Is exercisey ou will be playing the role of a Business Analyst who has been
selected to work
for Snowden Evans and his Systems and Training Group. Initially
Snowden had asked
you to undertake a review of progress on a system
they call
GEMS that is under development at present. Snowden has asked you to consider and
report on the “business” rather than the “technical” aspects of
its progress. That is he wants you to report on whether or not the systems
as it has been designed
will meet
the business needs of Maple Ridge you can assume that the technical design will
implement the business requirements (as currently defined) adequately.
Your Assignment will require you to understand
and document the
requirements and
processes within Maple Ridge, identify and describe various problems and
opportunities within the company and finally propose ways to progress these.
In this
first stage your focus will be primarily on Operational requir
ements. In the second
stage of the Case Study the focus changes to Strategic considerations.
Maple Ridge
Maple Ridge is the subject of the “Hypercase” from Kendall & Kendall. There is a
good deal of information about Maple Ridge on
–
line. And it is refer
red to often within
the text. Your initial starting point for information gathering should be the p48 of the
text. This page refers to a web
–
site for Maple Ridge, you can go there and click
through or type in the direct url …
http://vigstage.pearsonhighered.com/hypercase/hypercase2.8/
You will find the site has instructions and suggestions
–
have a browse around, noting
what you find (and cannot find). From time to time the sit
e may not function
perfectly, if you believe something is not working note this in the discussion board for
Part 1 (as well as anything else interesting you find
)
.
After you feel comfortable with the general layout of the Hypercase site you should
start o
n
creating some
Rich Pictures
documenting the company
.
And of course what do you (as a good analyst/problem Solver/communicator) do
when, even after investigating all of these sources you still have questions/concerns?
You seek further clarification and a
dvice from the users.
I will be playing the user roles for this exercise so if you have any questions ask me
what you would like to know.
You may ask any questions about Maple Ridge or if
you have any technical questions about fact finding, drawing
Rich
Pictures, process
and procedural documentation and so on
.
Y
ou
are also encouraged to
discuss your
findings with
me and other students
.
Note that I am encouraging you to discuss all of
the things you find with your fellow students, those who share their t
houghts and
findings with others will receive recognition for this in their marks for this
component.
Deliverables
This Phase
Soft copies of your documentation and recommendations relating to the GEMS
system.
Snowden has suggested th
at Rich Pictures, Use
Cases Diagrams,
Activity
Diagrams
and ER models
would be good
–
together with some commentary and
recommendations for further steps.
We will talk about the case study each week in class.
General Comments
When you are trying to work out what is happening a
t Maple Ridge, what problems
exist and how you could address them you WILL find the process confusing,
contradictory and frustrating….. almost always you will be told lots that you do not
need to know, and little of what you do need to know, often you will
even be told
things that turn out to be inaccurate!
Welcome to the (virtual) real world. It is your job to sort out what is needed and what
is accurate! It is a frustrating job, but once you have done it a very rewarding one!
And finally remember that I
will expect to see mention of your progress on MRE in
your Journal.