Commercial Banking And Finance
The Christensen family are planning to adopt a pet from a rescue shelter. The children of the family are excited, and it seems as if the family has new energy and team spirit. The Christensen family knows that when it comes to select a pet, they must do their research and think carefully about owning that pet for life. 2 | Page Therefore, while remaining excited, they are taking some time to read and search for information about different types of pets that they can have. Nine-year-old Amy, the youngest in family, would like to have a guinea pig. Thirteen‐year‐old Layla would prefer to adopt a kitten and sixteen‐year‐old Taylor would like to have a puppy with which she can go running. The parents are reserving their judgment and preferences to see where the pet research will take them. After a few weeks of reading books and websites and speaking to friends and pet owners, the Christensen family comes to some form of conclusion that they will be adopting either a cat or a dog from BISM Animal Rescue Shelter (BISMARS), an active organization for animal rescue and shelter in their state. Mrs Christensen books an appointment for the whole family to visit BISMARS. On the day, an adoption consultant greets the family at the gate and guides them into a consultation room, where the family meets the BISMARS adoption team. The team includes Bhatti and Graham, two animal behaviour specialists for both feline and canine, the lead consultant (Felicity) and their Business Analyst (BA), which is you. Felicity introduces everyone and explains to the Christensen family the details of the service that BISMARS provides. She explains that increasing demand for their service across the state has caused them problems: their current adoption rate and slow rescue processes are not meeting the number of rescue cases and therefore BISMARS has appointed a BA (you) to look into the adoption process to model, analyze it and improve it. Felicity explains that rescuing an animal can be rewarding but at the same time a challenging journey. Owning a cat is a great experience because a cat is usually a happy and independent companion. A dog, whilst requires more training, can reward you with a loyal and affectionate companion for life. Felicity says that to help the family to select the best pet suitable for their lifestyle, they need to fill out a questionnaire and discuss with Bhatti and Graham about their daily routine, their house and neighborhood environment and their vision for the pet. You (the BA) are listening and recording the conversation while thinking to yourself: adopting a pet is very complicated but at the same time, it sounds like a careful process to minimize wrong choices for pets and owners. After a short talk, you, the BA appointed by BISMARS, will start your journey to identify and model the adoption process for BISMARS. The process starts with the applicant contacting BISMARS call center to express their interest in adopting a pet. The first step for the call‐centre is to record the applicant’s details in digital form on a computer. If an applicant has already decided about the type of the animal they want to adopt, then call-center will update their details into a database and then will redirect their phone call to relevant sections of which there are two: Feline and Canine. Each of the sections first will try to make an appointment for the applicant to visit them. If the applicant (e.g. the Christensen family) is unsure about the type of pet they want, then the phone call will be redirected to Lead Adoption consultant (Felicity). The lead consultant will make an appointment with the applicant. During that appointment, two specialists will be present to help the applicant with their adoption choice, which is a whole process by itself. After this consultation process is finished, the applicant will need to take some time to think and then call BISMARS with their choice of pet. An applicant to the feline section will be guided to the feline consultation room that is booked upon their call. Then, a feline specialist will give the applicant an information sheet covering cat adoption pros and cons and associated responsibilities. After that, the feline specialist will ask the applicant to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire can have two different outcomes to be considered by the feline specialist for the next step. If the applicant indicates their confidence in their lifestyle and environment suitability for a cat, then the adoption process will go ahead. If the applicant is not sure of the suitability of their lifestyle 3 | Page and environment, then a property check should be conducted by a feline specialist to ensure this condition is met. If the property check results are positive then the adoption process will continue to next step. If the property check results are negative and the applicant’s environment is considered unsuitable for a cat, then the feline specialist will make a report and will update the applicant database. The application process will be terminated at this point with no conclusion. In the case of a positive outcome to the property check or if the applicant declares himself or herself as suitable in questionnaire, the feline specialist will first update the applicant database. Then, he/she shows the available kittens/cats ready for adoption and will explain the cats’ behaviours to assist the applicant with their choice at the same time. If the applicant successfully decides on their choice of cat, then the feline specialist fills out the final application form and obtains the applicant’s signature. The applicant will then pay the adoption fee and the specialist receives the payment notice from SH_Financials as the approval to payment. The finance and accounting of BISMARS is outsourced to an external company called SH_Financials and consequently, the payment process in that company is outside the control of BISMARS and therefore no detail is available to BA. In case of no final decisions, the specialist will make an interim report and the adoption process completes with no conclusion. The applicant then takes the adopted kitten/cat home and the feline specialist helps with preparation. As a next step, specialist updates the “feline database” as well as “successful stories” database and the process is completed. The process for canine adoption is very similar to feline with a few different steps and details. We fo‐ cus on feline adoption process on this model. You are required to produce a ‘top‐level’ BPMN of the application process described above (for cats only). You will produce this BPMN drawing in Microsoft Visio 2016. You must then save/copy this analysis as an image into the single BPMN worksheet of the assignment Excel template file. Please note that you should only use the BPMN constructs that we have covered in the appropriate lectures. PART B: Information Systems Development Questions (10% of 30%) Please answer the following questions – your answers should be recorded within the ISD_Answers worksheet of the BISM‐Assign‐2019‐Sem‐1.xlsx file. Your answers should be concise, whilst also addressing the major points. 1. The labelled arrows in the diagram shown below (from the lecture slides) represent at least two dimensions within ISD project management. These two dimensions are flow and control. Concisely describe the control dimension. You answer should explain what control comprises and why it is needed in ISD project management. (2.5%) 4 | Page 2. Within any ISD project, there is always the potential for ‘scope creep’. Concisely describe what ‘scope creep’ is. Why does it represent a high risk within an ISD project that is using the classical plan‐driven SDLC approach? Who should manage ‘scope creep’? (2.5%) 3. In our study of ISD, we have considered two different paradigms – ‘plan‐driven’ SDLC, and Agile. The flow of work in ‘plan-driven’ is sequential whilst in agile it is iterative. Describe sequential flow and iterative flow, making very clear the difference between the two. Can the ‘plan‐driven’ SDLC ever include iteration? If so, what is the implication to the overall project? (2.5%) 4. ISD now frequently involves the concept of a ‘user story’. What is a user story? How is a user story written, prioritized, and used in the estimation of project workload? (2.5%) PART C: Excel Formula Specification (10% of 30%) BACKGROUND SCENARIO: You are a corporate business analyst and you are preparing an Excel workbook (the HRM worksheet of the file BISM1201‐Assign‐2019‐Sem‐1.xlsx) for the analysis of HRM data. You are required to produce Excel formulas according to the specifications below. You must develop all formulas as per these specifications only. You should test your formulas to ensure correctness. You cannot change the provided worksheet in any other ways apart from adding the required formulas. The Excel file that provides the basic templates (i.e. the worksheets) for the specifications described below (BISM1201‐Asign‐2019‐Sem‐ 1.xlsx) is available from the course Blackboard site. The HRM worksheet specifications (for the formulas you must develop) are as follows: 1. The heading of this worksheet in cell A2 (merged across to cell H2) will be: ‘HRM as at day_name: dd/mm/yyyy’ (where day_name is either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and dd/mm/yyyy is the full date of the specific day when the worksheet is opened – no leading zeros in the date). As an example, if the sheet is opened on Sunday, 17th of March 2019 the heading would be: HRM as at Sunday: 17/3/2019. You must derive this formula via a combination of the following functions CONCATENATE, VLOOKUP (to use the Number‐Day Table with a named range reference), WEEKDAY, TEXT, and TODAY to produce this heading dynamically (you must not ‘hard‐code’ dd/mm/yyyy). You must ensure the correct formatting of your produced title as in the example above. (2.5%) 2. The yearly salary of each employee (heading “Yearly Salary”) is calculated based on the ‘Salary’ contained within the Job Salary Supervisor table. The ‘Salary’ figure is the basic salary that is paid to the staff member. This basic salary may be increased as per the following two policy rules: a. Once any staff member has exceeded 4 years of continuous employment, that staff member is rewarded with a 4.5% ‘loyalty’ bonus (of the applicable basic salary) and this is added to the yearly base‐line salary (a divisor of 365 will suffice for calculation of years of employment). b. Your business has also identified a staff role for which quality staff is considered to be in short supply. Consequently, this role (Project Manager) is rewarded with an additional ‘loyalty’ bonus of 2% (i.e. 2% of the salary already adjusted for ‘loyalty’). This bonus is payable to all project managers only after the staff member has attained at least 1 year of work with the business (a divisor of 365 will suffice for calculation of years of employment). You will develop a formula combining VLOOKUP, IF, AND, and TODAY functions to produce this data. You will also require the text handling functions LEFT and RIGHT. You should also use named range reference (s) to the table(s) used in your formula. (2.5%) 3. The yearly superannuation deduction (heading: “Yearly Super”). This is not the employer contribution for each employee ‐ this is the employee contribution. You should use an appropriate nested IF statement/formula to derive the superannuation deduction, and a VLOOKUP to calculate the appropriate basic salary amount. (2.5%) To calculate age, you must use the TODAY function and a divisor of 365 will suffice). The present business policy agreed by all staff is the following: 5 | Page a. All Project Manager staff have agreed to a 10% deduction calculated on the basic salary package (i.e. NOT including bonus payments); b. For all other staff, the deduction is based on the following age criteria: i. All staff aged 45 years and above have elected for an 8% deduction on their basic salary (i.e. not including loyalty bonus); ii. All staff below 45 years (excluding Project Managers) have elected for a 5% deduction on their basic salary (i.e. not including loyalty bonus). 4. The policy for staff reporting (heading: Staff Reporting) is as follows: Staff reports are completed for each staff member on the 6 month anniversary of her/his commencement with the business. That is, at each and every 6‐month point after the staff member has commenced work with the business, a staff report is due. This is the precision you require for this calculation – you do not need to consider ‘days’ also. A formula is required in the range H5: H14 to provide this information to the business in the form of the message “Report Due”. You will develop a formula for this purpose – you may use any Excel formula as long as the correct result is delivered. We shall discuss some examples of possible solution formulas in the forthcoming lectures. You are advised that this formula needs to be carefully thought through and tested so that it implements the exact meaning of the business policy. If a staff report is due, the message “Report Due” must be displayed in bold red font upon a yellow background. This will be produced via Conditional Formatting in the range H5: H14. A blank cell is to be displayed if no staff report is due on a staff member in the particular month in which the workbook is being processed/opened. (2.5%) Collaboration As outlined initially in this specification, all students should complete each part of this assignment. The collaboration within a group means that each student’s suggested solutions will be considered by the group and therefore a superior overall standard of work should be produced, along with superior individual student learning outcomes. This assignment will be significantly tested in the final exam. As a group‐work assignment, there must be a clear process for managing inequity issues that may arise within a specific group. The ‘Peer / Self Evaluation Form’ shown below will form a central part of this management process. The form is to be emailed promptly to the Course Coordinator (Peter Clutterbuck at p.clutterbuck@business.uq.edu.au) if a significant problem arises. You should also discuss the situation with your tutor if you feel a problem has occurred within your team (e.g. lack of communication, lack of input from a team member). Further details concerning this process will be available shortly. Assignment Submission This assignment will be submitted by each group at the appropriate time. Full details of this submission process will be made available closer to that date. You must submit as a group unless you have the approval of the course coordinator to submit individually. Peter Clutterbuck – BISM1201 Course Coordinator – 1st Semester 2019 6 | Page Peer / Self Evaluation Form BISM1201, Semester 1, 2019 The purpose of this form is to assess a group member’s contribution to the group effort. You only need to complete this form if there is a perceived inequity issue within the group. The results of this form may alter an individual’s marks for this assessment. If required, please email the completed form to p.clutterbuck@business.uq.edu.au There are various dimensions along which group members may have contributed to the group. These include their attendance at group meetings, their level of preparedness for group meetings, the quality of their contributions to group discussions, whether they delivered what they promised to the group in a timely manner, and their ability to work towards a consensus. Use the 7 point rating scale given below to rate yourself and members of your group. Please be as objective as possible, taking behaviors rather than personal style into consideration. 1 = person did not contribute to group activities 2 = person contributed to group activities, but his/her contributions were minimal 3 = person contributed to group activities, and the contributions were substandard 4 = person contributed to group activities, and the contributions were adequate 5 = person contributed to group activities, and the contributions were good 6 = person contributed to group activities, and the contributions were very good 7 = person contributed to group activities, and the contributions were exceptional
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