General Business Assignment Business Project Stage 2

General Business Assignment Business Project Stage 2

Overview of Business Process Analysis and Functional Requirements for Kelly's Salon

For your Case Study Stage 1 assignment, you performed a Five Forces Analysis and justified Kelly's chosenstrategy for competitive advantage and the business process that she would like to improve through the application of technology.

In the Stage 2 assignment, you will identifythe inputs, processing, and outputs of Kelly's selected businessprocess.  Those inputs, processing, and outputs form the functional (business) requirements for an IT system to improve the process.

The first step in identifying the functional or business requirements for an information system is to develop the high level requirements that establish the scope of the system.  Kelly has selected the Customer and Employee Scheduling Process for improvement using an IT solution, and together you have identified the following high level requirements.  The system must:

• Allow employees to enter their availability and desired days/times to work
• Allow Kelly to review the employee requests and develop a schedule
• Make the schedule available to employees to review their final work schedule
• Make the employee schedule available for staff to enter customer appointments
• Allow Kelly and the staff to enter customer appointments
• Keep track of customer appointments, including stylist and service performed
• Accommodate changes in the employee schedules and customer appointments, and update the schedule accordingly
• Accommodate changes in the customer information stored in the system
• Provide management reports to Kelly showing employee workload, customers served, customer contact information, busy times/days, etc.

For this assignment, you will focus on the customer appointment portion of the overall process. The high level requirements are not detailed enough to be used as the functional or business requirements.  More detailed requirements are developed using a variety of tools and methods.  One such tool is a process model.  The process model shows the steps in the customer appointment process.  In a process model, rectangles are used to illustrate process steps and diamonds are used where decisions, or choices, are made.  You need to be aware that there are other aspects of the process to be considered, as shown in the high level requirements above.  The points at which these additional steps intersect with the customer appointment process are shown in the process model with a circle.

Customer Appointment Process Model:The Customer Appointment Process model is separately provided as an Excel file, labeled "Stage 2 Customer Appointment Process Model."

Assignment: Kelly's Salon Stage 2:  Using the Customer Appointment Process Model, create a document that includes:

1. Introduction

At the top of your paper, show the strategy for competitive advantage that Kelly selected and the business process she has chosen to improve, using the following format (no additional explanation is required):

Generic Strategy for Competitive Advantage:    xxxxxxx (just name the strategy)

Business Process to Be Improved:    xxxxxxxxx (just name the process)

1. Table of Functional (Business) Requirements

Copy the table below into your paper.  Using the Customer Appointment Process Model provided complete the table of requirements for an IT system, for each of the numbered process steps, that includes:

• the inputs to the process – include specific items of information or data elements (for example, customer name) entered into the system as part of the process step
• processing or actions that the system takes (for example, check calendar to let person know if Kelly's Salon is open at the specified time)
• outputs of the process – include specific items of information or data elements (for example, appointment date) that the system will display or print out for the user to see

Note:  This is not about what the employee or customer is doing but specifically about data into the system (input), the system does something with that data (process) to deliver the end result (output)

There are 7 numbered steps in the Appointment Process itself.  In addition, there are three other processes that are needed (shown in the circles), but are beyond the scope of the appointment process:  (1) a process for entering the time needed and costs for the various styling services – this builds a database or table for reference in future transactions; (2) a process for scheduling employees to work; and (3) the payment process that collects customer payments and updates the database accordingly. You should be aware that these processes are needed to complete the system, but you do not need to address them in your assignment.

The responses that you enter into the table for each requirement must be aligned to the specific business process to be improved and the data it uses, and it must be appropriate to the Kelly's Salon business.

Note:  Processes are actions that the system will take and should include action verbs.  Inputs and outputs are not actions, but are data or information.  If you need to use action words (verbs) to describe the input or output, they should be kept to a minimum and put in parentheses.

EXAMPLE Using the Employee Scheduling Process

The example below demonstrates what is required for the assignment, using the Employee Scheduling Process, which is shown in a circle in the Customer Appointment Process Model.  The process model for this example is separately provided as an Excel file named "Stage 2 Example - Scheduling Process Model."  The entries in the table correspond with the numbered process steps in the model.

Formatting:

For academic writing, the writer is expected to write in the third person. In third person, the writer avoids the pronouns I, we, my, and our. 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 academic 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.

• Submit a document that includes the Table of Functional Requirements.
• Table entries should be single spaced.
• Use APA formatted citations and references for any external sources used.
• Include a title page, and a reference page if references are included.
• Compare your final work to the rubric 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.
• Your submission should include your last name first in the filename: Lastname_firstname_Stage _2