MBIS602: Group Project (2024)C/C++

Java Python MBIS602: Group Project (2024)

(Worth 30% of the final course grade)

Introduction

The MBIS602 group project intends to allow students to bring together many of the procedures and techniques they have learned about the IS development process in a single coherent project. Obviously, in the short amount of time available for MBIS602, no student can hope to complete the entire systems development life cycle, from planning to implementation, for any system with a decent scope. For that reason, and to mirror real-world IS development practices more closely, students will work in groups. Even in a group, however, students will not have time to complete all activities in the life cycle. Therefore, the project's primary focus is on the analysis and design of an information system.

Project Scope

The objectives of the IS development group project are:

1) To understand and analyse the case;

2) To establish the scope of a proposed solution;

3) To develop a logical design of the proposed solution,

4) To develop a prototype; and

5) provide a system acquisition recommendation if any.

The Case Study: The Lawn Care Specialist (LCS)

The project's principal resource material is documented as the case study: "The Lawn Care Specialist"(LCS).  The case study presents the background and current situation of a small business, LCS. Each group assumes the role of a "System analyst/ system development team" that will assist with the development and acquisition of a new system to meet the organisation's needs. Your audience (client) will be the business owner/management team. Since LCS is quite a small business and does not have IT support, the business owner, Ryan Wright may ask a friend who knows all about IT to help him evaluate the option(s) you will present to your client.

Your team has been assigned to investigate the business requirements and design the required information system. The aim should be to analyse and design a suitable system solution for the IS problem given in the case. You are therefore  expected  to  identify  the  IS  problem/opportunity,  analyse  the  situation,  identify  alternatives,  and recommend an appropriate IS solution. Your solution is for the "real" end-user(s) - the solution must be a reusable one - not a one-off solution. You are free to choose the approach/methodology ofthe investigation. Team members are strongly advised to meet and discuss the objectives, tasks, methods and role of each member, and to prepare an "action plan" well before starting their investigations of the case study. You may seek advice on the case and the project/assignment from your tutor and/or course supervisor/lecturer.

Group Work and General Targets:

The project is a group effort where effective teamwork will be essential to successful completion. The project will be completed in milestone stages with specific requirements for the end of each stage (see below). The project is worth 30% of the overall course grade and should receive a commensurate level of effort.

The project is to be undertaken by teams of four to five people. The team members will be formed at the beginning of the course. The team members of the respective project groups are required to meet and designate a contact person. The groups must then register with the course supervisor by 25 July 2024.

All members of the team are responsible for the successful completion of the project. Each member of the team is expected to contribute equally to this project, as normally everyone will receive the same grade for the final report. Should individual contributions not be evaluated by the project group as reasonably equal and follow some other pattern (e.g. Harrison  10%, Lennon 45%, McCartney 25%, Starr 20%), this should be signalled to the course supervisor as early as possible. For more details, see Group Organisation and Peer Evaluation of Contribution; see also ACIS course policies (available on LEARN) for information regarding group projects, aegrotat applications involving group work etc.

You are free to organise and run your groups in any way you like, subject to specific guidelines in this document (and ACIS course policies). However, project teams are expected to draft a project plan that sets target dates, identifies key deliverables, and allocates project tasks equitably among the group members. Members should plan to meet regularly to review progress and examine each other's contributions to ensure the quality of the submission and successful completion of the project.

IMPORTANT: Project groups are to work as independent teams; therefore, no two groups are expected to produce identical (or closely similar) outputs/solutions.

Project Milestones and Standards

Each of the submissions in Table 1 (below) is an absolute requirement. It is absolutely necessary that groups plan their time to ensure that milestones are met. Table 1 lists key submissions and milestones for the project. Subsequent sections of this document details the requirements for each milestone.

Table 1: Project Milestones and Important Dates

Milestone(s)       Event                                                                                                                  Marks (%)

(1)             Problem Statement & Analysis of Scope (11:59 pm,   18 Aug)                                  15%

(2)             Logical Design                   ( 11:59 pm, 22 Sep)                                                     15%

(3)             Final Report(including prototype)*/**                                                                    60%

(4)             Project Notebook (Submission is compulsory) **                                                     10%

* Group Presentations will be scheduled for week 12 (13 Oct 2024)

**Final Reports and Individual “Project Notebook “must be submitted no later than 11:59pm 20 Oct 2024

Individual Project Note Book (Submission is COMPULSORY):

Each team member is required to maintain a project notebook. All activities related to the project, with dates and times, and notes on group meetings, actions taken, problems encountered and contributions/activities of individual members are to be regularly and properly recorded in this notebook by each group member. The completed project notebooks of all team members must be submitted along with the final project report. Submission of the completed project notebook is COMPULSORY, and it becomes a part of the final assessment (i.e. 10% of the final mark) of the group project. Since this is also an individual assessment, the final mark assigned to each individual for the group project may vary.

Warning: Copying the notes from another person’s project notebook is considered cheating and plagiarism, and is therefore not acceptable. See ACIS course policies for further information (available on LEARN).

Milestone 1: Business Case - Problem/Opportunity Statement and Analysis of Scope (15%)

The case provides a wish list of functions and features for a proposed IS. Including absolutely everything in one system may take too long or be too expensive for the client. Carefully analyse all of the function descriptions listed in the  case  and  determine which  functions  work best  together and which  ones  could most  easily  and  most economically be combined into a single system, and which ones (if any) should be excluded. From your analysis, you will prepare key parts of a business case and scope statement for this project. Your analysis will

(1) identify the business problems or opportunities that this system would address (i.e. the reason for the project);

(2) list the key business benefits of the new system; and

(3) include a definition of the system scope, and list all the main functions that will be in the system. For each function, list all of the requirements that pertain to it, prioritise them (e.g. low, medium, high) and justify those

priorities. Be sure to note project constraints (if any). Your deliverables for this milestone are

a brief overview of the organisation/project context,   the statement of the business problem (or opportunity), a list of key business benefits,

a list of prioritised requirements, accompanying justifications

an outline of project constraints if any.

Milestone 2: Logical Design Description (15%)

The case provides a lot of information about the desired system that is its focus. Your job is to turn all of that information into a single logical system design. You are to describe the new logical system, not how things are done now. The deliverable you produce will be composed of the following elements:

1) This set of diagrams aims to represent the overall process flow of the new logical system. The minimum requirements are a Context diagram, a narrative description of the project and and Level-0 Data Flow diagram. This may be done with MS Visio (or other drawing tools). If preferred, use case diagrams and written use cases.

2) An entity-relationship diagram that identifies the major business entities, their associations/relationships, attributes, identifiers, multiplicity/cardinality (minimum and maximum), generalisation/inheritance, where appropriate, etc. This should be done using MS Visio (or other drawing tools).

Milestone 3: Prototype, Final Report and Presentation(60%) + Project Notebook (10%)

Now that you have selected a design target for development, you will be working on a prototype to show the client the key functionality of your proposed solution. This will include prototypes of major input forms/screens, related menus and output forms/reports/screens – this should be enough to demonstrate how the system is likely to work. You may render this prototype any way you want (e.g. using HTML, Visual Basic, SketchFlow, or some wireframe UI design tools), depending on what is available to your group in terms of talent and resources.

Note: The main focus here is on the visual representation of your proposed solution. You do NOT need to have a working solution.

Group Presentations

In this project, you will organise a meeting with Ryan Wright, the business owner of The Lawn Care Specialist during which you will present a prototype of your suggested system and recommendations. The new system will be a major undertaking for LCS so Ryan is likely to invite others along to help him with the more technical parts of the presentation/ recommendations. Your team should, therefore, be prepared to address both business and technical questions.

Group presentations will be scheduled on a first come first serve basis. The presentation should include a brief introduction to and summary of your arguments for why you selected this particular design target, as well as a quick overview of the logical design of your system. You should then demonstrate your prototype. As part of this assessment, please submit the PPTs used for your presentation.

Organisation,  clarity,  project  coverage,  and  professionalism  will  be  evaluated.  Presentations   should  be ABSOLUTELY no more than 10 minutes. You will be penalised for going over this time limit. You should also allow some time for questions from the audience. We will let you know when you have only a minute or two left so you can wrap up your presentation.

Your presentations will be evaluated on content and the effectiveness with which you convey the work you have done on the project. Each member of the group is required to make some part of the presentation.

Project Report.

The project report should not exceed 15 pages (word-processed, 1.5 line-spacing with 12-point font) altogether. The cover page, contents page, appendices, and list of any references used are counted as separate.

Your project report should include the following:

(a)     Introduction and Analysis of Scope (from Milestone #1, updated):

This comprises a brief overview of the organisation/project context, the statement of the business problem (or opportunity), a list of key business benefits, a list of prioritised requirements, and project constraints (if any).

(b)     Project Schedule

A detailed list of project tasks (including a work breakdown structure – WBS) along with a project schedule. Your schedule must include a resource allocation plan (i.e. who is doing what). This should show what each team member is contributing to the project (e.g. Analysis of Requirements – Lesley, John, Jordan). You may also need to hire in/assign resources outside your core team of 4-5 members; these should also be shown on your project schedule (e.g. Programmer#1, Systems Analyst#1, Systems Analyst#2 etc). The schedule should be presented using a Gantt chart format. Don't worry – since you do not have much experience yet; different groups are likely to have widely varying schedules.

(c)    Logical Design Description (from Milestone #2, updated)

For this requirement, the final documentation will include an up-to-date description of the new logical system (you may, therefore, need to update the earlier drafts). As with Milestone 2, this will include the following elements:

The context diagram and accompanying narrative description

-    A description of the process flow of the new logical system e represented using a Context diagram and Level-0 DFD (or equivalent). Assessment of this section will take into account whether the "major" functions and supporting processes are included, and consistent with the prototype solution.

-    A conceptual data model (i.e. class diagram or ER model) that documents the final system solution – Assessment   of   the   model   will   take   into   account   whether   the   major   classes/entities,   their associations/relationships, their attributes, their identifiers, and multiplicity/cardinality (minimum and maximum), etc (where appropriate), etc. are included, and consistency with the prototype solution.

(d)    Recommendation of a solution (~1 page)

In closing, the report should provide a project recommendation to the business owner/ management. This should include a summary of what functionality should be included (no more than 1 paragraph) and recommend an acquisition approach (e.g. build, buy, or a combination).

Given what you know and have learnt about the organisation, your recommendation should be as specific as possible e.g. it should include an estimated cost of your proposed solution, and briefly outline any key pros and cons (e.g. feasibility assessments) that should be considered when making the final decision on system acquisition. Altogether your recommendation must be reasonable and be well thought out.

(e)      The List of references:

Besides the project documents and consulting with your tutor/lecturer, etc. teams are encouraged to go beyond the case itself and do additional research to better understand the organisation type, the business environment that the organisation operates in, and the business problem. The final page of your report should contain a list of references used in your project.

(f)      Prototype (Screen Shots):

For this requirement, the project report will include screenshots of your major input screens/menus/reports/ output screen etc - there should be enough to demonstrate the way in which the system is likely to work. There is, therefore, no need to include shots of all screens (in most cases, around 10-15 screenshots should suffice). Screenshots can be copy/pasted into Word and submitted as an Appendix to your Final Report (this is not counted in the page limit).

** IMPORTANT ** For the presentation you are expected to present your actual prototype (not these screenshots)

Individual Project Notebook (prepared and submitted by Individual Group Members):

As previously outlined, your individual project notebook contains a detailed record of activities related to the project as observed by you as an individual group member. This should be a collection of regularly and properly recorded hand-written (or typed) notes, with dates and times, including notes on your and the other members' contributions/ activities etc. These notes should also include the details of issues/problems encountered by you or other members of the group and how you and/or the group have attempted to resolve them.

Toward the end of the project, you should also: (i) identify and comment on what you have learned from this assignment that is particularly relevant to MBIS602 course; and (ii) comment on your weaknesses (e.g. things that went wrong or were particularly difficult) and how they can be improved, if you were to take up any future projects of this nature. These comments should also be included in your Project Notebook.

The Project notebook is worth 10% of the final mark. Reminder: this is an individual assessment.

Group Organization and Peer Evaluations of Contribution

Although you are free to organise and run your groups in any way you like subject to specific guidelines and ACIS course policies, at the conclusion of the project, as a group you will evaluate and note the contribution of all the members of the project group. When evaluating the contribution of a group member to the project, three factors should be considered:

1.  Quality of work done by the student.

2.  Level of effort.

3.  Participation in group meetings.

Further, there are also two rules in effect when evaluating the contributions of group members to the project:

1.   Project groups may not turn in a low assessment of contribution (below 20% for groups of 5 persons or 25% for groups of 4 persons) for a group member unless the course lecturer/supervisor has been notified that the target of the poor evaluation has not been pulling his/her weight. This should be done no later than the completion of Milestone 1. This requirement corresponds to the requirement most organisations have that an individual must be counselled if their performance could lead to dismissal.

2.   Each member of the group must be allowed to play a significant part in the development and implementation of the project. If an individual feels that he/she is being shut out by the group, the individual must notify the course lecturer/supervisor early (the earlier, the better). This requirement does not mean that each group member must be involved in every aspect of the project, but it is meant to prevent one or two individuals from monopolising the project and others receiving poor evaluations (i.e. % of contribution to the project) later.

General Standards and Considerations

Note that specific guidelines, requirements or prohibitions are scattered throughout these instructions. You need to read them carefully and ensure that your activities follow these guidelines. The following points also apply.

1.   All text-based work must be typed. Graphics can be computer-generated (it looks nicer!) but we will also accept pencil-and-paper drawings.

2.   A completed standard cover sheet for group assignment submissions must be included with each milestone submission, as well as the final report. The cover sheet must be signed by ALL team members.

3.   Your work must be business-like in appearance and style. This is crucial for the presentations and final report.

4.   It is likely that at least one group will encounter personality problems or other disruptions to the group process. It is essential that affected members see us early.

5.   Remember – your course lecturers/course supervisor and tutor are available for help, so ...

.... If you have a question, ask.

Finally, this is not a trivial project. It is absolutely essential that you begin work soon after receiving these instructions. Plan ahead. In particular, you should not wait to start one phase of the project until the previous phase is submitted. You will probably want some group members to begin working on gathering the information necessary to formulate alternative solutions, while others work on the system's logical design. Make use of your group's capabilities by developing concepts as a group but sharing the detail work.

Earning a high score (or low score)

A key consideration in the grading of this project lies in the consistency and completeness of your solution. Although the assessment will bear in mind that not all the relevant business sub-processes will be addressed at a very detailed level, this does not preclude consideration of these processes, and the presentation of a solution that is fairly comprehensive in meeting the needs of the organisation and making justifiable tradeoffs (if needed). Hence, a more complete solution is likely to earn a higher grade.

Finally, although it is expected that you will include updated content from the earlier milestones in the final submission, simply attaching these earlier submissions to your final submission, will not earn a high score. Your report must be professionally presented and appropriate to your audience, that is, the company management and other key stakeholders and decision-makers involved in this project.

A high grade will also be earned for submissions that demonstrate:

  thoughtful and penetrating analysis based on course material and additional data;

  evidence of original research and/or fresh insight;

  extra effort being undertaken, such as fieldwork, references etc.;

  good use of diagrams, charts, and the prototype in documenting and presenting the proposed solution;

  good use of referenced material;

  good structure and good 'readability' (i.e. clear and concise expression);

  minimal spelling and grammatical errors;

  usability and good design of the proposed solution (as captured by the prototype)

  compliance with the required length, structure and format (for the report and presentation).

REMINDER: This assignment is governed by the general ACIS Course policies (available on LEARN) regarding special consideration, plagiarism, late submissions, and group work