Case Study: Requirements Elicitation for Core Banking System Enhancement

Background
A leading international bank, GlobalBank, operates in over 30 countries and manages millions of customer accounts.
To stay competitive in the evolving financial landscape, the bank has decided to enhance its Loan Origination and
Management System (LOMS) to improve customer experience, operational efficiency, and compliance with
international banking regulations such as BASEL III and AML/KYC standards.
The existing LOMS is a legacy system developed a decade ago. It has limited flexibility, lacks integration with modern
APIs, and struggles to handle increasing transaction volumes. Furthermore, regulatory requirements mandate stricter
data governance, credit risk assessment, and transaction monitoring, which the current system cannot fully support.
Project Objective
The bank aims to modernize the LOMS by:
1. Enhancing loan application workflows for retail and corporate customers.
2. Integrating real-time credit risk assessment models.
3. Improving end-to-end automation for loan approval and disbursement processes.
4. Ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements across all regions.
5. Enabling integration with third-party credit bureaus and AML monitoring tools.
Stakeholders
1. Retail Banking Head: Focused on customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
2. Corporate Banking Head: Ensures smooth loan processing for high-value clients.
3. Risk Management Team: Ensures credit risk models align with BASEL III standards.
4. Compliance Officers: Monitors adherence to AML/KYC and regional regulations.
5. IT Team: Responsible for development, integration, and support.
6. End Users: Loan officers, customer service agents, and branch managers.
Current Challenges
1. Manual Processes: Loan officers manually verify application data, leading to delays and errors.
2. System Limitations: The system cannot support advanced credit scoring algorithms or integrate with modern
APIs.
3. Data Silos: Lack of centralized access to customer financial histories, impacting decision-making.
4. Regulatory Pressure: Compliance with BASEL III and AML/KYC requires real-time tracking and enhanced
reporting.
5. Scalability Issues: The system struggles to handle growing transaction volumes in peak seasons.
Key Requirements to be Elicited
1. Detailed loan workflow automation for different loan types (e.g., retail, corporate, housing).
2. Specifications for real-time credit scoring models based on dynamic customer data.
3. Integration requirements for third-party tools (e.g., credit bureaus, AML solutions).
4. Business rules for risk assessment and fraud detection mechanisms.
5. Compliance-related features, such as audit trails and regulatory reporting dashboards.
6. User interface and experience improvements for loan officers and back-office staff.
7. Data migration strategy for existing loan records, ensuring minimal downtime.
8. Scalability to support high transaction volumes and multiple geographies.
Scenario for Requirements Elicitation
The bank has provided limited documentation on the current LOMS processes and workflows. The BA must:
1. Identify pain points by conducting workshops with stakeholders across multiple regions.
2. Work closely with compliance officers to document regulatory requirements.
3. Collaborate with the IT team to understand technical constraints and integration feasibility.
4. Interact with loan officers to gather insights on daily challenges and user expectations.
5. Analyze data migration needs, including data cleansing and validation.
6. Design mock-ups for new workflows and gather feedback.
Challenges During Elicitation
1. Diverse Stakeholder Priorities: Retail banking, corporate banking, and compliance teams may have conflicting
needs.
2. Language and Regional Differences: Regulations and workflows vary across countries.
3. Data Sensitivity: Stakeholders are hesitant to share sensitive customer data for analysis.
 4. Technical Debt: Legacy systems pose constraints that may limit feature implementation.
Deliverables Expected from the BA
1. Business Requirement Document (BRD) with detailed workflows.
2. Functional Requirement Specification (FRS) for the new LOMS.
3. Integration mapping document for APIs and third-party tools.
4. Data migration plan and risk mitigation strategy.
5. Compliance requirements matrix mapped to system features.
6. High-level user journey diagrams for the new system.

Requirement elicitation Questions to be asked by BA to gather requirements

1. Business Goals and Objectives
 What are the primary business objectives for enhancing the Loan Origination and Management System
(LOMS)?
 What are the key challenges the current system faces that this enhancement aims to address?
 How do you envision the enhanced system improving customer satisfaction and operational efficiency?
 What are the measurable KPIs for the success of this project?

2. Stakeholder Needs
Retail and Corporate Banking Teams:
 What are the specific pain points faced by loan officers in the current loan application process?
 Are there differences in workflows for retail loans vs. corporate loans? If so, what are they?
 How do you prioritize faster loan processing versus compliance checks?
Risk Management and Compliance Teams:
 What are the key risk assessment parameters required to comply with BASEL III standards?
 What features would help improve adherence to AML/KYC regulations?
 Do you need the system to generate real-time alerts for potential fraudulent activities?
IT Team:
 What are the technical constraints of the current system that we must address?
 What integration challenges do you foresee with third-party tools (e.g., credit bureaus)?
 How can we ensure scalability and uptime during peak transaction periods?

3. Workflow and Process Automation

 What are the existing steps in the loan application process for different loan types?
 Which of these steps are manual and could benefit from automation?
 How should the system handle loan applications requiring additional documentation or approvals?
 What happens when a loan application is rejected? Should the system provide feedback to the applicant?
 What levels of approval are needed for retail vs. corporate loans?

4. Credit Risk Assessment

 What data points should be included in the credit scoring models?
 Are there existing credit scoring models that need to be integrated or modified?
 Should the system factor in historical loan repayment data from external sources?
 How should risk levels be categorized and displayed to loan officers?

5. Compliance and Audit

 What regulatory reports are required to be generated, and at what frequency?
 What audit trail capabilities are necessary to meet compliance standards?
 How should the system manage customer data privacy while ensuring compliance?
 Do you need dashboards for compliance monitoring, and what metrics should they display?
6. User Experience (UX)
 What are the pain points faced by loan officers and customer service agents with the current UI?
 Should the system offer different interfaces for retail and corporate loan officers?
 What features would make the system more user-friendly and efficient for your staff?
 Should the system have multilingual support for regional branches?

7. Data Migration
 What is the volume of data that needs to be migrated from the legacy system?
 Are there specific data cleansing requirements before migration?
 What strategies should be used to minimize downtime during data migration?
 How should we handle discrepancies between existing data formats and the new system’s requirements?

8. Reporting and Dashboards

 What types of reports do different teams require (e.g., loan status, risk analysis, compliance tracking)?
 Should the reports be customizable for different stakeholders?
 How frequently should dashboards and reports be updated with new data?

9. Third-Party Integrations
 What specific third-party tools or APIs need to be integrated with the enhanced LOMS?
 Are there existing integration issues with credit bureaus or AML monitoring tools?
 What are the SLAs for third-party data retrieval and updates?

10. Security and Access Control

 What levels of access are needed for different user roles (e.g., loan officer, compliance officer)?
 Should the system support multi-factor authentication for sensitive data access?
 How should the system track and report unauthorized access attempts?

11. Scalability and Performance

 What is the expected transaction volume for the next 5 years?
 How should the system handle peak periods, such as end-of-quarter loan approvals?
 What performance metrics are critical to ensure the system runs smoothly?

12. Future Enhancements

 Are there any anticipated future requirements that should be considered now?
 What flexibility is needed to accommodate regulatory changes or new loan products?

13. Risk and Constraints

 What risks do you foresee during the implementation or migration of the system?
 Are there budgetary or timeline constraints that we should be aware of?
 What fallback procedures are in place in case of a system failure?

14. Validation and Acceptance Criteria

 What are the criteria for accepting the new LOMS as meeting business needs?
 Who will be involved in validating the system features and workflows?
 What testing scenarios should be prioritized to ensure compliance and usability?