is assignment 09 10

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MBA Master of Business Administration

INFORMATION SYSTEMS

ASSIGNMENT

OCTOBER 2009 - SEPTEMBER 2010



University of Strathclyde

Master of Business Admin istration

Information Systems

Academic Session 2009/ 10

Individual Assignment

Aim of the assignment

The aim of this assignment is to assess the information management challenges thatface business and the role that information technologies and systems may have inaddressing these challenges.

Learning outcomes

After completing this assignment you will have gained experience of:

• the issues raised in the exploitation and management of informationtechnologies and systems

• current technological opportunities and solutions for meeting business needs

Brief

Choose one of the two topics below and write an academic report answering thequestion posed by your chosen topic. You are required to analyse the business andinformation management issues posed by the topic and to provide a credible

argument for addressing the issues. You should illustrate your discussion withexamples taken from an operational context.

Topic 1

You have been appointed as part of a consultancy team that has been commissionedto assess the management issues concerned with the delivery of an online systemfor the submission of personal tax returns for a large European country. Theexpectation is that this system will collect and process returns for 50% of thepopulation within the first three years of operation and that this will represent taxesworth ~€93bn (£65bn, $132bn).

The system will be built and maintained by a private sector company withestablished expertise in the running of large-scale systems and the management of

data centres. The credit rating of the company is AA.The users of the system will be Government employees (who will have access to alldata relevant to their job) and citizens (who will only have access to their personaldata) using passwords generated by the Government but modifiable by the citizen.

The operational system will be run from a primary data centre located in a suburb onthe outskirts of the capital city. A secondary back-up data centre is located in anearby town approximately 25km from the capital.

Access to the system will be via a secure Government network (for Governmentemployees) and via the Internet (for citizens). Citizens can download tax returnsoftware from the Government’s web-site to complete their returns off-line.



Your client wishes you to assess the business continuity and security issues that willneed to be addressed by the supplier of the system in order to assess independentlythe supplier’s level of preparedness. Your specific role is to identify the ten key risks

to which the system will be exposed and to suggest the best technological orprocedural solution for mitigating each risk. You should also provide a justification forprioritising the individual risks.

Marking criteria

The following criteria will be used when marking your assignment:

1. Identification of the ten key risks, together with argumentation in

support of these. 45%

2. Recommended technological or procedural solution for each risk 45%

3. Structure, style and referencing 10%

Topic 2.

To what extent do you agree with Nicholas Carr’s proposition that the ubiquity andcommoditisation of information technologies has stripped them of the ability toconfer competitive advantage?

The assignment will be marked using the following criteria:

1. Demonstration of relevant knowledge/understanding of the topic withpertinent use of examples and argumentation. 45%

2. Evidence of independent research/further reading. Demonstration of

of reflective and original thought. 45%

3. Structure, style and referencing 10%

Format

The assignment is individual-based and should be between 3,000 and 4000 words(excluding title page, ToC and references). Any wordage in excess of 4000 will beignored for marking purposes. A statement of the word count must be placedimmediately following the main text.



Help with w riting assignments

Introduction

There are a number of standard questions you should ask yourself in order to giveyourself the greatest opportunity to produce an effective assignment:

• What am I being asked to do?

• What criteria are being used to assess me?

• What weighting is placed on the various elements of the assignment?

• How will I structure the assignment?

• What research will I have to do?

• Does this look and read like a professional piece of work?

• What source material did I use for the assignment?

• What deadlines have been set and what deadlines should I set myself?

Understanding the assignment

The first three questions will be answered by the marking criteria (see above). It isimportant that you understand the assignment brief and that you focus on what thelecturer has asked you to do (this may sound obvious but you would be surprisedhow often this simple piece of advice is overlooked!). If you have any doubts aboutthe assignment brief or have difficulty interpreting the requirements then raise themwith the lecturer who has set the assignment.

The aim is to set assignments that allow you to demonstrate your understanding of the topics covered in the course and we want you to have the best opportunity torecord results which truly reflect your capabilities. However, you will not get creditfor material which is not related to the topic so ensure that your assignment isfocused on what has been requested.

Your assignment will be marked according to a number of criteria, each of which willcarry a percentage of the total marks attributed to the assignment. These aredesigned to help you decide on the balance of material which should be contained inyour assignment. Again it is important that you understand the criteria that arebeing used and the weight that is placed on them: clearly there is little point inconcentrating your assignment on one criterion which only carries 15% of the marksand giving only superficial treatment to one that carries 50% of the marks.

Structuring your assignment

It is always a good idea to work out a structure for your assignment in advance, and

to decide what parts of your explanations and arguments are going into each section,before filling in the detail. It is helpful both to you and to the reader for longerassignments if you provide headings for each of the main sections.

For any assignment the lecturer would expect to see an introductory section, inwhich you describe the scope of the assignment, and a final section in which yousummarise your conclusions. Between these two points, your ideas, and anyinformation, should be presented in a logical order. Bibliographies and/or lists of references should be given at the end of the assignment (see below for instructionson assignments ). You should also incorporate page numbers. For a report, youwould normally number the sections and sub-sections and provide a table of contents with associated page numbers.



Researching your assignment

You will normally use a representative selection of readings to provide sometheoretical background, supporting evidence and possibly counter-examples. Youshould not rely on the lecture notes and will get credit for independent research (i.e.the identification of relevant source materials which have not been provided in classor in reading lists by the lecturer. Typically you will use the library and searchengines top identify these materials but do not forget the power of asking otherpeople!

Writing your assignment

You should follow English grammar and usage, and it is always worthwhile double-checking your spelling (use the spellchecker on your word processor if you haveone). Note, however, that a spellchecker will not highlight where you have used thewrong word (e.g. from vs. form; their vs. there) and you should also proof-read yourassignments before handing them to capture any legitimate words which have been

used in the wrong context.Do not use a style which is too informal and chatty. This is a postgraduate courseand you are expected to write in a professional style. Always use the expanded formof an acronym before employing the shorthand version using the followingconvention "…….will find that Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL) provide ahigher throughput….".

As an academic work, an assignment or dissertation should give the reader theopportunity to make up his or her own mind that what is being said is true. Do not,therefore, simply make assertions and generalisations of fact, unless that fact issomething about which there can be no doubt and which the reader can be expectedto know. For example, it is unlikely that anyone will argue if you assert thatinformation technology is having a major impact on organisations and society. If,

however, you state that the introduction of IT has led to the loss of 25,000 jobs inthe Canadian insurance industry, you must cite the evidence which supports thatclaim.

You may not always know what can be taken as common knowledge, especially if thesubject is new to you. In that case, it will be a good idea to err on the side of caution- if in doubt, cite your source!

Citing references

As a general guideline:

• if you draw on someone else’s opinion, facts, or generalisations, you mustmake some reference to that writer;

• if you use his or her words directly, use quotation marks.

Give references for:

• assertions of fact that cannot be presumed to be common knowledge;

• direct quotations or paraphrases of other writers;

• opinions and generalisations derived directly from other writers;

• tables and diagrams (for which you should give the source underneath thetable or diagram).

We will look for good standards of accuracy in citing references. A key guideline is:could the reader identify and locate the reference uniquely and quickly? It is



therefore a good discipline to record citation details as you use them. In general thismeans that you should provide the following key elements (which you might imagineas fields in a database record):

• the author or organisation responsible for the writing the work

• the date when it was published (if a book, report or journal article); or thelast time it was accessed (if a web page).

• the title of the work

• where the work was published and who published it (if a book or report); orthe journal where it appeared (if an article); or the web address (i.e. URL)where it appeared (if located on the web).

• the pages(s) cited (of a book or report); or the start and end pages (if anarticle).

Fuller details are given below of how to cite particular types of work. References in

the text should be made using the Harvard system giving the author’s surname anddate of publication in brackets, e.g.:

As Flint has pointed out, the call for the free flow of information has comepredominantly from … (Flint, 1998, p.46).

A single list of references, plus other works consulted, in alphabetical order bysurname should be provided at the end of the assignment. If you list more than onework by the same author with the same publication date, use lower case a, b, etc.,to distinguish them, e.g. (Flint, 1998b).

The important thing is to be consistent throughout the assignment by following thecitation style detailed here. We can only provide samples of the most commonreference types here. If you need to cite a more exotic source then you will find a

useful guide at Leeds Metropolitan University Library 1. If you are citing a reference(e.g. to a journal article) found on an online database, cite it as you would any other journal article, etc. You do not need to cite the database in which you found thereference.

Citing a monograph (i.e. book):

Author(s) or editor(s). Date of publication. Title: subtitle. Edition (if not the first).Place of publication: Publisher.

Example:

Lowe, C. (1999) Systems and people: an anthropological approach. 2nd ed. London:Paradigm.

Citing a journal article:

Author(s). Date of publication. Title of article. Title of journal. Volume number (partnumber), Page number(s).

Example:

Herberts, I., Dryden, H. and Clark, J. (2000) Managing the introduction of newtechnology. Journal of Informatics. 13 (4), pp253-255.

Citing a conference paper:

1 See http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/lskills/open/sfl/content/harvard/intro/01.htm Last accessed 29/9/2007



Author(s). Date of publication. Title of paper. In: Editor(s). Title of conferenceproceedings. Place of publication: Publisher, Page number(s).

Example:

Urtin, D.J. (2000) The information professions in the new century. In: Hapling, A.(ed.) The new information professionals: proceedings of the European Conference of Librarians and Information Scientists, Brussels 4-6 September, 1998. Aldershot:Gower, pp65-72.

Citing a chapter in a book:

Author(s). Date of publication. Title of chapter. In: Editor(s). Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher, Page number(s).

Example:

Rumpole, E. (1997) Managerial expert systems and organizational change. In:Withers, R.J. and Patroch, R.A. (eds). Change management: a reader. Chichester:

Wiley, pp140-156.

Citing an unpublished thesis or dissertation:

Author. Date. Title of dissertation. Type of dissertation, Awarding institution,

Example:

Brown, S. (1994) The impact of information technology on management functionsand structures. Unpublished MSc dissertation, University of Strathclyde.

Citing a letter or other private correspondence:

Author. Date of correspondence. Type of correspondence.

Example:

Gibb, F. (23 November, 2001) Private correspondence.

Citing an item read on an electronic mail discussion list:

Author. Date of correspondence. Subject line. Name of discussion list. Availabilityonline: URL of archive, or address of list.

Example:

Walon, B. (12 November 2001) Re: Spam question. Internet sales discussion list.Available from: http://www.mmgco.com/isales.html .

Citing an item of personal mail:

Author. Date of correspondence. Subject line [e-mail to recipient’s name].

Example:

Wakeford, R. (12 July 2002) Standards of service in the library.

Citing a complete work found in an electronic source (e.g. a report on the Internet,

or a full-text market report found on Dialog):

Author. Date of publication (if given). Title. Edition (if not first). Place: Publisher.Availability online. Date last accessed.

Example:



Webber, S. (1998) Business sources on the internet. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Available from: http://www.dis.strath.ac.uk/business/. Accessed 8August 2000.

Citing an electronic journal article:

Author. Date of publication. Title of article title. Title of journal title. Volume (issue -if given), Pages (if given). Availability online. Date last accessed.

Example:

Nimitz, E.L. (2001) The surveillance corporation. Privacy Monitor 3(4). p4-12.Available from: http://www.infocast.com/PrivacyMonitor/34Nimitz.htm. Accessed 14September 2004

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