ITSS 3300 Assignment: Business Process Modeling 150 pts Consider the following s

Question

ITSS 3300

Assignment: Business Process Modeling              150 pts

Consider the following scenario for a video game development company:

EA Games is a video game development company. The creation of their video games require ideation, design and development before it is launched to public. This is called Post Production, which is also the most challenging part for EA Games. Due to an inefficient process and lack of communication between the developer, testers and Project managers, the “post-production” phase takes longer than usual to complete.

Post-production begins when the game is considered "feature complete" and all of the code has been written and art has been completed. This is when an alpha version of the game is created and is supplied to the game's test department to bang away at and find bugs and major flaws in the game that need to be changed whether by the artists or programmers. Every single bug regardless of how major or minor is documented and attempted to be fixed. There are 3 types of Bugs (in the order of severity)

Type A bug: This one is the most critical and has to be fixed immediately. When this is discovered, everyone in the team i.e. artists, programmers, or AI programmers are emailed. The entire testing process is halted until someone claims ownership of the bug and provides direction on whether to continue testing or to wait for a fix. Once the fix has been completed the new changes are released back to the testers and they must restart their testing.

Type B or C bug: the testing team documents the bug in a central location. Once all testing has been completed this document is sent to development and they determine which items to fix and when to re-release. Once the game is re-released, the testing cycle starts all over again, however, this is still within the 4-week timeline. If a major “A” bug is found, the testers have to report an A bug again and wait (See steps in A. above)

Typically, the test department is given 4 weeks to complete the testing. However, issues arrive when the test department finds a mission critical bug and cannot proceed with testing until the bug has been resolved. At such time, the testing team must completely redo all their testing because such a large change could potentially impact the entire game.

Once all the bugs have been fixed and tested a final version of the game is made by the testers and sent to the console maker to get tested and approved for release on the system in question.

Presently, management has no way to properly plan for the testing phase and they are unable to effectively track how many bugs were reported, by who, and the priority. Having this information would be helpful for planning purposes and would provide visibility into the current process.

Complete the following:

Business Process. Discuss the problems and inefficiencies the testing process creates for the company. (30 pts)

Diagram the existing Post-Production Process. Using a diagramming tool (Visio, Lucidchart, PowerPoint) model the existing process. (30 pts)

Metrics. Identify 3 metrics that could be put in place to measure the impact of the existing process on operational efficiency. (30 pts)

Process Improvements. Discuss the changes that could be made to make the process more efficient (15 pts) and explain how an information system could support those changes. (15 pts)

Diagram the new Process. Diagram the new, improved process. (30 pts)

Explanation / Answer

answer-

1

TESTING PROCESS IS A CRUCIAL PART IN GAME DEVELOPMENT. AS IT GIVES OVERVIEW OF THE PROBLEM AND MODIFICATION THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE IN ORDER TO MAKE A GAME MORE EFFECTIVE, ENJOYABLE, ERROR FREE AND PRODUCTIVE. BUT THE PROBLEM ARISES WHEN THE TEST DEPARTMENT FINDS A CRITICAL BUG AND CANNOT PROCEED FURTHER UNTIL IT HAS BEEN FIXED. THIS CHANGE COULD POTENTIALLY IMPACT THE ENTIRE GAME AND THE TESTING TEAM HAS TO COMPLETELY REDO ALL THEIR TESTING WHICH RESULTS IN EXTENSION IN THE RELEASE DATE AND ADDS TO THE PRODUCTION COST.

2

IN ORDER TO MAKE THE PROCESS MORE EFFICIENT AND PRODUCTIVE I WOULD LIKE EA GAMES TO CHANGE

FIRST THEIR COMMUNICATION NETWORK WITHIN THEIR ORGANIZATION. AN INFORMATION IN THE ORGANIZATION SHOULD FLOW THROUGH SYSTEM RATHER THAN BEING IN A FREE FLOW MANNER WHICH WILL DEFINITELY REDUCE THE COST AND WILL SAVE TIME.
A SEPARATE DATABASE SHOULD BE MADE THAT WILL HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION REGARDING THE BUGS AND WOULD SEND THE REPORT TO THE DESIGNATED PROGRAMMER TO GET THEM FIXED.

AN INFORMATION SYSTEM IS A SYSTEMATIC AND AN ORGANISED WAY THAT WILL DEFINITELY HELP EA SPORTS TO ORGANIZE AND ANALYZE THE DATA IN A BETTER WAY. IT WILL MAKE THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS MORE EFFECTIVE AND WILL PROVES TO BE A BOON FOR THE COMPANY. THUS, REDUCING THE COST AND SAVING TIME .

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