Before you begin work on this assignment, be sure you have read the Case Study on Chesapeake IT Consultants (CIC).

Overview

As a business analyst in the Chief Information Officers (CIO's) department of Chesapeake IT Consulting (CIC), you have been assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a set of system requirements and recommend an IT solution to improve the hiring process for CIC. This work will be completed in four stages, and each of these four stages will focus on one section of an overall Business Analysis and System Recommendation (BA&SR) report to be delivered to the CIO.

Section I: Strategic Use of Technology (Stage 1) - The first step is to look at the organization and explain how an IT system could be used to support CIC's strategies and objectives, and support its decision-making processes.

Section II: Process Analysis (Stage 2) Next you will evaluate current processes and workflow and explain how CIC can use IT to improve its processes and workflow.

Section III: Requirements (Stage 3) Then you will identify key stakeholder expectations for the new technology solution to support CICs hiring process and develop a set of requirements.

Section IV: System Recommendation (Stage 4) Finally, you will review the provided Vendor brochure for a proposed solution and explain how it meets the requirements and what needs to be done to implement the system within CIC.

The sections of the BA&SR will be developed and submitted as four staged assignments. In stages 2, 3 and 4, you will also incorporate any feedback received when the previous stage was graded to improve the effectiveness of your overall report and then add the new section to your report. At the end of the course, you will submit a complete BA&SR document that includes all the sections and changes that resulted from previous feedback. Part of the grading criteria for Stage 4 submission includes addressing previous feedback to improve the final report.

Assignment BA&SR: Introduction and Section I Strategic Use of Technology

Write an appropriate Introduction to the entire BA&SR Report (guidelines are provided below). Section I of the BA&SR document contains an organizational analysis and identifies ways in which information systems can help CIC, the organization in the case study, meet its strategic goals and meet the information needs of various levels of management.

Using the case study, assignment instructions, Course Content readings, and external resources, develop your Introduction and Section I: Background and Organizational Analysis. To start, review the Business Perspectives Module (week 1 content), particularly the sections that describe the example of Booz Allen Hamilton, a services company with a business model similar to that of CIC in the case study. The case study tells you that the executives and employees at CIC have identified a need for an effective and efficient hiring system. As you review the case study, use the assignment instructions to take notes to assist in your analysis; in particular, look for objectives to support the strategies in the table below, and decisions that the various individuals make in the hiring process as expressed in the "interviews."

Use the outline format, headings and tables provided and follow all formatting instructions below. For Stage 1, create a title page and reference page that will be used for all 4 stages.

Apply specific information from the case study to address each area.

Introduction Begin your report with a clear, concise, well organized introduction to explain why you are writing and what is to come. This should briefly set the context for CIC business purpose, environment, and current challenges related to hiring. Then specifically provide what is to come in the full report (not just Stage 1). Keep your audience in mind this is an internal report for the CIO of CIC. Provide an introduction in one paragraph that engages the readers interest in continuing to read this report. I. Strategic Use of Technology A. Organizational Strategy Briefly describe the organizational strategy using the Business Strategy statement and information from the Case Study and explain how a new hiring system would support that strategy. (Use two to three strong sentences that explain how the system would support the strategy and justify your position with specifics from the Case Study.) B. Competitive Advantage - Explain how and why CIC can use the new hiring system to increase its competitive advantage. Your explanation should demonstrate your understanding of what competitive advantage is as well as how improving the hiring process will help achieve CICs competitive advantage. Include how CIC can use the type of data/information that will be in the hiring system for strategic advantage. (Paragraph of 2-3 sentences) C. Strategic Objectives- Review the four Strategic Goals in the Strategic Plan section of the CIC Case Study. The CIO has asked you to come up with an example of an objective to meet each goal and explain how a new hiring system would help achieve that objective. As you can see from the example provided in the table below, an objective is a statement that is clear (not vague) and is something that can be measured or evaluated to determine whether it has been met or not. First, insert an introductory opening sentence for this table. Then, for each of the rows listed below, complete the table with the requested information. (Provide an introductory sentence and copy the table. Create an Objective for each of the 3 remaining Goals and explain using 2-3 sentences for each.)