INF80025 Business Information Systems Analysis
Assessment Task 1: Business Problem Identification
Important details
Due date: Sunday 13th Sep 2020 @ 23:59 pm AEST.
This task is worth 30% of your final mark. It is to be done individually. Your report should be between 2000 - 2500 words.
Introduction
The aim of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of business analysis and the nature of business problems in an organisational context.
The learning outcomes covered by this task include:
1 Critically evaluate the nature and characteristics of business information systems problems and their organisational contexts
2 Demonstrate coherent and advanced knowledge of the major, contemporary
organisational problem solving methodologies, and their applications to business analysis and business information system analysis.
The task
You are required to act as the business analyst working for the organisation in the case study. You have been asked to do the following:
1. Identify all key problems (for each problem identified, you are required to provide a brief explanation).
2. Prioritise all key problems and pick up 2 problems which you consider to be most problematic and discuss in detail why the problems need to be addressed and how they should be treated and why? For discussing the treatment for the problem, you are required to apply Russel Ackoff’s (2011) framework ‘The 4 Different Ways of Solving a Problem’ (click on the following link: http://www.human-current.com/blog/2016/1/22/dr-russell-ackoff-design-is-the-answer)
3. Designate whether the key problems you have identified (in task 1) are hard or soft system problems. You need to explain why you have made your decision.
4. Identify key stakeholders and problem owners.
5. List possible models, tools and techniques that can be used to analyse the current system. Critique each of these models, tools and technique in addressing the problems in the case study. (Note: the emphasis is on critiquing the methods and not to give examples of the methods). As part of this section, consider both object oriented and structured approaches as covered in previous units (e.g. Requirement Analysis Modelling INF60010). For those who are a bit rusty (or have not studied these techniques in detail), here are some resources to look at: structured approaches: https://www.visual-paradigm.com/tutorials/data-flow-diagram-dfd.jsp ;
comparison between object oriented and structured approaches: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/object_oriented_analysis_design/index.htm , object oriented approaches: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/object_oriented_analysis_design/ooad_object_oriente d_analysis.htm )
6. Draw a Rich picture bringing all the components identified together as in 1 – 4.
7. Using Blum’s paper evaluate and place SSM on the Matrix of method categories (figure 2). You need to carefully outline why you have placed SSM in a specific quadrant. (Blum, BI 1994, ‘A Taxonomy of Software Development Methods’, Communications of the ACM, vol. 37, no. 11, pp. 82-94)
8. For any assumptions you have made in effectively completing the above tasks, please provide details in the appendix. This has been discussed in the note on using the case study.
Assessment
The report will be assessed on the following criteria:
Criteria
Weighting Details
Analyse and identify the problems 15% How completely were the problems identified? Have the problems been appropriately described to capture the essence? Have the 4 ways of treating problems been linked to the key problems identified? Have relevant and appropriate assumptions been made while identifying problems?
Hard and Soft system problems 20% Have the problems been accurately classified as hard or soft systems problems? Is the argument provided for the
classification appropriate? Have relevant and appropriate assumptions been made while classifying problems?
Key Stakeholders 10% Have the key stakeholders for the case study been identified and clearly discussed? Have relevant and appropriate assumptions been made while conducting stakeholder analysis?
Models tools and techniques 15% Have the appropriate models tools and techniques for analysis been identified? How appropriate are the descriptions of object oriented and structured
approaches that have been included and discussed?
Rich Picture 20% How effectively does the rich picture capture the issues in the case study? Have relevant and appropriate assumptions been made while drawing the rich picture?
SSM evaluation 10% Have SSM been accurately placed on the Matrix of Methods which were discussed by Blum (1994)? How well was the placement argued?
Academic Writing & Structure of a report 10% Does the submission follow the standard structure of a report? Does the report use plain English to make the text and content easier to read and understand? Has the report been spell-checked and proofread? Has the report met academic writing standards? All sources referenced correctly and listed appropriately, both in the body of the
report and reference section? (reference, not bibliography)
Submission
The report should be submitted to TurnItin via the appropriate link in Canvas. Note that Canvas and TurnItIn sometimes have outages beyond our control, so it is wise not to leave submission to the last minute – you can overwrite previous submissions.
Academic honesty
The work submitted is to be the work of the individual only, and references must be made to the work of others. Students are referred to the Unit Outline for more details.