Unit 22 Office Solutions Development

·       Aim

Unit 22 Office Solutions Development aims to equip learners with the knowledge and skills needed to develop application solutions that can be used to automate business processes.

·       Unit abstract

Within an organisation, a range of business processes are functional at operational, tactical and strategic levels within the business structure. Some business processes are quite simplistic, especially at the operational level where routine, non-complex decisions and tasks are undertaken. However as you advance through the levels of an organisation, the strategic levels, more complex business processes and decision making is required that may need support from more automated, on-demand information systems and solutions.

Providing office solutions to support a range of business functions and decision making can range from the implementation of a simple rule or macro, through to the design of a more complex piece of code or program to support different end users.

This unit is designed to build upon existing skills and knowledge previously gained from using different types of application and design software. Learners will be expected to demonstrate more advanced skills in terms of data manipulation, configuration, application and implementation of software packages to enhance a given business processes or processes.

On completion of this unit the learner should be able to use design application software at an advanced level of proficiency. Learners will engage with a range of software, and select the most appropriate application(s) to offer feasible and working business solutions.

·       Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit a learner will:

1. Understand how application software can support business processes
2. Be able to design and implement office solutions
3. Be able to demonstrate that business processes have been enhanced/improved.

Unit content

1         Understand how application software can support business processes

Applications software: types eg spreadsheets, database, presentation, graphics, desk-top publishing, word processing

Business processes: management eg supporting decision making, problem solving; operational eg sales, purchasing, marketing; support eg accounting, technical

Supporting processes: improving the efficiency of a business process eg forecasting, decision making, predictive reasoning; automating processes eg print runs, salary slips

Supporting the user: user requirements eg accessibility, usability, clarity, help

2         Be able to design and implement office solutions

Solutions: supporting a business process eg end user requirements, systems requirement, application to automate procedures, designing a tool, program or package that can perform a specific task to support problem-solving or decision-making at an advanced level, creating an e-Commerce function for a website to support a specific business process, designing a program for a specific end user that will support another application or process

Design: considerations eg addressing the user or system requirement; user-friendly and functional interface; consideration of user engagement and interaction with the designed solution; customization of the solution to satisfy the user and system requirements

Advanced tools and techniques: tools eg analysing data with interactive PivotTables and PivotCharts, linking Excel spreadsheets with Sharepoint, team collaboration and document management with Windows SharePoint; techniques eg creating decision-making macros, programming Access objects, building intuitive user interfaces with VBA, building ASP.net web applications

Testing: functionality: eg checking against requirements, error handling, documentation

3         Be able to demonstrate that business processes have been enhanced/improved

User engagement: engagement through eg meetings, questionnaires, interviews

Enhanced/improved: comparisons eg more efficient, faster results, more user friendly, improved compatibility with other systems and processes, improved management information

Learning outcomes and assessment criteria

Learning outcomes   On successful completion of this unit a learner will:	Assessment criteria for pass   The learner can:
LO1 Understand how application software can support business processes	discuss ways in which applications software can support business processesjustify the use of different application software to support a given user requirement or business processdiscuss the importance of addressing both user and business requirements
LO2 Be able to design and implement office solutions	design a solution to address a business or user needuse advanced tools and techniques to implement a solutiontest a solution against expected results
LO3 Be able to demonstrate that business processes have been enhanced/improved	discuss ways in which end user engagement has taken placeprovide evidence that business processes have been enhanced/improvedevaluate possible further improvements that could be made to enhance the system.

Guidance

Links to National Occupational Standards, other BTEC units, other BTEC qualifications and other relevant units and qualifications

The learning outcomes associated with this unit are closely linked with:

Level 3	Level 4	Level 5
Unit 6: Software Design and Development	Unit 18: Procedural Programming	Unit 35: Web Applications Development
Unit 14: Event Driven Programming	Unit 19: Object Oriented Programming	Unit 39: Computer Games Design Development
Unit 15: Object Oriented Programming	Unit 20: Event Driven Programming Solutions	Unit 40: Distributed Software Applications
Unit 16: Procedural Programming	Unit 21: Software Applications Testing	Unit 41: Programming in Java
	Unit 23: Mathematics for Software Development	Unit 42: Programming in .NET

This unit has links to the Level 4 and Level 5 National Occupational Standards for IT and Telecoms Professionals, particularly the areas of competence of:

• IT Application Management/Support.

Essential requirements

Learners must have access to a range of applications and design software. In addition, examples of real-life business process scenarios would also provide further guidance and support in terms of their own solutions.