Assignment & Workshop Guide

1410/7610ICT –INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION

SYSTEMS
School of Information & Communication Technology
Semester 1, 2011

3-person Group Assignment (30%)

Draft Assignment Due in Workshops Week 5
Final Assignment Due: Friday Week 10, 11.55PM

A New Information System for Pizza Shop Stakeholders

Description
In this assignment you will work together with other students from your tutorial group as a team of three.
You are required to play the role of business analysts working on an information system solution for a
pizza shop. You work for an IT consultancy firm.
The Brief from the Pizza Shop (or the Assignment Question)
The pizza shop would like you to come up with a recommendation as to how it can better make use of
new Information Systems in order to improve the experience of its both its offline (in-store) and on-line
(web-based) customers.
Work Organisation
You will work together as a team and submit (i) a joint report for the assignment. Your report will also
include (ii) a half- page reflection on what work was conducted, who did what and how the co-operation
worked out.
Deliverables & Marking Criteria
Your 2500 word report, plus 100 word reflection will demonstrate that you have
 shown competence in finding, reading, analysing and synthesising materials from the course text
and applied this material in the writing of your report
 made use of the concepts, theories, models and ideas introduced in the course (and textbook) to
understand and analyse the case to make well-founded recommendations
 researched and understood the strategic and operational context of the customer experience at the
Pizza shop
 shown creativity and initiative in understanding and capturing the Pizza shop customer
experiences (for example by visiting a store yourself and documenting your in-store experience,
by interviewing your friends and family who place orders at pizza shops, by logging onto the
website and pretending to be a customer etc.) and identified key areas for improvement of the in-
store experience by examining features of the online experience
 researched and understood available web applications for online shopping
 identified, based on the afore-mentioned parts, a new information system that you will
recommend to your nominated business together with a brief discussion of its implications for the
firm
 described the expected impact of the new information system on the firm’s performance and
various stakeholders
 used analogies, where information was not available, to make logical and relevant assumptions
 worked effectively as a team as evidenced in the reflection on your 100 word report of your work

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Overall you will therefore need to evaluate your pizza shop’s customer experiences both offline and
online and make recommendations based on this analysis. Your reports will include:
 (0%) A draft report of work-in-progress including section headings, work schedule, names of
team members, and work completed-to-date. This hard-copy report is due in week 5 and must be
shown to your tutor in the workshop to obtain feedback.
 (5%) Identify from your case an ICT system, key stakeholders, various information systems, an
activity system, and the organisation. (5%)
 (5%) Find information about the Pizza shop and locate relevant information about its strategy and
operations.
 (5%) Describe and draw a rich picture and an activity system for your case.
 (5%) Model a system within the pizza shop or online business using the symbols from Figure 4.1.
 (5%) Describe the dimensions of impact of your proposed new information system within the
pizza shop for all stakeholders. Describe measures of efficiency, efficacy, and effectiveness for
the proposed new system.
 (5%) Using Cash’s taxonomy, map and justify your proposed new system as either factory,
support, turnaround or strategic.
 (Total 30%) A report with recommendations for improvement based on the aforementioned
discussion and the literature at large

During the workshops, on a week-by-week basis, your tutor will be making links between the course
material and various cases and giving you more guidance on the assignment to help you deliver the
above. Workshop attendance is therefore essential, and the guidance given will not be posted on
learning@griffith.
Please refer to your tutor for further clarification or questions. The course team are also available during
consultation times by appointment.

Suggested Tutorial Format – Weeks 2-13

WEEK 1 – Getting started (chapter 1)
 No workshops in week 1. Read the Goronwy case study.

WEEK 2 – Getting started (chapter 1)

 Introductions and discussion about your tutor’s expectations of 1st year students. (5 minutes)
 15 minutes - work through the Chapter Case (Goronwy Galvanising) - activity to emphasise key
concepts and ideas introduced in the lecture
 30 Minutes - Group Allocation and discussion of this assignment sheet - reading it and
understanding it. Q&A.
 Tutorial Task --> Set up a group. Identify from your case an ICT system, various information
systems, an activity system, the key stakeholders, and the organisation. (5%)

WEEK 3 – The Business Environment of the Pizza Shop (chapter 7)

Mini Quiz #1

 A description of the Pizza Shop's case especially its strategic and operational context relevant for
the customer experience

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 Tutorial Task --> Find more information about the Pizza shop and locate relevant information
about its strategy and operations (Identify the key economic actors (see Fig 7.2); identify the
actors and their relationships in a market (see Fig 7.3); describe the major transactions
between buyers and sellers (see fig 7.4); describe the Pizza shop in a value chain (see Figure
7.5) (5%).

WEEK 4 – Organisations & Systems (chapter 2)

 Tutorial Task --> Describe and draw a rich picture and an activity system for your case (see
figures 2.6 and 2.7) (5%).

WEEK 5 – Data, information & knowledge (chapter 3)

 Tutorial Task --> Draft Assignment due (0%). Print a hard copy and show it to your tutor in
the workshop.
 Tutorial Task -- > Describe the types of knowledge that the information systems and pizza shop
employees use in their day-to-day work?

WEEK 6 – Information Systems & modelling (chapter 4)

Mini Quiz #2

 Tutorial Task -- > Model the new information system within the pizza shop and/or online
business using the symbols from Figure 4.1 (5%).

WEEK 7 – Assessing the Use and Impact of Information Systems (chapter 9)

 Tutorial Task -- > Describe the dimensions of impact of your proposed new information system
within the pizza shop for all stakeholders. Describe measures of efficiency, efficacy, and
effectiveness for the proposed new system. (5%)

WEEK 8 – Planning, Strategy & Management of the New IS (chapter 10)

 Tutorial Task --> Using Cash’s taxonomy (Figure 10.2) map and justify your proposed new
information system as either: factory, support, turnaround or strategic (5%).

WEEK 9

 Public holiday Monday May 2. Revision & working on the assignment.

WEEK 10 -- Services, Project and Operations (chapter 11)

Assignment due Friday 5PM, Week 10

 Tutorial Task --> Synthesising the outcome of all previous tasks into a report containing a
series of recommendations to the Pizza Shop’s top management (30%).

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WEEK 11 -- Development (chapter 12)

 Tutorial Task --> Decide on an approach to the acquisition of the new information system:
liner/iterative, bespoke/package.

WEEK 12 – Successful Informatics Practice (chapter 13)

 15 minutes - work through the Case LASCAD to emphasise key concepts and ideas introduced in
the lecture
 Tutorial Task --> Using Mintzberg’s classification of organisational types, what type of system
failure can be predicted?

WEEK 13 -- Course Review and Exam Preparation

 Review of Course.
 Return of Assignments.

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