Business Analysis & Strategic Planning

This assignment delves into the realm of business analysis and strategic planning. It requires students to demonstrate an understanding of core business analysis principles, including requirements elicitation, stakeholder analysis, and process modeling. Furthermore, it encourages the application of strategic planning frameworks to analyze real-world business situations, identifying opportunities and formulating effective strategies.

Running head: CORE KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Core knowledge areas in Integrated Library System
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

1CORE KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Core knowledge areas......................................................................................................................3
1.0 Business analysis planning and monitoring for ILS system..................................................3
1.1 Core competencies of ILS system.....................................................................................5
1.2 Business analysis tools for ILS system..............................................................................5
2.0 Elicitation and Collaboration.................................................................................................6
2.1 Core competencies in elicitation and collaboration...........................................................7
2.2 Business analysis tools for elicitation................................................................................8
3.0 Requirements life cycle management....................................................................................8
3.1 Core competencies in requirements life cycle management..............................................8
3.2 Business analysis tools......................................................................................................9
4.0 Strategy Analysis...................................................................................................................9
4.1 Core competencies for strategy analysis..........................................................................10
4.2 Business analysis tool......................................................................................................10
5.0 Requirements analysis and design definition......................................................................11
5.1 Core competencies of requirements analysis and design definition................................12
5.2 Business analysis tools....................................................................................................12
6.0 Solution evaluation..............................................................................................................12
6.1 Core competencies of solution evaluation.......................................................................13

2CORE KNOWLEDGE AREAS
6.2 Business analysis tools....................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

3CORE KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Introduction
The report is based on implementation of an integrated library system (ILS) which
provides library’s business operations. The public library system is combined with vendor
supported as well as customized system with the library’s original homegrown system. Tarhini,
Ammar and Tarhini (2015) stated that business analysis is detailed study of different operations
that are performed by the business and its relationships in and outside of the system. During this
analysis, data are collected on different files; decision points as well as transactions are to be
handled by the existing library system.
This particular report analyses a facilitation of customization of ILS modules. It also
discusses an abstract view of the activities that are performed into six core knowledge areas of
the business analysis. It also evaluates competencies as well as tools that are used to conduct
knowledge areas.
Core knowledge areas
1.0 Business analysis planning and monitoring for ILS system
Plan business analysis approach
ILS system uses of library’s system development life cycle methodology for
implementing and maintaining a higher quality system to meet customer’s expectations. Project
management life cycle ensures that this project plan is within estimated resources, planned
schedule as well as scope (Yeh and Walter 2016). The project manager analyzes the functional
requirements of ILS system. It provides detailed specifications on system design. Into the

4CORE KNOWLEDGE AREAS
development phase, design of ILS is converted into IT system. Testing is done to validate
whether the developed system meets with business requirements.
Plan stakeholder engagement
Library Staff Members: The staff members are responsible to purchase as well as acquire
of books, periodicals and movies. They have entered the information into the library system as
well as established a unique barcode for each of the library items.
Librarians: The roles of librarians are to provide access to the library information
system. They are associated with collection of books and meet with technological requirements
(Fleisher and Bensoussan 2015). They are also deal with maintenance of information such as
books, magazines, recordings of audio and video, manuscripts and others.
Business Analyst: They have planned, monitored and simplified the business
requirements to implement an integrated library system. The business analyst analyzes the
requirements of the system into the public library.
Plan business analysis governance
In the governance structure, the business analyst plays a key significant role into
implementation of library system. The analyst understands the customer drivers and business
process requirements (Eva et al. 2014). They have in-depth knowledge on functioning of the
proposed system. They have also validated the solutions developed and meet with client’s
requirements.

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Plan business analysis information management
Each of the patrons as well as items within the ILS has unique ID into the database that
permits the system to track the activities. It helps to keep record of the entire library transactions
of books available within the library (Tarhini, Ammar and Tarhini 2015). Library information
management system keeps records of various books, journals, classifies the books subject
sensible and keeps detailed information on all books.
Identify business analysis performance improvements
Technical feasibility is done to identify if the ILS system is technically feasible or not. It
is not difficult to get required resources for development as well as maintenance of the proposed
system. The operational cost of the ILS system is less than current library system that includes of
materials equipments, overhead cost as well as human resources (Vera-Baquero, Colomo-
Palacios and Molloy 2016). Favorable hardware as well as software is utilized to make the
proposed system feasible.
1.1 Core competencies of ILS system
The core competencies are administration and management work, trends into public
librarianship, public services, collection development and technical services. The proposed
system can also track the items owned, payment of bills and patrons those have borrowed. ILS
system consists of relational database and software to interact with database plus graphical user
interfaces.
1.2 Business analysis tools for ILS system
Following are the tools used for development of ILS system are:

6CORE KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Business analysis performance assessment: It reviews the entire project plan and
incorporates with planning approaches of the system.
Business process modeling: It represents sequential workflow of the informational
decisions that are taken for business process (Fleisher and Bensoussan 2015).
2.0 Elicitation and Collaboration
Prepare for elicitation
The ILS system is updating the old library system in an internet based application such
that the users can know detailed information about their library accounts, availability of books
and maximum time to borrow it. This system is used for use of librarians and users. The system
is used to manage books, insertion as well as monitoring (Loepp, Hussein and Ziegler 2014).
Conduct elicitation
By conducting the elicitation on ILS, it provides access to the detailed library records and
repeated tracking of the information of borrowers. It also maintains supply stock information of
the library items in the system to make sure that stock are not running out (Muhammad and
Darwish 2014). It also updates the library with latest books, journals and newspapers. The goal
of this proposed system is to facilitate administrative activities as well as information
management works within the library.
Confirm elicitation results
It is validated the requirements of the stakeholders are matching with the updated system
requirements. Document analysis is done to review the documented outputs with stakeholders to

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make sure that the business analyst’s understanding conforms towards actual desires of the
stakeholders.
Communicate business analysis information
The communication platform to communicate all the business related information on
system development is done through group and individual collaboration. In group collaboration,
the information is communicated with group of business stakeholders at a time (Loepp, Hussein
and Ziegler 2014). In individual collaboration, the information is communicated with single
business stakeholders at a time. Email is also used to mail all the information to all stakeholders
and there is no requirement of verbal explanation.
Manage stakeholder collaboration
In order to collaborate with the stakeholders, a good communication plan is required to
interact with all the business stakeholders. Weekly meeting is conducted to discuss the business
related issues (Muhammad and Darwish 2017). The discussion meeting can manage the conflicts
among the project stakeholders.
2.1 Core competencies in elicitation and collaboration
The responsibility of business analyst is elicitation of business requirements as those
requirements would serve foundation for the solutions towards business needs (Konaté, Sahraoui
and Kolfschoten 2014). The purpose of elicitation and collaboration is to identify business
requirements and elicitation techniques used.

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2.2 Business analysis tools for elicitation
Brainstorming: It is a group creativity technique that provides final conclusion for the
problems related to implementation of ILS (Chang, Harper and Terveen 2015).
Document analysis: The library’s system requirement documents are reviewed by the
business analyst. The documents are personal documents and public records (Fernández-Tobías
et al. 2016).
3.0 Requirements life cycle management
The library system provides a good graphical interface for the users as well as
administrator that are operating on the system. The external interface requirement of proposed
system is that it allows the system users to view quick reports and verifies the stock verification
based on various criteria (Stark 2015). The administrator can customizable the user interfaces.
The user interface is able to communicate with the user management modules and the interface
must dedicate to login as well as logout modules. After implementation of library management
system, the librarian and system user can easily access the library. The system performs member
registration, validation, generation of report and transaction of books. Usability requirement is
required to verify if the staffs can easily use the system.
3.1 Core competencies in requirements life cycle management
Technological core competencies are used to address the growing requirements of the
customers to raise their technical competence. It allows for utilization of library resources. The
technology core competencies are checklist of system, training as well as assessment (Campbell,
Jardine and McGlynn 2016).

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3.2 Business analysis tools
Decision analysis: This tool is used by the business analyst to make better decisions in
difficult situations. It is used to recognize higher value requirements.
Backlog management: This tool compares the requirements to prioritize it. With use of
this tool, the project manager customizes the software based on team’s requirements (Tao et al.
2014).
4.0 Strategy Analysis
Analyzing the current state
ILS is large enterprise software that is driving enterprise resource planning system. The
current state of ILS is that the staffs can barcode the copies of single item such as copies of
meticulous books at particular time with each of the copies receive sequentially numbered
barcodes.
Defining future state
The proposed ILS is implemented with a new process of handling the barcodes, various
copies of same items. Acquisitions module of new ILS needs information for each innovative
item to be penetrated separately (Finkbeiner 2014). It means that the information for the library's
collected works would entered 12 time i.e. once for each copy of the book.
Assessing the risks
Loss of data storage devices: Due to damage of the hard disk, there is possible that the
data are stored might be lost. The solution is that the work done into the system should be kept a
backup copy.

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People: The project plan does not have required people to have expertise to work into
this implementation and development project (Johnson 2017). Training should be provided to
people.
Data communication: There is a communication gap among developed members of the
project plan. Frequent meetings are conducted for better communication to be done.
Development risk: There is non-availability of quality tools to make and monitor the plan
(Ghezzi, Rangone and Balocco 2013). The software should be tested using system testing.
Defining the change strategy
Communication plan: All the stakeholders discuss the possible schedule and cost
changes among them in weekly meetings.
4.1 Core competencies for strategy analysis
Internal analysis is done leads to competitive advantage as well as strategic
competiveness. Implementation of the proposed system requires information gathering,
feasibility study and applied of strategic tools.
4.2 Business analysis tool
Solution Performance Measures: It describes actual performance of the existing
solutions of the proposed system (Grant 2016). New solutions to the problems and monitoring of
results are required new system approaches.

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5.0 Requirements analysis and design definition
Specification and model requirements
All the project specifications and models are documented into requirement specification
document. This document can specify all functional and performance requirements of the library
system.
Verification of requirements
For implementation of ILS, system testing should be done. All the components of the
system are tested such as hardware, software, storage and maintenance environments. It performs
an audit of the codes (Dennis, Wixom and Tegarden 2015). The system documentation is revised
to make sure that it is sufficient.
Validation of requirements
It is validated if the software is maintained properly or not. The errors as well as defects
are identified, accurate and validated after the installation of the system.
Define requirements architecture
There is a requirement of use case diagram of the library management system. The
architectural design should contain a member, update, add and issue of item, return of item
options (Coduto 2015).
Define solution options
The solution options of proposed system are manage of book, member record,
acquisitions, circulation and barcodes.

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Analyzing potential value and recommend solution
The proposed system provides value to the academic librarians and staff members. The
software is used to raise operational efficiency which provides great value to the business.
5.1 Core competencies of requirements analysis and design definition
Business analysis core concept model is used to describe relationships among the core
concepts of the proposed system (Stark 2015). Core competence is communication and
involvement of the staffs across organizational boundaries.
5.2 Business analysis tools
Modeling tools: The software engineering tools manage requirements of the system into
the library. It models and analyzed the business processes.
6.0 Solution evaluation
Prototypes of concept
RFID based prototype is used into the ILS for collection of digital information such as
books, movies, journals, and additional items that comprised the collections. This prototype will
establish unique barcode for each individual item (Muhammad and Darwish 2017). The new
system will handle bar coding of various copies of same items.
Pilot release
Pilot data conversion is a hardware and software mitigation method used to roll out the
new system for testing as well as evaluation. Throughout the pilot implementation, the test group
users are providing valuable feedback on the system in order to make an eventual rollout of the
system users (Finkbeiner 2014). The testers help to train the employees for new system.

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Operational release
It describes deployment of proposed system, installation and transitioned into the
operational system.
6.1 Core competencies of solution evaluation
The solutions should be such that the system users can support. The proposed system
provides unified managing of resources that the library can own, licenses and make it available
to the end users for delivery (Buede and Miller 2016).
6.2 Business analysis tools
Solution scope: The solution boundaries are measured and evaluated. The scope is to
authenticate the users at login. It provides list of books that the users can borrow. It also
facilitates to reserve the books that are accessible.
Conclusion
It is concluded that ILS is a web based system for supervision and management of
transactions into the library. The proposed system is easy to handle, technically feasible and
easily access all the information. Requirement analysis planning and monitoring is best core
knowledge areas for the integrated library system as it generates key business analysis
deliverables. The deliverables are approach of business analysis, requirement plan,
communication plan and stakeholder analysis. Those are required to complete the plan on time.

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Recommendations
Modular design of system: The proposed system should require developing with the
modular design, the application of library is maintained and it is more scalable.
Good network connection: The librarians require good network connection to increase
the benefits gained from implementation of such a system.
Manage solution scope and requirements: The project scope as well as requirements
should require to be properly documented into requirement specification document.

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References
Buede, D.M. and Miller, W.D., 2016. The engineering design of systems: models and methods.
John Wiley & Sons.
Campbell, J.D., Jardine, A.K. and McGlynn, J. eds., 2016. Asset management excellence:
optimizing equipment life-cycle decisions. CRC Press.
Chang, S., Harper, F.M. and Terveen, L., 2015, February. Using groups of items for preference
elicitation in recommender systems. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer
Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 1258-1269). ACM.
Coduto, D.P., 2015. Foundation design: principles and practices. Pearson.
Dennis, A., Wixom, B.H. and Tegarden, D., 2015. Systems analysis and design: An object-
oriented approach with UML. John Wiley & Sons.
Eva, M., Hindle, K., Paul, D., Rollaston, C. and Tudor, D., 2014. Business analysis. BCS.
Fernández-Tobías, I., Braunhofer, M., Elahi, M., Ricci, F. and Cantador, I., 2016. Alleviating the
new user problem in collaborative filtering by exploiting personality information. User Modeling
and User-Adapted Interaction, 26(2-3), pp.221-255.
Finkbeiner, M., 2014. Product environmental footprint—breakthrough or breakdown for policy
implementation of life cycle assessment?.
Fleisher, C.S. and Bensoussan, B.E., 2015. Business and competitive analysis: effective
application of new and classic methods. FT Press.

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Ghezzi, A., Rangone, A. and Balocco, R., 2013. Technology diffusion theory revisited: a
regulation, environment, strategy, technology model for technology activation analysis of mobile
ICT. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 25(10), pp.1223-1249.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary Strategy Analysis Text Only. John Wiley & Sons.
Johnson, G., 2017. Exploring strategy: text and cases. Pearson.
Konaté, J., Sahraoui, A.E.K. and Kolfschoten, G.L., 2014. Collaborative requirements elicitation:
A process-centred approach. Group Decision and Negotiation, 23(4), pp.847-877.
Loepp, B., Hussein, T. and Ziegler, J., 2014, April. Choice-based preference elicitation for
collaborative filtering recommender systems. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 3085-3094). ACM.
Muhammad, M.A. and Darwish, N.R., 2017. SuccessFactors of Requirement Elicitation: A
Comprehensive Survey. Software Engineering and Technology, 9(6), pp.109-115.
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1) (pp. 1-29). Springer International Publishing.
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Tarhini, A., Ammar, H. and Tarhini, T., 2015. Analysis of the critical success factors for
enterprise resource planning implementation from stakeholders’ perspective: A systematic
review. International Business Research, 8(4), p.25.

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Vera-Baquero, A., Colomo-Palacios, R. and Molloy, O., 2016. Real-time business activity
monitoring and analysis of process performance on big-data domains. Telematics and
Informatics, 33(3), pp.793-807.
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