Enterprise-Level Business System Assessment Paper

Enterprise-Level Business System Assessment
Several key areas should be reviewed when assessing an enterprise-level business system. It is commonly known that errors made in the early stages of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) can be quite costly. Therefore, careful planning, during the early stages of system development, is crucial. The use of information-gathering tools, during the analysis stage, is useful and recommended. Following will be a review of several of the information-gathering techniques available. The usefulness of business process mapping methods, and which mapping tools should be implemented during the analysis process, will also be discussed. In closing, a review of the methods an analyst can use to confirm
The first technique is diagramming, which is "the use of flow charts and diagrams to represent the steps in a business process" (http://netg.phoenix.edu/websvm/training.asp). The second technique involves annotating the steps required without the use of diagramming tools. This technique is referred to as the textual approach. There are numerous diagrammatic mapping applications available on the market. Within these diagramming tools, different types of flow charts are available. Some of the flow charts available include Activity-Flow, Data-Flow, Role, State-Transition, Role-Activity, and IDEF0 (http://netg.phoenix.edu/websvm/training.asp). Each diagram relates to a particular activity within the company (i.e., activities, data, roles, work status, role-activity and
By conducting follow-up workshops, the analyst can confirm that his/her interpretations of the businesses' needs are accurate. For example, by creating a prototype of the desired system, the analyst "illustrates the capabilities of the system to users and designers" (http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2002/04/young.html). Thus, the users and designers can provide confirmation that the proposed system design has been interpreted correctly. Storyboarding and role-playing, less expensive methods compared to prototyping, are additional techniques which can be used to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the mapping tools used. An analyst can use storyboarding or role-playing to "depict the user activities that occur in an existing or envisioned system or capability"