This section outlines and describes the type of work packages that Business Technology Management (BTM) students could potentially do and the task and deliverables that can be produced within the timeline of the term. The activities and deliverables are based on the theoretical training the students gain in the classroom. The work packages are focused on the type of project, the types of activities and deliverables which the students can achieve within the time constraints of a semester. You will notice that the work packages do not include budget and resources as this is dependent on the scope and size of the project.
Business Case Development
A business case is a presentation or a proposal to executives in an organization seeking funding, approval for an activity, initiative, in a program or project.
Scenario: A potential client may want to change/grow or improve the way they do business. This could potentially take a lot of effort to do. Therefore, before investing a lot of time and money into this process, students can work with the clients and stakeholders to understand their needs and perform the necessary analysis to create a business model, identifying the viability of taking on such a corporate change and a business case. Other tasks and deliverables are identified below.
Business Model Design
Deliverable: Business Model
A plan for the successful operation of a business – identifies revenue sources, customer segments, products and financing.
Analysis of current state business processes
Deliverable: Current state business process mapping
Identifies and evaluates a business’s current processes – this could be for the whole organization or a specific department
SWOT Analysis
Deliverable: SWOT Analysis Report
A framework for analyzing an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is an analysis to understand what is being done well (strength), what is lacking (weakness), where the organization can improve (opportunities) and its risks (threats).
Risk Assessment / Analysis
Deliverable:> Risk Assessment Report
Analyze and identify high risk, why and how the risk might emerge, determine the precautions and corrective action to reduce the risk.
Analysis of the potential future state business processes
Deliverable: Future state business process mapping
The future state business process map provides the client with a road map for how to start improving your current process. The goal of your future state map is to develop a process that eliminates obstacles/redundancies, that were identified in the current state business process map.
Market Analysis
Deliverable: Market Analysis Report
Analyze the size of the market based on the information identified in the business model. Determine the market need/market value, determine the competition and barriers and restrictions of entering the market and any regulations that must be considered.
Final Presentation and Sign-0ff
Deliverable: Final Presentation
Student final presentation of Business Case completed and approved
Business Requirements Document
A business requirements document is a formal document that outlines the goals and expectations of an organization including the functional and non-functional business requirements needed to design and develop a software application or product.
Scenario: A client may want to upgrade or change the way they do business for example: going from a manual-based operation to an automated information system and business processes.
Analysis of the existing business processes and existing systems
Deliverable: Gathering Requirements Completed and Documented
Through reviewing existing documentation and existing systems to gain an understanding of user’s interactions with the system.
Conducting interviews and observing users as they work step-by-step through the business processes to understand the issues with the current information system and business processes.
Analysis of current state business processes
Deliverable: Current state business process mapping
Identifies and evaluates a business’s current processes – this could be for the whole organization or a specific department
SWOT Analysis
Deliverable: SWOT Analysis Report
A framework for analyzing an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is an analysis to understand what is being done well (strength), what is lacking (weakness), where the organization can improve (opportunities) and its risks (threats).
Analysis of the potential future state business processes
Deliverable: Future state business process mapping
The future state business process map provides the client with a road map for how to start improving your current process. The goal of your future state map is to develop a process that eliminates obstacles/redundancies, that were identified in the current state business process map.
Requirements
Deliverable 1: Business Requirements Document (BRD)
A formal document that outlines the goals and expectations of an organization including the functional and non-functional business requirements needed to design and develop a software application or product.
Deliverable 2: Project Plan and Gantt Chart
Based on the information contained in the BRD, develop a high-level project plan and Gantt Chart.
Business Requirements Document
Deliverable: Business Requirements Document and Final Presentation
Business Requirements Document completed, presented to Employer and approved
Comparative Analysis
A comparative analysis in the information technology Employer is a report produced after two things (systems, software applications, etc.) are compared to identify the pros and cons or advantages and disadvantages.
Comparative Analysis
Deliverable: Comparative Report – Findings and Recommendations
A comparative analysis in the information technology Employer is a report produced after two things (systems, software applications, etc.) are compared to identify the pros and cons or advantages and disadvantages. The result of the comparative analysis is a formal report with a summary and conclusion/recommendation of the outcome of the analysis.
Analysis of current state business processes
Deliverable: Current state business process mapping
Identifies and evaluates a business’s current processes – this could be for the whole organization or a specific department
SWOT Analysis
Deliverable: SWOT Analysis Report
A framework for analyzing an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is an analysis to understand what is being done well (strength), what is lacking (weakness), where the organization can improve (opportunities) and its risks (threats).
Gap Analysis
Deliverable: Gap Analysis Report
An assessment to identify the difference in performance between software applications or information systems to determine if business needs are being met, and if not, identify the steps needed to ensure the business needs are achieved.
Analysis of the potential future state business processes
Deliverable: Future state business process mapping
The future state business process map provides the client with a road map for how to start improving your current process. The goal of your future state map is to develop a process that eliminates obstacles/redundancies, that were identified in the current state business process map.
Risk Assessment / Analysis
Deliverable: Risk Assessment Report
Analyze and identify high risk, why and how the risk might emerge, determine the precautions and corrective action to reduce the risk.
Comparative Analysis
Deliverable: Final Presentation
Comparative Analysis completed, presentation to Employer and approved
Website Analysis / Web Application Analysis
A web application is a software application that uses a web browser and web technology to perform tasks over the Internet.
Web application analysis is performed to identify vulnerability in software before it is implemented.
Work Package Activities
1. Analysis of current functionality
Analyze the current functionality of the website or web application to determine if they are working as designed and intended to be used.
2.Hot Jar Analytics and Heat Maps
Analyze the traffic and drop-off rate on each page. Determine if users are behaving in a certain way. Identify issues that may cause or lead to users bouncing.
Google Analytics
Analyze the advertising return on investment, track FLASH, video, social networking and applications on website.
4. Design and Layouts Assessment
An analysis of the website to determine if it is achieving the company’s goals and users have a good understanding of who the company is and what they have to offer. Determine if the website is easy to navigate and if pages load quickly, and if user experience on the website is good nor not. Determine if the content is readable and useful. Identify if it is easy to search and results are displayed promptly.
5. Interface Analysis
Analyze and identify interface between applications and software solutions to determine if the components are interacting with each other effectively.
Deliverables
SWOT Analysis
Deliverable: SWOT Analysis Report
A framework for analyzing an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is an analysis to understand what is being done well (strength), what is lacking (weakness), where the organization can improve (opportunities) and its risks (threats).
Risk Assessment / Analysis
Deliverable: Report Assessment Report
Analyze and identify high risk, why and how the risk might emerge, determine the precautions and corrective action to reduce the risk.
Documented Results
Deliverable: Website/Web Application Analysis Report (culmination of 1-5)
Website/Web Application Analysis Report with the results from their analysis
Final Presentation
Deliverable: Final Presentation
Website/Web application analysis completion and Final Presentation to Employer
Software Application Testing
Test application using test cases to find and identify defects in the entire system. Testing is performed to ensure the high quality of the end product, while reducing costs and saving development time.
Create Use Cases
Deliverable: Use Cases
Helps define test scenarios for the entire software application/system for each transaction from start to end. Use case depicts how the system is supposed to perform and behave given the pre-conditions, a set of instructions to do with the system, the data and the expected results. Use cases are based on the business requirements.
Create Test Cases
Deliverable: Test Cases
Test cases define the specification of the inputs, execution conditions, testing steps and the expected results. Test cases are created based on the use case.
Execute Test Cases
Milestone: Test Case Execution Complete
Execute the test cases on the system to verify that the functionality performs as expected, and if not, identify and report the defects.
Identify and report defects
Deliverable: Incident Reports
Report defects for developers to fix the defects and then retest the test case.
Test Progress Reporting
Deliverable: Testing Progress Status Reports
Track the testing progress – how many test cases executed and how many passed/failed, fixed/retest.
Coordinate user acceptance testing activities
Deliverable: UAT sign-off based on acceptance criteria
Monitor and track user acceptance testing activities
UAT Sign-off and Testing Completion
Deliverable: Results and Final Presentation
UAT Sign-off and Testing complete, documented and presented to the Employer
Sponsor your project at the ACE Project Space or create an on-the-job work experience opportunity for co-op students.
Contact our ACE Project Space Coordinator to speak personally about your project:
Co-operative education at Red River College (RRC) integrates related on-the-job experience with classroom theory by providing work experience with academic study. Work integrated learning is part of RRC’s education strategy.
Contact our co-op coordinator to create an on-the-job work placement opportunity:
