders. This elicitation style is chosen so the potential end user understands what to expect.

For the interview method questionnaires will be used again. The company needs to ask important questions to the cloud service provider stakeholder (Brandon, Wells & Seale, 2018, p. 133). The questionnaire will have questions about their offer, payment, functions, policies, storage, security and risk management details. A program using client data needs to be efficient and have all basic protocols fulfilled and for obtaining such data questionnaire appears to be suitable.

Brainstorming elicitation is used for the company internal stakeholders like the IT department, developers, managers, seniors student group and the administration. Many insights and knowledge is going to be needed to be derived about product functionality (Ali & Lai, 2017, p. 1). This project must be at par with the application in the market. The internal workers are having a comfort level already and hence brainstorming will be an appropriate way to help them express their ideas.

Next method of elicitation is observation. Chosen stakeholder here is the potential clients as well as students. Some good quality applications from the market is observed closely. Such applications must showcase standard payment modes, compliance requirements and communication modes used as is used in similar applications. The program requirement analysis will need such insights and hence observation is the best technique,

Recommendation and Conclusion

Student Gigz Pty Ltd has created a very successful strategy for the requirement engineering analysis for the development of the program. Every program which aims to use the consumers must have the basic functionalities met. The developer team is recommended to make a soft launch of the program at first for a span of a month. During this time, the student and consumers will be using the program and careful observation will be made to detect any improvement requirements (Fatima & Mahmood, 2019, p. 21). If observed the program can be upgraded and launched in the market.

Second recommendation is to ensure that the company uses all the techniques required to make the data secured. The program will deal with sensitive consumer data and hence their privacy and confidentiality must be maintained. The company must consider the cloud service provider security measures as well. A lot of data will be stored in the cloud which will be managed by the vendor and hence it is important to monitor their activities and policies.

Elicitation of information will not end with the launch of the Student Gigz Pty Ltd. It is in fact a continuous process. Stakeholders engaged will constantly be monitored so that from time to time the program can be made better.

References

Ali, N., & Lai, R. (2017). A method of requirements elicitation and analysis for global software development. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 29(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/smr.1830

Brandon, S. E., Wells, S., & Seale, C. (2018). Science-based interviewing: information elicitation. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 15(2), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.1002/jip.1496

Fatima, T., & Mahmood, W. (2019). Requirement engineering in agile. International Journal of Education and Management Engineering, 9(4), 20–33. https://doi.org/10.5815/ijeme.2019.04.03

Grant, A. (2020). The online holistic practitioner. Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society, 26(2), 94–96.

McGrath, S. K., & Whitty, S. J. (2017). Stakeholder defined. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 10(4), 721–748. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-12-2016-0097

O’Hagan, A. (2019). Expert knowledge elicitation: subjective but scientific. The American Statistician, 73(Sup1), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2018.1518265

Vuorinen, L., & Martinsuo, M. (2019). Value-oriented stakeholder influence on infrastructure projects. International Journal of Project Management, 37(5), 750–766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.10.003

Yoo, J. (2017). Customer power and frontline employee voice behavior. European Journal of Marketing, 51(1), 238–256. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-07-2015-0477

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