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ITECH2305 – Analysing the Modern Business

CRICOS Provider No. 00103D ITECH2305 Assignment 2 Specification.docx Page 1 of 6

Assignment 2 – Case Study

Overview For this assignment, you will identify and manage the requirements to meet a business need, design possible solutions and communicate your recommendations through a written report and oral presentation.

This is an individual assignment. The work must be your own work.

Timelines and Expectations Percentage Value of Task: 30% (comprising Written Report 25%, Presentation 5%)

Oral Presentation Due: in Week 10 Lab class (Week commencing 16 September, 2019)

Written Report Due: 9:00am, Monday 23 September, 2019 (Week 11).

Minimum time expectation: 10 hours

Learning Outcomes Assessed The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment:

 K2: Discuss a variety of contemporary tools and techniques used for business analysis and when these are appropriate to use

 K3: Identify and explain the core concepts of business analysis

 S1: Analyse, document and manage business requirements

 S2: Investigate and compare various business analysis methods, tools and techniques

 S3: Identify and apply appropriate means of communication for disseminating information between stakeholders

 S4: Determine a variety of possible solutions and make recommendations to address business needs

 A1: Develop, manage, and effectively communicate business requirements

 A2: Analyse and critique the implementation of a business solution

 A3: Prepare and justify a case for business change

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Assessment Details You are required to identify an opportunity for a change involving Information Technology in an organization, using current Australian news media to identify the opportunity. This could be inspired by identifying an area for potential growth through observation of a current issue being experienced, or from perceiving an opportunity to improve an organisation’s current systems. Current Australian news media includes reputable news sources published in English in Australia, with any article published since 1st April 2019 considered current. You may check with your lecturer or tutor to confirm the suitability of the news media if you are uncertain.

Once you have identified an opportunity, you are assigned the role of Business Analyst to work on this project. Important Note: You must not contact the actual organisation. You may conduct research using online and library resources and ask your tutor or other students / friends to provide different perspectives – such assistance must be fully acknowledged in your assignment.

Your role entails:

Strategy Analysis:

• Gain an understanding of the current aims and strategy of the organization and the business objectives of the change, and describing these in your report.

Elicitation and Collaboration:

• Identifying the relevant stakeholders for this change and creating a RASCI stakeholder prioritization matrix.

• Developing a list of requirements for the change, considering the perspectives of the relevant stakeholders.

Requirements Lifecycle Management

• Organising and managing the requirements using a suitable tool e.g. requirements analysis template.

• Constructing a requirements traceability matrix that links the requirements to each of the proposed designs.

Requirements Analysis and Design Definition

• Requirements specified and modelled using appropriate techniques e.g. user stories or use cases, use case diagrams, data flow diagrams, sequence diagrams, process modelling, etc.

• Developing measurement and evaluation criteria to enable the success of the change to be determined.

• Developing two different, high level designs that address the identified requirements and that would be valid solutions to the opportunity. Note that these should also be compatible with the organisation’s overall strategy. Note also that you are not expected to provide details of the technical implementation of these designs.

• Recommending one of the designs as the optimal approach for the organisation to consider, with justifications for this recommendation.

As the business analyst, you are also required to document your work in a report in a format suitable for review by the organisation’s management. Your report must:

• Include an Executive Summary of the report contents, providing a brief overview of the analysis and also the recommended design solution.

• Document the findings of your analysis in detail, so that the process you have undertaken is clearly explained and identifiable. This should enable another person to follow the work you have completed and understand the outcomes you have identified. Some of the information may be difficult to represent professionally in a report. You may use screenshots where appropriate to show the relevant information, and submit the complete files separately from the report.

• Be presented in a professional manner suitable for issuing to an executive team at the organisation.

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In addition to your report, you are required to present your work in an oral presentation, as though you are presenting to a group of stakeholders from the organisation who will be deciding whether to proceed with the change and if so, with which design, based on your presentation. It is therefore necessary that you pay attention to your presentation aids, your personal appearance and the quality of your spoken presentation, as you need to make a good impression and convince the stakeholders of the merits of your work. This presentation must be of no more than 5 minutes duration. You may assume that the attendees have access to your written report so you do not need to provide details of all your work, but you do need to provide enough information to enable people who haven’t read the report to follow your reasoning. The presentation should therefore:

• identify the opportunity and how this aligns with the business objectives.

• outline the overall requirements of a solution to this opportunity. You may find your models from the written report particularly useful to represent this information in a readable format.

• discuss the measurement and evaluation criteria for the change.

• give details of the two design options proposed.

• recommend one of the designs, with justifications as to why this is the optimal solution.

Presentations will be conducted in the week 10 lab for on-campus students.

Submission Requirements & Implications of Missed Deadlines Your completed assignment work is to be uploaded to Moodle via two submission links. The first link, named “Assignment 2 Report and Supporting Files” must include your completed report, all supporting files (e.g. requirements analysis template, requirements traceability matrix), and the presentation aids as used for your presentation. It must also include a separate list of references and acknowledgement that shows all the sources you have accessed for your assignment and all assistance you have received on the assignment. Only one file is permitted for your submission to this link, so you will need to create a compressed file (use .zip format) containing all the relevant files. The completed report itself should be in either .doc, .docx or .pdf format.

You must also submit your completed report to the second link, named “Assignment 2 Report Only”, which is a Turn-it-in submission box. Failing to submit the .doc, .docx or .pdf format file here will mean that you will receive 0 marks for the report. Only one file is permitted here – the final report.

Before you can submit your work to either of these links, you must complete the online Declaration Agreement, to certify that the work is your own work. Once you have completed that, the links for you to submit the work will become available. Please make sure you read the content of the Declaration Agreement before you complete it.

The time of submission of the later of the two submission links will be deemed to be the time you submitted the report part of the assignment. Late submissions of the report will have a penalty of 10% of the available marks for the report part of the marks deducted for each day (or part of day) that it is late. For example, if you submit 30 hours late, this is more than 1 day but less than 2 days, so a penalty of 2.5 marks out of 25 will be deducted from what your report work is worth. If you have a legitimate reason why you won’t be able to submit on time, you must request an extension from your lecturer in advance of the due date, by submitting the relevant documentation.

If you are unable to attend the Week 10 Lab to present your presentation, and have a legitimate reason for needing to defer this presentation, you must request an extension from your lecturer in advance of the due date, by submitting the relevant documentation supporting your claim, within 2 days after the date of your scheduled class. If you are granted an extension, or otherwise miss the date of your presentation, your lecturer will advise you of when the replacement opportunity will occur. If you miss the presentation without an approved extension, a penalty of 10% of the available marks for the presentation part of the marks will be deducted for each day that you delay, excluding days your location is not open for business.

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Marking Criteria – Written Report and Supporting Files (25%) Marks will be awarded on the basis of the quality and extent to which you address each of the tasks, as well as the manner in which you present information, in accordance with the following table:

Task Available

Marks

Marks

Awarded

A written report suitable for presentation to the organisation, formatted professionally that includes (in any order, other than the executive summary that must come first):

Executive Summary

• brief overview of the analysis and also the recommended design solution

3

Strategy Analysis:

• description of the current aims and strategy of the organization and the business objectives of the change

3

Elicitation and Collaboration: • identification and prioritization of relevant stakeholders using a RASCI

stakeholder prioritization matrix

5

• list of requirements for the change, considering the perspectives of the relevant stakeholders.

5

Requirements Lifecycle Management • requirements organised and managed using a suitable tool e.g.

requirements analysis template

5

• completed requirements traceability matrix that links the requirements to each of the proposed designs

5

Requirements Analysis and Design Definition • requirements specified and modelled using appropriate techniques e.g.

user stories or use cases, use case diagrams, data flow diagrams, sequence diagrams, process modelling, etc

10

• measurement and evaluation criteria developed to enable the success of the change to be determined.

5

• two different, high level designs developed that address the identified requirements and that would be valid solutions to the opportunity, compatible with the organisation’s overall strategy.

5

• one design recommended as the optimal approach for the organisation to consider, with justifications for this recommendation.

4

Total (Written Report) – Scaled to 25% 50

(25% of

course total)

In general, for a given item in the table: If you do the work correctly, and to the expected depth, you should receive the full marks available for the item; If correctly but not to the expected depth, one or two marks will be withheld from the item; If done incorrectly but to a reasonable depth, or if done correctly but only to a basic depth, then no more than half the marks would be awarded for the item.

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Marking Criteria – Presentation (5%) Marks will be awarded according to the following table on the range of aspects listed on the left side. The first description starting from the left side, which is fully met, determines the mark which is awarded for that aspect, giving a mark out of 10, which will be scaled to a value out of 5 to contribute towards the final course mark.

Aspect  2  1  0  Opportunity  Identification    

Opportunity clearly identified and aligned with  business objectives.    

Opportunity clearly identified, but not aligned with  business objectives   OR   Opportunity not clearly identified but business  objectives clearly explained  

Neither opportunity nor business objectives identified  and aligned.    

Solution  Requirements  Identified    

Overall requirements of a solution to the  opportunity outlined. These are clearly presented  to the audience in a format readily understood,  using models or other suitable formats to enable  easy comprehension.    

Overall requirements of a solution to the  opportunity outlined. Presentation of the  requirements does not allow these to be readily  comprehended.    

Overall requirements of a solution to the opportunity  not discussed.    

Measurement  and Evaluation    

  Measurement and Evaluation criteria for accepting a  “good” solution are clearly identified. These are  appropriate for the opportunity and can readily be  assessed.  

Measurement and Evaluation criteria for accepting a  “good” solution are not clearly identified.   OR   Measurement and Evaluation criteria for accepting a  “good” solution are clearly identified. These are either  not appropriate for the opportunity or cannot readily  be assessed.  

Design Options    

  Details of two proposed designed provided. These  are described clearly and meet the requirements of  the solution. Links between each design and the  organisation’s strategy are apparent. 

Details of two proposed designs not provided.   OR   Some details of two proposed designs are provided,  but the description does not provide the audience  with a clear understanding of what the designs involve  

Design  Recommendation  and Justification  

An optimal design is recommended and its  selection is justified.    

An optimal design is recommended, but its selection  is not justified.    

An optimal design is not recommended.    

Presentation  Quality    

The presentation exceeds the basic requirements of a  professional presentation. The presenter speaks clearly  and confidently, uses presentation aids effectively, is  appropriately attired and does not exceed the time  allocation.  

The presentation meets the basic requirements of a  professional presentation. Presentation aids are used,  attire is suitable, notes are used as an aid rather than  relied upon and the time allocation is met.  

The presentation is not delivered to a professional standard.  This could be due to any of: lack of presentation aids,  unsuitable attire, reading from notes rather than speaking to  audience, exceeding the allocated time.  

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Feedback Feedback on the report will be provided within two weeks of the due date, or the date of submitting your assignment (whichever is the later). Feedback will be in the form of a completed marking pro-forma made available in Moodle; there may also be remarks on your assignment submission itself. Marks will also be uploaded into fdlGrades.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the presentation of the expressed thought or work of another person as though it is your own without properly acknowledging that person. You must not allow other students to copy your work and must take care to safeguard against this happening. More information about the plagiarism policy and procedure for the university can be found at http://federation.edu.au/students/learning-and- study/online-help-with/plagiarism.

The work you submit and present must be the result of your own thinking and working.

Appendix – Some Possible Reputable News Media This is just a selection of some sources of news available in Australia – other options are possible.

Guardian Australia: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/all

Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s news website: https://www.abc.net.au/news/

SBS News: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/

The Age (Melbourne): https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/all

The Sydney Morning Herald: https://www.smh.com.au/

The Australian Financial Review: http://www.afr.com/

The Advertiser (Adelaide): https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/