A Comprehensive Report on the Evolution of Business Systems Analysis

This report delves into the evolution of business systems analysis, tracing its development from the 1970s to the present day. It highlights the critical importance of aligning business processes with supporting software environments, emphasizing techniques such as SWOT analysis, business process modeling, and non-functional requirement analysis. The report examines research approaches and methodologies, including observation, sampling, and surveys, alongside the application of alignment strategies involving execution of inventions, detection of misalignment, identification of changes, and implementation. It also explores current trends in business system analysis, the role of non-functional requirements, and the use of interviews, workshops, and modeling techniques. The evolution has resulted in more advanced and accommodative business systems. The report concludes by summarizing the key aspects of business system analysis evolution.

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
Name
Institution
Evolution of Business System Analysis

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Research Approaches and Methodologies applied.....................................................................................5
Observation.............................................................................................................................................5
Sampling..................................................................................................................................................5
Survey......................................................................................................................................................6
Alignment strategy......................................................................................................................................6
Execution of inventions...........................................................................................................................7
Detection of misalignment......................................................................................................................7
Identification of the need to change.......................................................................................................8
Implementation of changes.....................................................................................................................8
Trends in business system analysis..............................................................................................................9
Analysis based on SWOT..........................................................................................................................9
Analysis of the non-functional requirements........................................................................................10
Interviews and workshops.....................................................................................................................10
Modeling of the business processes......................................................................................................11
Modeling of the data.............................................................................................................................12
User experiences with the system.........................................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................14

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
Abstract
Since the introduction of business systems planning back in 1970s, there has been
extensive evolution in the business system analysis. The evolution tends to accommodate many
business processes and implement an accommodative business system architecture that supports
all the non functional features of a complete system. Functionality, Usability, Reliability,
Performance, Supportability and Security are these features that tend to attract business
organizations to incorporate business systems analysis when developing their systems.
Functionality caters for the system functioning, reliability caters for the system reliance in case
of a misfortune, usability caters for user-friendliness, supportability caters for all the components
the system should support and security caters for the safety measures put in place to mitigate
attacks from malicious people.
As business systems analysis evolves, supporting software environments tend to evolve
too. This has to be the case for alignment purposes between the business system and the
supporting business environment. Over the years, as business systems analysis and supporting
software environments evolve analysts and developers have implemented strategies to ensure
that the business processes supported in the business system analysis align with the supporting
software environment the business software is being developed . The strategies put into
consideration the codification of the alignment, the changing aspects of analysis and supporting
software, the objects involved in the business processes and the parameters involved.

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
Introduction
Due to the dynamism of the; business processes, business requirements, technology and
supporting software environments available for the development of fully functional, effective
and efficient enterprise or business systems, the need to advance and improve the approaches,
methodologies and techniques of business system analysis has been very crucial and of concern
to most system analysts. The advancement in return has led to success of the business processes
accommodated by a business. This has made most businesses and business-oriented
organizations to implement business systems in their businesses to enhance their business
processes and in turn accrue a lot of profit at the end of the day.
Over the years the most significant aspect put in to consideration during the business
system analysis phase in the system development life cycle is the alignment of the business
processes with the supporting software environment. This is crucial when developing a system
because if a supporting software environment does not support the technologies behind business
processes, then the business system will not work and give feedback as expected by the system
analyst, system designer, system programmer and the organization at hand.
The business systems analysis has implemented new techniques like; Strength,
Weakness, Threat and Opportunities analysis (SWOT), Business process modeling, Use case
modeling, Non-functional requirement analysis, Data modeling, Requirement workshops,
Requirement interviews and User stories to advance the process of analyzing business systems.
All these in addition to the alignment strategy, have made business system analysis evolve

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
tremendously since its introduction in the 1970s. Business systems being developed nowadays
are more advanced and accommodative.
Research Approaches and Methodologies applied
Observation Zikmund (2013). This involves looking into business systems especially
their development, implementation, deployment and documentation part. Observations on how
various business systems are analyzed, how they work, how errors are rectified and how the
development team responds to the. Most of the business systems observed depicted the
alignment in the system development life cycle during system analysis where system analysts
work hand in hand with the programmers to find the most suitable way to arrive at compatibility
between the business processes supported by a business system and the supporting software
environment used in the development of the business system. The trends in business system
analysis were also observed across all the business systems under consideration. Trends like
strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis of the non-functional requirements,
all types of modeling used during system analysis, and all the techniques and methodologies of
acquiring requirements for business systems was put into consideration.
Sampling. This is using a subset of certain entities to make a conclusion on all the other
entities, in this case obtaining a subset of the existing business systems Reinharz (2017).
Sampling of the various business systems like Customer relationship management systems,
human resource management system, workflow management systems and enterprise resource
management was done. Issues like alignment were investigated on the sampled business systems.
The trends in business system analysis were also observed across all the business systems under

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
consideration. Trends like strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis of the
non-functional requirements, all types of modeling used during system analysis, and all the
techniques and methodologies of acquiring requirements for business systems was put into
consideration.
Survey. This is where information is collected through examining the object or issue under
research Reinharz (2017). Through all the business systems surveyed, alignment was put under
consideration. The trends in business system analysis were also observed across all the business
systems under consideration. Trends like strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT)
analysis of the non-functional requirements, all types of modeling used during system analysis,
and all the techniques and methodologies of acquiring requirements for business systems was put
into consideration.
Alignment strategy
Alignment strategy tries to compare whether the business processes supported in the
business system analysis are compatible to the supporting software environment used to develop
the business system. This comparison is made possible through simulation which creates a
representation of the real system, a model, implementing all the entities and the features of the
real system Vom & Rosemann (2010). Modeling is mostly implemented through the Unified
Modeling language UML which does not include all the features of the system but most of the
features.

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
The model is developed in an evolving manner adding the business system requirements
while at the same time checking the business processes alignment to the supporting software
environment used to develop the business system. The model is a representation of the real
business system, which means whatever changes that are done on the model of the system are
also done on the real system. The model should act as reflection of the real business system.
The alignment strategy consists of four stages which include; execution of inventions,
detection of misalignment, identification of changes to be made and the strategy of making the
changes identified.
Execution of inventions. This stage involves the introduction of all modifications
and new inventions made. The modifications made to an earlier analyzed business either with the
way business process activities are supposed to flow, the additional technological advancements
and improvements is introduced in this phase. New inventions on technologies and new business
processes that were not involved in the previous business system and the technological
advancements in the supporting software environment need are also introduced in this phase.
Inventions on how business process activities should flow and introduction of new components
of the business system and the supporting software environment are put into consideration in this
stage.
Detection of misalignment. In this stage, the compatibility comparison is done
between all the business processes, either new or already in existence, and the technological
changes made to the supporting software environment. This stage is done repeatedly comparing
the quality parameters set to detect any misalignment between the business processes supported
by the business system and the supporting software environment used to develop the business

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system. Technological scope and technological fulfillment are analyzed here. Technological span
indicates what areas the technology caters for whereas technological fulfillment indicates
whether implementation of the technology is actually adequate for the business system being
developed. If the alignment is positive then development of the system continues as scheduled by
the business system development team. If the alignment between these components is negative
then changes have to be made to make them align. After they align, it when the system
development can continue as scheduled.
Identification of the need to change. If alignment in the detection of
misalignment stage is negative then necessary changes need to be made. The purpose of this
stage is to keenly identify whether the alignment in the previous stage is either positive or
negative. If negative it’s when the need for making changes is identified. The need of change
entirely depends on the negativity and the positivity of the alignment. The need of change is
identified in the newly introduced business processes, new modifications in the business system
and the new innovations in technology. Technology here involves both the technology used on
the supporting software environment and the technology used on the business processes
implementation. Once the need of change has been identified then the next stage of
implementing the changes can be executed.
Implementation of changes. This is where all the change considerations on the
technology invented, the technology modified, the business processes and activities introduced
and the business activities and processes modified are made. Once all these are put under
consideration, necessary actions are undertaken on these new inventions, new introductions and
modifications made. Propagation of these changes is done to avoid repetition. The propagation is
applied to sections of the system that reuse the same technological changes, business processes

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
and activities. In this stage, the most efficient way of implementing these changes is first
examined by analyzing all the available options of change implementation. After making the
changes the process then repeats to check whether the made changes on the business processes
and the supporting software are now compatible to each other. System development can carry
on, once these changes have been made and the business processes supported by the system are
compatible with the supporting software used to develop and implement the business system in
question.

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
Trends in business system analysis.
Analysis based on SWOT. This is analysis based on the strengths, weaknesses,
threats and opportunities of the business system Helms & Nixon (2010). What should be the
strengths of the system? exploitation of the weaknesses of the system, analysis of the threats the
business system is bound to be faced with and the opportunities present that the business system
can either implement now or in the future. The weaknesses of the system are identified to find a
way to rectify them whereas the strengths are maintained. The threats that the system is bound to
be faced with are also exploited to find the most suitable solutions to the threat or even set a
mitigation strategy in case of an attack. The opportunities of the business system are the
availability of new advanced technologies. The opportunities tend to make the system adaptive
and compatible where the business system has to accommodate new advanced technologies and
business processes and activities.
Analysis of the non-functional requirements of the business system. Non-
functional requirements are the most significant part of system analysis not only for business
systems but also to all systems being developed today. The non-functional requirements
determine the architecture chose for the development of the business system. The non-functional
requirements include the system functionality, system reliability, system usability, system
supportability and security. According to Chung et.al (2012) Functionality of the business system
answers the question is the system functional? System reliability answers the question is business
system reliable in case of any misfortune? System usability answers the question is the business
system user-friendly, system supportability answers the question does the business system
accommodate all the requirements it was developed to? And security answers the question is the
business system safe from attacks or is the system able to withstand an attack.

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
Interviews and workshops on the requirements specification. The business system
requirements are collected through the interviews with the stakeholders and workshops with
users of the business system Grady (2010). The objective is to identify and analyze all the
features that should be implemented in the business system, including all the business processes
and activities. Requirement specification analysis is not only done when developing business
systems but also when developing systems in other fields.
Modeling of the business processes Weske (2012). Most business system
analysts implement modeling of the business processes majorly using diagrams created in
Unified Modeling Language(UML) and Business Processing Modeling Notation(BPMN) to
represent the flow of business processes, activities and work. This represents the entities in the
real business system being developed. It is also an easier way of grasping how the system works
compared to giving the description of the system in words. Modeling of business processes is
an efficient and effective way of understanding the system and correcting the errors, what makes
it a popular and common trend when developing business systems.
Modeling of the Use case of the business processes. This is a diagrammatic
representation of how the business system interacts with the users of the business system (
Gemino & Parker 2009). It is mostly implemented using the Unified Modeling Language(UML).
Take an example of hospital management system where a patient wants to book appointment.

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Evolution of Business Systems Analysis
Modeling of the data used in the business system. A representation of the data
captured on every entity in existence in the business environment where the business system is to
be deployed ( Zur & Recker 2013). The relationships between all the entities to be incorporated
in this business system are set here. This trend in the business system analysis ensures that all
data required to be captured and used in the real system is enough and accurately captured for
use. This is achieved by comparing the data model and the real data being captured and stored by
the system.