Requirements for Replacement of a Bank’s Core Services
Summary:
Over time, this bank’s infrastructure had grown with piecemeal solutions, typically developed in response to a regulator’s recommendations. A core process, lending and capital stock management, was in need of a complete reassessment and update. By working with the client to discover true business needs, Doreen Evans Associates helped involve both business and technical users in defining use cases that captured requirements and led to a successful implementation.
Client Profile:
The bank is a wholesale bank owned by its member banks. Members are responsible for carrying capital stock in proportion to their borrowings to offset the bank’s capital reserve requirements.
The Challenge:
Over time, this bank’s infrastructure had grown with piecemeal solutions, typically developed in response to a regulator’s recommendations. One of this bank’s core processes, lending and capital stock management, was in need of a complete reassessment and update due to outdated technology and inefficient processes. In addition, the bank had recognized that it needed to improve its business analysis capabilities and was willing to implement a new requirements lifecycle process that would marry into their current systems development lifecycle and project management methodologies.
The Solution:
Doreen Evans Associates performed two projects. The first resulted in development of business requirements and preliminary use cases. The second led to the development of the solution requirements. The business requirements phase involved the development of a logical architecture model, defining the key interactions of the various related departments, which helped to establish the scope of effort. Next, as-is processes were detailed allowing for the assessment of pain points and opportunities. This analysis contributed to the development of to-be process flows and the development of preliminary business requirements and use cases for a systems replacement solution opportunity.
The solution requirements phase re-factored the use cases into packages for a developed solution. These 56 use cases were elaborated with the addition of activity diagrams depicting the use case flows, screen mockups, and ultimately the creation of 55 business rules and 330 functional requirements.
The business and technical stakeholders were involved throughout the process. The models and tools used helped all the stakeholders to come to a better understanding of their requirements than had been demonstrated in the past. It allowed the business to be more creative about solving process problems and more willing to consider changing their processes. It allowed the technical group to develop a more accurate assessment of the effort involved for planning the development effort. Finally, it improved the harmony between the business and technical groups, ensuring a much smoother transition to the new system.
