Comprehensive summary of the course Enterprise Analysis (part of Business analysis) taught by Professor Jan Vanthienen at the Catholic University of Leuven. This document includes all course materials to be known for the exam. More specifically, notes from the classes and the corresponding slides a...
BUSINESS ANALYSIS: ENTERPRISE ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Business analysis = set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to
understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that
enable the organization to achieve its goals.
Business analyst = any person who performs business analysis activities, no matter what their job title
or organizational role may be. ≠ just system builders
The role of a business analyst: figure out what is the problem and what is the solution?
e.g. short clip – 7 perpendicular red lines with transparent ink
• Business focus (not technical focus)
• Solutions may be IT-related (may be not)
• Looking for the REAL needs ≠ necessarily EXPRESSED needs
! Communication skills: BA don’t model/program they talk to people
of course it is related to information systems, but not main focus
→ figure out what they are talking about e.g. students in a system – what is a student?
Importance of a business analyst e.g. Ludo (Mens-erger-je-niet) – rules of the game
Vocabulary: concepts game = first thing you do in business
Rules: what can you do/what is allowed?/when do you win?
Processes: how to play the game? = operate the game (≠ rules)
Strategy: how to win the game?
business analyst has to deal with these 4 things as well
IMPORTANT: know what the problem is find out exact scope of problem
- Expensive to come with a huge solution for just a small problem
e.g. I need a new kitchen sink but it doesn’t match wall paper… total renovation
- Solution ≠ necessarily lead to improvement carefully consider (a need has to be present)
Business analysis = we are talking about part between business and the IT world
→ The three musketeers: business rules, vocabulary, and information systems
BABOK = the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge
= FROM system analysis TO engineering the business
KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Enterprise analysis: “why are we doing this?”
→ is there really a problem? Why do something about it?
Elicitation: what is the reason for this problem? Do
requirements solve the problem?
Requirement analysis: are there gaps? Conflicting
requirements? What must the solution do? Is this solution
what we really want? Do we want to pay for it? Does
everyone agree?
Solution assessment: does the solution really do what it
has to do? (BEFORE implementing)
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,CHAPTER 2: INFORMATION & STRATEGY
1 ENTERPRISE ANALYSIS
1st step in business analysis = enterprise analysis
= understand the business and its environment = understand big picture
3 observations
1) There are different types of decisions
2) There are different types of strategies
3) We have to manage information
1.1 Types of decisions
STRUCTURED UNSTRUCTURED
Made under situations that are • Established •Emergent
• Fully understood •Uncertain & unclear
Can be preplanned
Made for Routine tasks Sudden one-shot situations
! Try to automate structured decisions
GOAL of information systems = delays to 0
Data capturing delay
Data captured automatically
Reporting delay
Not on paper anymore
Analysis latency
Decision support systems
Decision latency
Automate decisions
Depending on type of decision IS e.g. structured operational = transaction processing system
1.2 Types of strategies
? What is my strategic advantage
1) Competitive advantage – price/cost quality
- Competitive forces (Porter)
- Value chain approach (Porter)
- Customer lifecycle
2) Cooperative advantage – cooperate with other companies
3) Internal organization – maximize internal efficiency/organization
→ better decisions, communication, and information management
STRATEGIES
Product differentiation
✓ no direct substitute
✓ bargaining power of customer
Lowest cost and lowest price
Find a market ‘niche’ – combination of other 2
2
,1.3 Information management & planning
Information management
= goals and directives for dealing with & organizing information
BA PROJECTS
Information planning
= translating strategies, goals, & constraints to information plan
! You’re not working in isolation consequences for other parts of the organization
e.g. social plan – layoffs, changes in workforce or organizational plan – redesign
2 important considerations to define when projects come up
1) Depth = “to what extent do we automate?”
→ don’t automate everything (expensive) keep semi-automated, manual?
2) Width = “how large is the project?”
• Automating 1 thing has often implications for other things
• This escalates very quickly remodel house = new floor, new kitchen, etc.
IMPORTANT: determine boundaries as early as possible to avoid exploding
2 INFORMATION STRATEGY
2.1 Opportunity identification framework
How do we find interesting opportunities depending on the strategy?
How do we choose among these opportunities?
Number of ways to solve these problems
Traditional approaches e.g 5 forces, customer life cycle, embrace & extend, balanced score card
Typical approaches in practice (real approach = often a combination)
1) Stages of growth approach – Nolan & Gibson
!! PAST = look at other companies and do what they do
All companies go through the same 6 stages
I. Initiation
II. Contagion
III. Control
IV. Integration
V. Data administration
VI. Maturity
→ Recognize stage you’re in today based on expenditures
behave according to the next stage which opportunities are there?
2) Business systems planning – IBM
!! CURRENT = global survey to improve (what is good and what is not?)
Find out what is going on (enterprise analysis) summarize in a matrix
e.g. final process-data class matrix = which information used in which processes?
→ where should we work on? What can we improve? = add priorities for opportunities
3) Critical success factors method – Rockart
!! FUTURE = brainstorm about 3 most critical issues nowadays to survive
3
, 2.2 Organizational maturity
System How advanced are we in dealing with these projects?
improvement
→ lowest level = single IT-system
Process
improvement → process analysis added to investigate processes involved
Business
improvement → total picture = organizational maturity
2.3 The BP re-engineering/management movement
MISTAKES
Use technology to automate old ways of doing business
= you’re doing the same thing as before but just automating the efficiencies
→ first rethink the current reality and then automate
Thinking that speeding up processes can address fundamental performance deficiencies
e.g. order fulfilment has high error rates (IT can’t solve this)
Operate according to unarticulated rules
e.g. “credit decisions are made by the credit department”
Paving the cow paths: use IT to radically redesign BPs
All or nothing approach: reengineering ≠ planned meticulously + = accomplished in small steps
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