Question

There are 3 ways to acquire a new system: custom development (the company develops the system in house using corporate resources), packaged systems (purchasing a system off the shelf), and outsourcing (hiring an external developer, vendor or application service provider to create or supply the system). Assume you are the Business Systems Analyst for a company that adopts a mix of these three acquisition strategies.

What would be your role in each of these acquisition activities as a Business Systems Analyst?

Type a 200+ words answer.

Answer 1

My role as a business analyst becomes very important in such situations wherein pros and cons of each approach are to be identified and then a decision has to be taken which is the best for the organization in the short as well as long term. If the company is deciding to build a product in-house then I need to see that do we have that skillset available in the organization or not, what would be the timeline and cost that it would take to build a software like this and how much chances are there for success. If the company decides to outsource then we need to make sure that the reputation of the company is not at risk, the requirements are very clear to the third party and they are trusted brand in the market and lastly if the company purchase something off the shelf then integration that would ve required to run various system should be taken care off, the security and data layer issues have to be sorted by me and I need to give a green flag as to that system is actually worth using or not or there is some other better way of doing things.