Assignment:
Case Study: Joe's Supermarket
This local supermarket is located in an urban neighborhood and provides customers with a wide array of products to choose from. Over time, the inventory has grown exponentially, but the current information system is not equipped to handle the increase in purchase demand. The company that owns the store opted to go with the "light" versions of the Purchasing and Point of Sale (POS) modules used to manage inventory and request products from vendors. The owner of the organization (Joe Russo) has emphasized that there are critical things on his "wish list" that he believes will move the supermarket into "the new tech age," but he is not sure where to start.
Here is some information he wants the IT consultant to know, but there is more likely additional information he is unaware of:
• Other processes that are part of the enterprise resource planning system are becoming slower, and some of the staff noticed errors in some of the product data coming into the system.
• A centralized database supports the entire system but has not been reviewed or upgraded.
• The time spent on customer transactions is too long! Anyone in management should be able to monitor transactions in real-time, but the point of sale system sends the data "over the wire" to the database slower each day. Some days there is a 2-hour lag in the system catching up on transactions!
Assignment:
You will use one of the critical business processes identified in last week for the case study organization (Joe's Supermarket) to perform a gap analysis that clearly shows the difference between the "as-is" state of the specific information system to be changed and the "to be" state of the system process planned for the future. Lucidchart or Draw.io can be used to create the business process map and a data flow diagram for the systems project.
Include the following information and diagrams in your gap analysis:
1. Create a root cause analysis diagram (fishbone) to document "pain points" in the problematic business process.
2. Document the business objectives, the scope of the project with quantifiable key performance indicators as metrics, a breakdown of goals with small measurable units, and a specific plan (with steps to close the gaps) to get the organization to the desired result.
3. Use the systems requirements plan created in last week for the organization and proper notation (symbols) to create a business process map diagram for the system to create a visualization of the current state of the business process for the organization system.
4. Use the proper notation to create a data flow diagram that clearly shows the current flow of data throughout the organization as related to the business process.
5. Utilize the proper notation to create a business process map diagram of the system to visualize the series of events that will produce the future state of the business process in the organization system.
6. Use the proper notation to create a data flow diagram that clearly shows the future flow of data throughout the organization as related to the business process.
7. Position the respective data flow and process model diagrams side-by-side to clearly show the "before and after" for both the data flow in and out of the information system and the changes to the business process.
8. Write a summary of the gap analysis and justification for business process selection, while detailing the conclusions made and how those conclusions were derived.
Length: 6 to 7 page paper, not including title and reference pages (APA), plus 4 diagrams (data flow and process model) in the appendix.
References: Include a minimum of 3 scholarly references.
Readings:
• Dewey, J. (2020). McKinsey 7S Framework. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
• Draw.io (n.d.). Security-first diagramming for teams.
• Lucidchart.com. (2020). Free flowchart maker.