The project should minimally contain the following sections (at least 7 full pages in APA format 6th edition):
Business and Market Overview – your client’s organization, management, business model, their products and services, and their growth strategy. Elaborate on the distinct external pressures on their business. This section must include an illustration Porter’s Model with the unique and specific pressures that your client faces.
Problem Definition – Identify the core business problem that your client has engaged for you to solve. For that problem, identify the overarching business process. Explain the current, or ‘AS-IS’, state process and illustrate it with a UML Activity Diagram with partitions, a.k.a Swimlane diagram that the customer leverages that could be improved with the use of technologies. Refer to Figure 3-6 of your text for a sample Swimlane diagram.
Business Solution Proposal – taking the ‘AS-IS’ model from section 2, elaborate on how technology will be utilized to streamline or optimize the current process in order to solve the stated business problem. Explain the future, or ‘ ‘TO-BE’, state process and illustrate it with a UML Activity Diagram. Be sure to include any key technology in its own Swimlane. Also, elaborate on any new, updated, enhanced IT Infrastructure (hardware, databases, networks, business intelligence, RFID, sensor networks, and/or software) required to support the solution. The line items that come out of this section should be part of the investment cost details in Section 4.
Solution Assessment – Leverage the output from the previous three sections and quantify the value of the business solution. Identify and estimate the cost of key technology, training, people, resources required for the business solution, i.e. the investment. Next, identify and estimate the value of the solution in specific financial gains or costs savings, i.e. financial gain. Illustrate the the ROI by using the Simple return on investment (Computing the ROI for IT Projects and Other Investments (Links to an external site.) (Simple ROI) http (Links to an external site.):// (Links to an external site.)iteconcorp (Links to an external site.). (Links to an external site.)com (Links to an external site.)/ (Links to an external site.)ROICalc (Links to an external site.). (Links to an external site.)html (Links to an external site.)) (Links to an external site.). If you aren’t sure about real costs be sure to mark it as an assumption, i.e. best guess.
Project Management – identify potential project management and SDLC (system development life cycle) challenges and elaborate on mitigation strategies for each in order to ensure that the rollout of the business solution goes smoothly. Include a high level project plan with key activities for each main phase of the project.
Citations that document your research are a critical part of this project. Be sure to identify all the references you use. These should be cited in the text as well as the References list. See the Tools and Resources page for more information and resources about APA format.