Requirements Engineering Assignment: Requirements Elicitation Plan For ServicePlease By ABC Pty Ltd

Question

Task:
Case Study

ABC Pty Ltd is a start-up tech company based in Adelaide Australia, who are currently seeking to develop an online delivery system named “ServicePlease”. The system aims to create a convenient platform to be used by service providers, customers, and supermarkets for home delivery of groceries to customer residents. The application will be available in both forms of website and mobile app, with separate views for service providers, supermarket, and customers. ABC Pty Ltd wants to launch this system to market in the next six months and have secured an investment for this. You have been hired by ABC Pty Ltd as the Business Analyst (BA) to help them with the requirement analysis for this project.

The “ServicePlease” application should provide the service providers to register with the system. During registration service providers will be asked to complete the background checking process. Criminal history or background will be checked through National Crime Check (NCC). Right – to – work will be checked through Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO), which will confirm their citizenship, residency or visa status that allows them to work in Australia. All service providers will need to provide an Australian Business number (ABN), which will be checked through ABN Lookup. Service providers also need to give proof for delivery capability by car through driving license and vehicle registration certificate. Upon successful completion of registration, the service provider will be eligible and available for grocery delivery service in “ServicePlease”.

Supermarkets can register with “ServicePlease” online delivery system. When registered, customers will be able to find the supermarket in “ServicePlease” system. Supermarkets can accept and prepare an order to be picked up by the service provider authorized by a customer. The system should enable supermarkets to rate service providers and certify as their preferred one.

To use this service, resident customers need to sign-up first. Sign up can be verified with a valid mobile phone number and an email address. Customers need to set-up the payment method using credit card, debit card or PayPal, to pay for the service when used.

While ordering, the application should enable customers to search and select a supermarket first (pickup location). Then the customer needs to authorise a service provider from the available list (certified service providers will be shown at the top of this list, then based on rating) to pick up groceries from a selected supermarket and deliver to their residence (drop-off location). Once the job is completed, payment can be made securely through the app. Customer will get email confirmation aftersuccessful completion of an order. Customers also can rate and review the service provider, as well as the supermarket.

Task Summary
This Assessment requires you to respond to a case study. The same case study will be used for all three assessments so that you can develop insights into the different facets of Requirements Engineering. For this assessment, you are required to produce an individual report of 1500 words (+/-10%) detailing a requirements elicitation plan for the case organisation. The report should contain the following:

1. A Stakeholder Engagement Plan
2. An Elicitation Activity Plan

Context
Business Analysts work with organisations to improve organisational processes and systems. One of the most important parts of a Business Analysts job is to elicit requirements from stakeholders so that there is a clear understanding of what will be required from the new system. This requires a Business Analyst to understand who their stakeholders are, how to engage with them and which elicitation methods to use. This assessment aims to develop your knowledge and skills in this area and to lay down the foundation of knowledge for your future professional practice.

Engineering Assignment Task Instructions

1. Please read the above Case Study
2. Write 1500 words (+/-10%) requirements elicitation plan, which reflects the given case study.
3. Review your subject notes to establish the relevant area of investigation that applies to the case. Reread any relevant readings for module 1 and 2 for this subject. Perform additional research and investigation and select five additional sources in elicitation methods to add depth to your explanation of method selection.
4. Plan how you will structure your ideas for your report and write a report plan before you start writing.
5. The report DOES NOT require an executive summary or abstract.

Answer

Introduction
The report on engineering assignment aims to produce an effective discussion on requirement engineering process and procedures related to improvement of organizational processes as well as systems and regarding this matter, a case study of ABC Pty Ltd has been undertaken. Hence, the report will be based on the ABC Pty Ltd. The undertaken organization is a new tech firm and the base of this organization is Adelaide Australia. The company is at present working on an online delivery system and the company has named this new system as “servicePlease”. Regarding this matter, the requirement engineering will be applied as it will be most useful for recognizing the actual requirements of the stakeholders of the particular app. The requirement engineering is mainly a technical term used in the software development field but in business context it is also used (Christel & Kang, 2011). The requirement elicitation is that first phase of the requirement engineering procedure and it supports in collection of essential data from the stakeholders of the company.

Body

Stakeholder engagement plan
The stakeholder engagement plan is most important in the requirement engineering procedures as the information about the requirements of the stakeholders provide important contribution to the procedure of development a new business process or application software. The undertaken firm ABC Pty Ltd is planning to develop an online delivery system named “ServicePlease” with the aim to offer a convenient platform to the service provider, clients and super markets. In this context, it is important to recognize the potential stakeholders of the concerned company ABC Pty Ltd related to its proposed service delivery app (Demir et al., 2015). Moreover, it is also important to understand the power and interest scenario regarding this app and it is crucial to justify the power and interest of the stakeholders of the proposed app.

List of stakeholders with identification process and type
The stakeholders of the concerned firm ABC Pty Ltd regarding its proposed app ServicePlease, are the entities who have any interest on this proposed app or who have the power to influence the function of this proposed app or by the function of this app who can be influenced. The stakeholders are those who can be affected by the company or the company can be affected by them. Here in this case, the stakeholders of the concerned firm ABC Pty Ltd are as follows:

• Service providers
• Customers
• Super markets
• The employees of service providers
• The employees of super markets
• The employee of ABC Pty Ltd
• The developer of ABC Pty Ltd
• The surrounding community of Adelaide and adjunct area

Definition of Power/Interest (P/I) Grid or matrix
The power/interest (P/I) grid or matrix is an important as well as most effective tool of strategic management that is used to manage the stakeholders of the company. It is a simple tool that assists the strategy makers to classify the stakeholders of the company regarding any of its projects by their power as well as interest in the respective project. The power/interest grid is mainly used at the time of planning any change within the organization and it is most effective for managing the stakeholders of the project. The strategy maker for change project should think about the entire entities who can be affected by the proposed project or who have influence or power or control over the specific project or who have interest in the success or failure of the project. Once the stakeholders of a project are recognized then the most important matter is to plan the ways to manage those stakeholders effectively (GeeksforGeeks, 2020). In this situation, the power/interest matrix is most useful. For the undertaken project related to the development f the online delivery service app it is important to recognize the stakeholders and categorize them into the different groups as per their power to influence the project outcomes or their interest on this app.

Power and interest of stakeholders mapped on a P/I Grid
It is most important for the concerned company ABC Pty Ltd to recognize the stakeholders of the company’s online delivery service applications and assess the power and interest of the stakeholders to successfully manage the stakeholders and include their requirements in the proposed service delivery app. The stakeholders of the specific software app are mainly service providers, the customers, super markets, the employees of service providers, the employees of super markets, the employee of ABC PTY Ltd, the developer of ABC Pty Ltd and the surrounding community of Adelaide and adjunct area. The stakeholders are recognized for the project and the next task is to recognize the power and interest of the stakeholders on this proposed online delivery service.

Figure 1: Power/Interest Grid/Matrix

According to the power and interest of the stakeholders of the software development project regarding the online delivery service app by ABC Pty Ltd the stakeholders are segmented in four different quadrants. The stakeholders who have low interest and low power or influence on the proposed online service delivery app are categorized as monitor group and the project team has to provide minimal effort to this category. The project team just has to monitor them. In this category only the surrounding communities of Adelaide and adjunct area are placed (Every, 2020).

The customers are the important stakeholders of the online service delivery app but presently they are not aware of the app and thus their interest level is low and hence, they are placed in the keep satisfied category.

The service provider and supermarkets are important stakeholders and these stakeholders have both power and interest on this proposed online service delivery app and thus placed in manage closely category (Iqbal, 2014).

Additionally, the employees of service providers, super markets, ABC Pty Ltd, and the developer of ABC Pty Ltd are also vital stakeholders as most of the functions of the proposed app will be managed by them. They have low power but high interest on this app. Hence, they are placed in keep informed group.

Justification of each stakeholder’s power and interest
The surrounding communities of Adelaide and adjunct area are placed in the monitor category as they have minimum interest and low power in the development of the online service delivery app. The project team just has to monitor them. The customers are placed in keep satisfied category as they have high power but low interest on the development of the app. The develop company must keep the customers satisfied with the app and its functions as they are most important stakeholders of the online service delivery app and upon their use of this app the success of this app largely depends (M & S, 2019). The service provider and supermarkets have both power and interest on this proposed app thus they are placed in manage closely and need to manage closely. The employees of service providers, super markets, ABC Pty Ltd, and the developer of ABC Pty Ltd have low power but high interest on this proposed app, thus placed in the keep interest group.

Elicitation Activity Plan Select four elicitation methods and for each method
The requirement elicitation is the way of deriving the requirement of the system from the stakeholders of the development project. There are various direct and indirect ways of requirement elicitation but mostly interview, prototyping, brain storming and questionnaire are used for requirement elicitation.

An explanation and why it has been selected for the case study
Interviews: The interview is an efficient technique to collect information about the requirements and for this case study of ABC PTY Ltd, the interview technique will be used to collect detailed information about the requirements, which in turn will help in recognizing the specific requirements of the proposed online delivery service app that can be run in website and mobile app.

Prototyping: Prototyping is also an efficient way to recognize the requirements. It is an interesting and rotating procedure and it supports in performing realistic assessment of the proposed idea and thus helps in recognizing the requirements most effectively. For ABC PTY Ltd, the prototyping will be used to detect the requirements of the app more specifically.

Brain storming: The braining storming is useful as collective brains produce innovative ideas and information on the requirements.

Questionnaire: It is also an efficient technique as it helps in collecting large data from the stakeholders about their specific requirements (Et.al, 2021).

A customized example
Sample questionnaire

Do you need an online delivery service app? Yes/no

Do you want multiple payment option in this app? Yes/No

Do you want multiple choices while deciding on any buying? Yes/no

Do you want suggestion for your buying? Yes/no

Which stakeholders will be engaged for the elicitation activity and why?
The service providers and super market are considered for interview as they can provide details about the requirements. The employees, of service providers and super markets will be considered for prototyping as they will mostly use the app in future thus, they can recognize the requirements more. The entire stakeholders are considered for brain storming as it will help in obtaining innovative ideas and information on the requirements (Elgabry, 2017). The customers are considered for questionnaire as they can provide large amount of data on requirements.

Conclusion
The report can be ended with the concluding notes that requirement engineering is the process of delineating, documentation, as well s maintenance of the requirements in the process of engineering design. Requirement elicitation is the most important part of the requirement engineering and for development of a new application; its significance is even greater. The interview, prototyping, brainstorming and questionnaire are the most effective ways of requirement elicitation and these are used for the ABC Pty Ltd to recognize the requirements of the proposed app of this firm.

References
Christel, M., & Kang, K. (2011). Issues in Requirements Elicitation. Resources.sei.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2 October 2021, from https://resources.sei.cmu.edu/asset_files/TechnicalReport/1992_004_001_16478.pdf.

Demir, S., Bryde, D., Fearon, D., & Ochieng, D. (2015). Three Dimensional Stakeholder Analysis 3dSA: Adding the Risk Dimension for Stakeholder Analysis. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2622155

Elgabry, O. (2017). Software Engineering — Software Process Activities (Part 3). Medium. Retrieved 2 October 2021, from https://medium.com/omarelgabrys-blog/software-engineering-process-activities-part-3-ca1ef6818fd6.

Et.al, I. (2021). An Approach for Selecting the Suitable Requirement Elicitation Technique. Turkish Journal Of Computer And Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT), 12(3), 2083-2087. https://doi.org/10.17762/turcomat.v12i3.1078

Every, P. (2020). Stakeholder Management using the Power Interest Matrix - Solitaire Consulting Limited. Engineering assignment Solitaire Consulting Limited. Retrieved 2 October 2021, from https://www.solitaireconsulting.com/2020/07/stakeholder-management-using-the-power-interest-matrix/.

GeeksforGeeks. (2020). Software Engineering | Requirements Engineering Process - GeeksforGeeks. GeeksforGeeks. Retrieved 2 October 2021, from https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/software-engineering-requirements-engineering-process/.

Iqbal, T. (2014). Requirement Elicitation Technique: - A Review Paper. www.researchgate.net. Retrieved 2 October 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272944882_Requirement_Elicitation_Technique_-A_Review_Paper.

M, S., & S, P. (2019). Requirement Elicitation: Systematic Literature Review. Journal Of Advanced Research In Dynamical And Control Systems, 11(12), 59-68. https://doi.org/10.5373/jardcs/v11i12/20193212