ABC Consulting is an accounting firm located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. ABC Consulting was founded in 2010 and has experienced some strong growth over the years. The firm currently employs over 20 account

ABC Consulting is an accounting firm located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. ABC Consulting was founded in 2010 and has experienced some strong growth over the years. The firm currently employs over 20 accountants and 11 support staff. As the company has grown, the needs of the business have also changed.

John Reese, the founder of ABC Consulting, is increasingly concerned with the cost of administrative overhead, saying “What worked for us to keep five accountants organized just isn’t working for twenty accountants.” Administrative costs for the company are growing too rapidly. John has chartered a project to develop a time and billing system, which is a system that will be used by the accountants to log their time to specific jobs. The system will produce invoices and timesheets and will be developed by Simply Agile Business Consulting, a software development firm where you are the BA.

You have prepared and conducted elicitation with John and key stakeholders in ABC Consulting. You have documented your elicitation results and findings, as follows:

ABC Consulting needs to automate the management of employee timesheets. This need is aligned with the goal of holding a position of operational excellence in the industry. This project will reduce average cost to administer a timesheet by 75% in the next nine months, and will produce the following outcomes:

• increased customer satisfaction; and
• reduced administration costs.

The project will be executed by Simply Agile Business Consulting and focus on requirements and business analysis. The cost for this project is $200,000, and the annual savings are $100,000, plus additional benefits.

BUSINESS NEED: Automate timesheet management.

GOAL: Hold a position of operational excellence in the industry.

OBJECTIVE: Reduce average cost to administer timesheets by 75% the next nine months.

BUSINESS PROBLEM: Timesheet management is too costly.

DESIRED OUTCOMES: Project will produce increased customer satisfaction and reduced administration costs.

Case Study Questions

In a Word document, not exceeding four pages and following APA formatting, complete the assignment according to the following instructions.

1. In your own words, briefly describe the documented elicitation results by the business analyst.
2. List and explain 2 guidelines and tools, as described by the BABOK, that the business analyst can use to confirm the elicitation results.
3. Identify 2 techniques that will be most beneficial in confirming the elicitation results from John and the ABC Consulting stakeholders and provide justification for your response.
4. Judging by the documented elicited result above, do you think that the business analyst has gathered enough information to uncover all the business needs and problems? Justify your position.
5. Provide personal examples and references to the BABOK or course materials, where needed, to justify your arguments.