IT

Marking Criteria (Word count 1500 words +/- 10%)

Student Name STID

| Page numbering | Use of Styles |Automatic Table of Contents | Paragraph Spacing |Overall look and feel |Tables/Figures

3

For all formatting I will send you the file I will complete during lectures in week 10.

Executive Summary and Introduction

2

WE WILL USE USC’S STANDARD INTRODUCTION BUT THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY WILL CONTAIN THREE SECTIONS IN DISTINCTIVE PARAGRAPHS:

Purpose

Key findings per section

Recommendations

The last in bullet point starting with an infinitive (ie To increase or to eat bananas)

Identify and discuss the tools corporations use to analyse and understand the competitive environment in which they operate.

3

The tool to analyse and understand the competitive environment is Porter’s 5 forces. There are other tools such as strategic group mapping, but the “5 forces tool” is what we are after. Students can introduce these tools as belonging to the analysis of the external task environment made of General and task or macro/ micro, but extending into other areas should be identified as a misuse of words.

I think that students should include Porter, M.E., 1979. How competitive forces shape strategy, Possibly in Harvard Business review … or a later version

Analyse the role of strategic alignment between goals and objectives and the technology that facilitates the achievement of these objectives. How could alignment be improved?

4

The book has enough on this topic and provides a bulleted point list of the main things that can be done. There is a question “the goal of IT-business alignment” and then another question “How can IT-business alignment be improved”

It would be good if they use the Balanced Score card for a better mark … explaining the impact of using leading indicators to better align to strategy as opposed to Lagging indicators (Chapter 12)

some references may include

Luftman, J., 2003. Assessing IT/business alignment. Information Systems Management, 20(4), pp.9-15.

Van Grembergen, W., 2000, May. The balanced scorecard and IT governance. In IRMA Conference (pp. 1123-1124).

Discuss the benefits of data management.

3

Benefits of data management should be based on chapters 2 and 3. Data management with the objective of obtaining business intelligence … data warehouses and data marts … data mining

Discuss why it is important for organisations to adopt web2 and web3 technologies.

3

This section is about the road from the static web that was unidirectional were web creators created content (web 1.0) to the social web (Web 2.0) where content is multi-created and it is bidirectional then the Web 3.0 is about finding a new way to seek meaning using the semantic web. Companies must become Omnipresent.

Discuss the threats organisations face due to this complex and dynamic technological environment

3

Students can choose any threat they want and focus on that or maybe a selected group of threats. Threats such as security issues … why this and not that; the arrival of Artificial Intelligence and how the world may change as a result of that (If you have not heard about it watch a youtube video about Hommo Deus .. this may sound a bit nutty but I am sometimes), ethical issues that challenge the very essence of the human as we know it …

Conclusion and Recommendations

2

Recommendation that are action driven and maybe 3 to 5 recommendations … I like them I bullet point but in this section it could be optional.

Writing Quality and References (at least 6 peer reviewed references plus the book)

4

6 references are the basic number of refs for an average mark- 65%- (we accept sources coming from the main research centres from IBM, google, Intel … and of course Gartner available from USC business databases).

Each section can be answered straight from the book and that would be a 2.5 but to obtain a decent mark a student should research the appropriate literature. No mark above 75% without significant research 12 or more.

Referencing software (MS Word – built-in)

3

They have to leave the field for all sources and the List of References visible/clickable. Let all Mac users know that they would probably be better off if they double check their report functionality and submit from a PC

TOTAL

30