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Discovery Phase Document

Ntiedo Essien

Grand Canyon University: MIS-652-O500

2019-07-31

Executive summary of the project

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The discovery phase is an exhaustive research phase that is the first phase of a digital

project, often with a mix of people like Business Analyst, UX Designer, and Technical Architect.

As the interdisciplinary team of experts goes through the discovery phase, the documents are

ready for follow-up, with important findings requiring further investigation / action [1].

These documents are usually stored in a central location (such as a wiki or shared drive)

and made available to all project team members. Such documents usually provide answers to

important questions, such as:

● Who are the current project team? And what are their roles / responsibilities.

● What are the internal business processes? i.e publishing workflow

● What are the potential risks identified and what are their impacts?

● What is the project vision / goals and objectives?

● What user stories / requirements are we looking to deliver against?

● Who are the other external stakeholders and what is their role / responsibilities?

This type of documentation helps the client and all project participants in the organization

to agree on what the project scope and desired goals look like.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the shortcomings of the business processes in

the credit card sector of a multinational bank called "The Bank" and redesign the process to

improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing business processes, and thereby failure and

eliminate the problem to improve the quality of service.

In this study, we use case study methodology to validate the actual business process.

Gather primary data from corporate document audits through interviews with individuals, focus

groups, and secondary data. It uses SWOT analysis, fishbone diagrams, process flow diagrams,
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and many other tools to analyze and redesign existing processes. The design process is very

general and can be applied to other organizations, especially the banking sector [2].

Problem statement

The process of managing multi-bank credit cards is tiresome and requires 8 to 9 days to

complete the creation of the final account and issue the card for processing the application. That

is a huge waiting time for a customer who applies for it and needs immediately. The operation

department keeps pending more than 70% application within a specified time period. The

increased number of input errors while processing the application reduces the efficiency of the

final output. As a result, the sigma level reduces into smaller value than six. The level of sigma

must be six to improve customer satisfaction [2].

Customers have very specific expectations for any product or service. The time spent

during TO-BE process of providing services or products is aimed to reduce delivery time by at

least four days to increase customer satisfaction and support the development of core

competencies in the bank's credit card business.

The efficiency of the existing process of the new account unit is measured by the number

of applications processed per month. The unit currently processes an average of 500 applications

per month, as each applicant's data needs to be stored in a separate database. Unit efficiency is

very high and each employee provides sufficient performance (30 applications) per day, but the

proposed new method can improve the efficiency of handling more applications per day.

The current system makes many errors in different phases of the credit card application

process. There are many reasons for credit card maker mistakes. The most important error comes

from the current process. Improving the process improves performance in terms of reducing

errors. The current process is complex because physical documents are repeatedly processed by
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multiple employees. This requires training to properly understand and implement employees.

Documents with errors from another entity may be delayed. In addition, the process is run at

maximum load without reducing the possibility of manufacturing errors. This process is not

correct as it limits proper communication between units and does not regularly monitor, control

and validate to manage, view and improve opportunities. The architecture of the AS-IS process

takes time to prepare the final output for internal and external customers [2].

Impacted processes and stakeholders

Every company has both internal and external stakeholders. The entire customer base of

credit card and the employees involved in the credit card approval operation are the most

impacted stakeholders. The desire to provide the best interests of stakeholders is a prerequisite

for survival in today's market. “The Bank” aims to obtain a threshold revenue per month. In case

of a lengthy process to approve a credit card to an external customer, the satisfactory level will

reduce among them and the customers will be reluctant to apply for a credit card. That results in

fewer sales, which leads to a direct loss of revenue.

With Internet technology, today's customers are willing to write negative reviews online

if they have a bad business experience. Customers not only leave critical reviews but also share

frustrations with friends, family, associates and social media all over the world. One survey

found that 88% of respondents were affected by online reviews when applying for a credit card.

This leads to a decline in total sales, but above all, a serious drawback of word-of-mouth

marketing. This is probably the most valuable marketing outlet a brand can have [4].

Acquiring new customers is usually more expensive than maintaining current customers.

That's why one of the main reasons for good customer service is so important. Bad customer

service can destroy the average customer lifetime value.

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Employees know when something is not right with the business they work for. If they see

repeated instances of poor customer service, they are likely to start looking for opportunities with

other companies. Dealing with dissatisfied customers makes their jobs more difficult and

eventually the working environment becomes toxic. The resulting high employee turnover

further tarnishes the company’s reputation, and it creates more costs because of the increased

need for recruiting, hiring and training of new employees.

A business that tries to salvage its reputation by boosting advertising and public relations

efforts will have additional costs added to the mix. If no effort is made to improve service to get

those lost customers back, the result will be a downward spiral that could eventually lead to

losing the business.

The bad customer service doesn’t impact only on the revenue lost, but it affects more

negatively down the road. Businesses can lose their livelihoods if customers are not treated

properly. If you don't care about your customers and your business is known for bad customer

service, you can expect a lot to happen and none of it is good news for your business.

Project objectives and high level requirements

Customers often find difficult to describe system requirements correctly. There are

certain techniques that have to be utilized to discover facts of the current system (AS-IS) and

identification of the requirements for the new system (TO-BE). This includes stakeholder

interviews, written reviews, observations, sampling, and surveys [2].

The system requirements document or software requirements specification includes new

system requirements, describes the options being considered, and provides specific

recommendations for management. This important document is a starting point for measuring the
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performance, accuracy and completeness of the required system before entering the system

design phase [2].

To start collecting facts of AS-IS system, many important documents could be reviewed.

It will help to understand how the current system works and better interview questions with the

stakeholders. An overview of the current operational process is another method of investigation.

This gives you a better perspective and a better understanding of system processes. There are few

other techniques such as brainstorming, questionnaires and surveys, research and sampling could

be pursued to delve deeper into the system components that need to be improved [2].

The main goals of this phase are to understand the TO-BE system, to ensure that it

supports the business requirements, and to provide a solid foundation for the system design

phase. The business-related requirements of the TO-BE system are identified. This includes

output, input, process, performance, and control. The total cost of ownership (TCO) is also

estimated, and all costs, including indirect costs, are determined. It uses JAD (Joint Application

Development), a common team-based approach, to identify facts, including interactive users,

administrators, and IT professionals involved in requirements modeling and projects [2].

The proposed TO-BE process enables a five-day reduction in delivery time to increase

customer satisfaction and support the development of core competencies in the bank's credit card

business. This information could be obtained by interviewing employees of management which

is an important fact-finding tool during discovery phase. It consists of seven steps [2]:

1. Determine the people to interview

2. Establish objectives for the interview

3. Develop interview questions

4. Prepare for the interview

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5. Conduct the interview

6. Document the interview

7. Evaluate the interview

The proposed TO-BE model (see Appendix) emphasises handing over fewer applications,

and reduces activities and improves tasks completion processes to influence the waiting time to

deliver the service, and also to improve the service quality. The proposed model encourages

recording details of only the approved applications and very minimal information of rejected

applications to increase efficiency (processing more applications per person), effectiveness

(cutting down unnecessary working steps), timeliness (reduction of per application delivery time)

and adaptability (new possibility of handling special requests from customers at any stage or

moment).

Goals with identified key performance indicator

“The Bank” is a big giant in banking sector of Asian market and constantly working to

expand its customer base with various strategic marketing and service initiatives. The credit card

department, as a service initiative and the most important delivery standard, shows excessive

value and strategically reduces customer latency. However, to improve service quality, it is

necessary to operate the business process from start to complete operation correctly. The Bank

expects high market demand for credit cards. However, according to sales reports, credit card

products show a weak market penetration compared to other specialized services departments

such as small & medium enterprise rates and loans. The bank relies heavily on its reputation and

goodwill to attract new credit card users and improve their credit market share.

It plans to provide TO-BE business process models for targeted credit card delivery units

to significantly improve customer service, reduce card processing time from nine days to four
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days, and further reduce procedural costs. The purpose of the new model is to increase credit

card sales and improve banks' other consumer goods. In order to gain a sustainable competitive

advantage, the model reorganizes units, eliminates invalid and inefficient steps, emphasizes the

introduction of new steps to reduce application processing time, and implements an intelligent

comprehensive information system. It supports and manages end-to-end activities.

The Bank wants to develop targeted expert systems that act as credit assistants, and

automated checklists that let analysts perform well-controlled processes. More innovations in

this area become more standardized, more quantitative, and serve as tools for credit and risk

assessments [2].
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References

[1] @Kyecass (2018). The Agency / Client ‘Discovery Phase’ … What is it and why is it

important? Retrieved from https://medium.com/@kyecass/the-agency-client-discovery-

phase-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-important-43e08a108e06

[2] Samsul Islam, M. Daud Ahmed, (2012),"Business process improvement of credit card

department: a case study of a multinational bank", Business Process Management

Journal, Vol. 18 Iss: 2 pp. 284 - 303

[3] Tilley, Scott. and Rosenblatt, H.J. (2017). Systems Analysis and Design. 11th ed., Cengage

Learning, Boston, USA.

[4] DiScipio, Tom (2019). 5 Worst Side Effects of Bad Customer Service (and How To Avoid

Them). Retrieved from https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/5-dangerous-side-effects-of-

bad-customer-service

Appendix

The proposed credit card delivery workflow diagram:

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