School of Computing and Management Sciences
BSc Routes
Module 12-5206-01L
e-Business
Assessment
Aims
|
·
To
understand e-Business, its categories and their applications. ·
To
appreciate the benefits and limitations of e-Business ·
To
appreciate the factors that impact on success and failure of e-Business ·
To
apprehend and to be able to implement the architecture of infrastructure for
conducting e-Business ·
To
assess the requirements for securing e-Business and ensuring privacy of users |
|
|
|
Objectives
|
·
To
develop e-Business strategies. ·
To
justify the strategies economically, socially and ethically. ·
To
model the architecture of e-Business and to prototype an aspect of the
architecture. ·
To
develop strategies for securing the e-Business infrastructure and protecting
privacy of customers. |
|
|
|
Outcomes
|
·
A report that describes a proposal for an online business case.
·
An Intranet that demonstrates the use and
management of information intelligently to leverage tangible benefit |
Method of Working
You are to organise
yourselves in groups of 3. One member of the group has to notify
"Mo Rezai" by email, quoting:
a)
The module
b)
The tutorial group belong to. (Example: Tues,
10:00)
c)
Names of members in the group
d)
This email must be copied to the other members of
the group.
Any students that have not organised themselves
into a group will be assigned a group at random by your tutor on 26th
of October. Beyond this date, composition of the groups can not be altered.
Note that it is not due to
volume of work that this project is done in a group. Group working is believed
to encourage peer-to-peer learning. Work on all deliverables as a group and do
not subdivide the tasks.
Hand-in Date
You need to ensure that you
submit this work at the latest by end of business on Wednesday, 9th
of April in hard copy at the school office. The normal regulations for the
submission of late work apply available at: http://students.shu.ac.uk/rightsrules/regs.html
Resources
·
Learning
Materials from “e-Business” unit
·
Additional
external web-based materials identified by the teaching team and yourself
·
Additional
reading materials indicated throughout teaching of the module
·
Access
to the module instructors
In the opening lines of his book, Chen (2001), states that "In
the space of a few years entire industries have been radically transformed,
hundreds of thousands of new businesses have been spawned and fortunes have
been made and lost by entrepreneurs and investors, all as a result of digital
technologies."
Requirements
outline
You
are to develop business strategy and prepare to build an Intranet/Website for
CCC (See the case study). Note that the
intended users are to be the CCC employees and the general public of
Cheadle. Your proposal should consist of a number of sections:
·
An outline of problems and business requirements at CCC
in terms of information systems and the users of the system. In this section you must include all user
levels you envisage will access the Intranet/Website.
·
Information architecture - An outlined assessment of
CCC's requirements in terms of information on the Intranet/Website. This must take the form of a clear
presentation of an information architecture and high level description of
elements in the architecture.
·
Information management (Knowledge Plan) - A clear
strategy for the management of the information on the Intranet/Website. CCC should be able to use this outlined
strategy to manage the information base over a long and extended period of
time.
·
Promotional plan - An outline of strategies that should
be in place to encourage the uptake of the Intranet within CCC.
·
An outline of the model of the system.
1. Use case
diagram(s)
·
An elaboration of the implementation. This must include:
1. A statement of
URL for the implementation
2. A CD download
of final implementation back-end database
3. A comprehensive
indication (table) of all implemented roles
1. Usernames and
passwords for at least one user for each of the implemented roles
2. Authorised
functionalities (What they are allowed to do)
4.
An elaboration of three features/functionalities of your
system that you feel are most important
1. These features
must be inline with your business strategies
2. Presentation
has to be in a table of three columns, Functionality ¦ Description ¦ Business
case
Blaise Pascal once wrote,
"I am writing you a long letter,
because I haven't got time to write you a short one." There are
strict guidelines for the format of each section. Emphasis is on words and
phrases such as;
·
outline
·
present
·
annotated diagram
·
enhanced communication with client
You must keep in mind that
you are developing a business proposal that should be used as the instrument to
communicate and discuss the requirements, proposals, architectures, etc. Marks are rewarded for innovative and clear
presentation and where there is excessive overwrite, we will penalise. You are
encouraged to use a variety of presentational skills including diagrams, rich
pictures, hierarchical presentations, tables and bulleted points to enhance
communication and aid discussion with the client. Marks will be awarded for demonstrating
agility in easy to comprehend presentations.
Assessment Marking Scheme
|
Strategy |
Fail <40% |
Pass 40-49% |
2:2 50-59% |
2:1 60-69% |
First 70%+ |
|
Problems
and requirements (20%) |
Inaccurate
and irrelevant understanding of the case study in terms of
problems/short-falls/position/community.
It is regurgitation of the case
study. Does not add value to what there is already in the case study. |
May
still be limited to case study but it demonstrates a good understanding of
the problems and the requirements because
presentation demonstrates thinking process and understanding. Presentation is devised to enable
communication, exchange of ideas and investigation of domain with the client. |
and
demonstrates some awareness of critical points of the case study and CCC's
position in terms of their problems and requirements. A few drivers of electronic strategies are
also identified. points are not limited to the ones raised in the case study. |
and
critical understanding of problems and requirements. Presentation indicates
consequences of the flaws and potential benefits of the requirements. There are indications of need for new
strategies. Drivers identified. |
As for
60-69 plus identification of inhibitors as well as the drivers. Analyses
environment and identifies the position of CCC. Puts in perspective the need for cultural change
in CCC and strategies that CCC must employ to support, encourage and promote
this change. Identifies the benefits
for doing so. |
|
Information
architecture (15%) |
There is
no evidence of structure for the proposed system. There is structure but it does not bear
relations with the system requirements. |
There is
some evidence of structured approach. There is a menu structure and some
attempts have been made to present lower level structure. |
and the
defined/derived high level structure is indicative of business strategies and
user requirements. Presentation is
clear and shows the hierarchy in the structure. |
and the
architecture will aid the development of the Intranet. Presentation takes the form of a
walkthrough or a storyboard. Demonstrates clear understanding of business and
contextual requirements and the proposed content of the system. |
and
provides page layouts annotated with guidance for visual designers and
developers. The architecture and
presentation is highly useful for the development of the system. |
|
Knowledge
plan (15%) |
Little
understanding of importance of information to e-Business is
demonstrated. No clear indication a to
how information is to be managed. |
Puts
into context the need for information and its management. Some strategies are identified for
management of information. Presentation is verbose. Presentation does not help the target
audience/the users. |
and
information as the enabler of e-Business is outlined. Strategies for acquiring information
identified. Demonstrate some awareness
of issues concerning procurement and use of information. |
and
demonstrates a good understanding of how information can be used to enable
e-Business and to take advantage of opportunities or to overcome potential
problems. Identifies bottom-line
benefits to the business partner
(customer). Demonstrates a good grasp
of the need for a framework and develops good strategies inline with the
framework. |
and
provides a critical understanding of the strategies for the procurement of information. Critically discusses how information can be
used and provides real examples of similar businesses' strategies. All
strategies are inline with the e-Business strategy under consideration. Identifies and justifies the
comprehensively developed framework. |
|
Promotional
plan (10%) |
No valid
plan is outlined to ensure the use of the Intranet. No strategies for long term development and
maintenance of the Intranet. |
Develops
an outline of things to do in order to generate interest in the system. |
and
these strategies link back to system requirements. There are system utilities to enable these
strategies. |
and puts
in place proposals for long term development of interest and to encourage use
of the system. |
and
presentation is clear and to the point.
Strategies are comprehensive and across the departments. Strategies encourage corporation between
employees. |
|
Requirement
modelling and
implementation (20%) |
There is
no user model or it is poor. Very few valid use cases. |
User
requirement modelling has been attempted though there maybe errors and
inaccuracies. Use case diagram is not
robust but it does demonstrate a good number of relevant and valid use cases. |
User model
is good with a large number of valid use cases. Tries to be robust with a few number of use
of valid includes and extends. All are
in line with the outlined business strategy. |
User
model is comprehensive. There is good
evidence of cohesiveness between the user model, business strategy and the
information architecture. A very
robust model that promotes the use of implementation reuse. |
A very
complete use case diagram. All the
indicated use cases and roles are sensible and inline with the user requirements
and the business strategies. User model will be instrumental in implementing
the system. It is flawless. |
|
Implementation (20%) |
There is
no implementation or implementation is very basic. Amounts to very little work. |
There is
some evidence of implementation of functionality based on the indicated user
model with some of the functionality working. |
Implementation
maybe basic but it is related to the model and all links are working well. |
Implementation
does address all functionalities indicated on the user model. All buttons/links/modules work. Attempts to
implement a tangible and of value business process completely. |
Implementation
is clearly derived from the user model.
Implemented business process is full cycle. A novel approach. |