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Stage 3:   Requirements

Before you begin work on this assignment, be sure you have read the Case Study and reviewed the feedback received on your Stage 1 and 2 assignments. 

Overview

As the business analyst in the CIO’s department of Maryland Technology Consulting (MTC), your next task in developing your Business Analysis and System Recommendation (BA&SR) Report is to develop a set of requirements for the hiring system. 

Assignment – BA&SR Section III. Requirements

The first step is to review any feedback from previous stages to help improve the effectiveness of your overall report and then add the new section to your report.  Only content for Stage 3 will be graded for this submission. Part of the grading criteria for Stage 4 includes evaluating if the document is a very effective and cohesive assemblage of the four sections, is well formatted and flows smoothly from one section to the next.    For this assignment, you will add Section III of the Business Analysis and System Recommendation (BA&SR) Report to your Sections I and II.  In this section you will identify requirements for the new hiring system. This analysis leads into Section IV. System Recommendation of the BA&SR (Stage 4 assignment) that will analyze a proposed IT solution to ensure it meets MTC’s organizational strategy and fulfills its operational needs. 

Using the case study, assignment instructions, Content readings, and external research, develop your Section III. Requirements.   The case study tells you that the executives and employees at Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC) have identified a need for an effective and efficient applicant tracking or hiring system.  As you review the case study, use the assignment instructions to take notes to assist in your analysis. In particular, look for information in the interviews to provide stakeholder interests and needs.

Use the outline format, headings and tables provided and follow all formatting instructions below. 

III.          Requirements

A.               Stakeholder Interests – Review the interest or objectives for the new hiring system for each stakeholder listed below based on his or her organizational role and case study information.  Consider how the technology will improve how his/her job is done; that is, identify what each of the stakeholders needs the hiring system to do. Then to complete the table below, use information from the stakeholder interviews and identify one significant challenge or problem for each stakeholder related to the current hiring process (not their future expectations).  Then explain how a system could address their problems. Do not define what that position does in the organization.  (Provide an introductory sentence for this section, copy the table below and complete the two columns with 1-2 complete sentences for each role in each column.)

B.           Defining Requirements – The next step is to identify the essential requirements for the information system. In addition to the stakeholder interests identified above, review the Case Study, especially the interviews, highlighting any statements that tell what the person expects or needs the system to do.  User requirements express specifically what the user needs the system to do.  This can be in terms of tasks the users need to perform, data they need to input, what the system might do with that data input, and output required.   System performance requirements express how the system will perform in several performance areas and security.  As a member of the CIO’s organization, you will use your professional knowledge to Identify 5 User Requirements (including one specifically related to reporting) and 5 System Performance Requirements (including 2 security-related requirements).  Refer to Week 5 content on requirements; security requirements are covered in Week 6. Additional research can expand your knowledge of these areas.

Once you have identified the 10 requirements, evaluate each one using the criteria below and create 10 well-written requirements statements for the new hiring system. 

The requirement statement:

·        Is a complete sentence, with a subject (system) and predicate (intended result, action or condition).

·        Identifies only one requirement; does not include the words “and,” “also,” “with,” and “or.”

·        For User Requirements, states what tasks the system will support or perform.

·        For System Performance Requirements, states how the system will perform.

·        Includes a measure or metric that can be used to determine whether the requirement is met (time or quantity), where appropriate.

·        Is stated in positive terms and uses “must” (not “shall,” “may” or “should”); “the system must xxxx” not “the system must not xxx”.

·        Avoids the use of terms that cannot be defined and measured, such as “approximately,” “robust,” “user friendly,” etc.

·        Is achievable and realistic; avoids terms such as “100% uptime,” or “no failures”.

For a full requirements document, there will be many requirement statements; you only need to provide the number of requirements identified for each category.  Do not provide generic statements but relate to the needs of MTC to improve its hiring process.

(Provide an introductory sentence, copy the table, and complete the Requirements Statement and Stakeholder columns.   No additional information should be entered into the first column, Requirement ID.) 

Formatting Your Assignment

Consider your audience – you are writing in the role of an MTC business analyst and your audience is MTC and your boss, the CIO.  Don’t discuss MTC 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 3, you are preparing the third part of a 4-stage report.  Use the structure, headings, and outline format provided here for your report.   Use the numbering/lettering in the assignment instructions as shown below.

III.          Requirements

A.     Stakeholder Interests

B.     Defining Requirements

·        Begin with Sections I and II, considering any feedback received, and add to it Section III.

·        Write a short concise paper:  Use the recommendations provided in each area for length of response.  It’s important to value quality over quantity.  Section III should not exceed 3 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.

·        Continue to use the title page created in Stage 1 that includes:  The title of report, company name, your name, Course and Section Number, and date of this submission.

·        Use at least two resources with APA formatted citation and reference for this Stage 3 assignment.  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.  For information on APA format, refer to Content>Course Resources>Writing Resources.

·        Add the references required for this assignment to the Reference Page.  Additional research in the next stage will be added to this as you build the report.  The final document should contain all references from all stages appropriately formatted and alphabetized.

·        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_3

GRADING RUBRIC: