Lecturer: Gianmario Motta  

Course name: Business Analysis And Service Design
Course code: 503233
Degree course: Ingegneria Informatica
Disciplinary field of science: 0
L'insegnamento è caratterizzante per: Ingegneria Informatica
University credits: ECTS 12
Course website: n.d.

Specific course objectives

This course provides concepts and tools for the analysis and design of business processes and services (BP). At the end of the course, students will have a good command of the main tools of BP analysis and the main abilities of a business analyst in a system integration / management consulting organization.

Course programme

PART 1 - BP Mapping
What are business processes? How the analyst can identify and model the business processes (BPs) of an organization? These are the two questions to which this part of the course intends to answer.

• Definition of Business Process (BP)
• Modeling for BP
• Taxonmy of BP
• Frameworks: GEF
• Frameworks: SCOR
• Frameworks: eTOM

PART 2 – BP Performances
How good is a BP? How can we measure and model its performances? This part of the course intends to answer these two questions.

• BP Performance definition
• Performance domains
• The stakeholder / performamces grid (HIGO)
• The method to analyze and interpret performances

PART 3 - BP Driver Analysis
How performances of a BP are affected by its configuration – by the activity flow, IT support etc.? How to define an optimal configuration of a BP that enables to get the best performances? Our purpose is to define the optimal configuration of a BP. Our method is to perform a fit gap analysis where students compare the current configuration of each element versus its ideal configuration and identifies related improvement actions. To support this analysis we provide the student with a check list of best practice for each configuration element. Let us shortly illustrate each element, also by the familiar example of a software house. Configuration elements are called “driver” because they druve the performance of a BP. Driver analysis allow an holistic design of a BP.

• The driver analysis model
• Output analysis
• BP flow analysis
• Organization structure analysis (macro-structure, micro-structure, Business Process Ownership)
• Skill and competeneces analysis
• Analysis of the BP the control and rewarding system
• Analysis of IT support

PART 4 – BP Design and project planning
The main issues that this part intends to illustrate include: how to innovate a BP? Which risks are of BP innovation? Which are the benefits and the costs of the project? How to design the project of a BP?

• Design of the Busines Process
• Information Requirements Analysis
• Project feasibility analysis
• Change project planning

PART 5 – Foundations on BPM (Business Process Management) and SSME (Services Science Management & Engineering)
The final session intends to illustrate the main theoretical foundations of BPR and its successor Services Science. Purposely, this session comes at the very end of the course when students have a solid command on practices.

• Rise and evolotion of BPR (Business Process Reengineering)
• ERP Systems and BPR
• From BPR to BPM
• The SSME paradigm

Course entry requirements

Foundations on Organization Theory and a general familiarity with Information Requirements Analysis would help

Course structure and teaching

Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 80
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 24
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0

Suggested reading materials

Hefley & Murphy. Service Science, Management and Engineering. Springer 2008.

AAVV. E-Government ICT Professionalism and Competences Service Science. Springer 2008.

Testing and exams

Students develop an exercise under the supervision of the course teacher, in which they use methods and tools presented in the plenary sessions. Final mark sums: 1. team work (written document) 2. individual presentation of tem work. 3. individual oral examination on foundations.