NEW-Assessment Task 1 (Online).pdf

72 EVALUATE AND COMMUNICATE BUSINESS REQUIREMENT TRAINERS' GUIDE| VERSION: 2, March 2015 WELLS INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE CRICOS PROVIDER CODE: 01856K RTO NO. 90501

Assessment 1 Research (Online)

Instructions:

This assessment is to be completed individually. In this assessment you will be working through a number of written tasks based on case scenarios or research that relate directly to each element of competency for this cluster. Outlined below is information on how each of the tasks relates the element of competency covered.

Duration:

Trainer will set the duration of the assessment.

VERSION: 2, March 2015 | Assessment 1 Research (Online) WELLS INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE

CRICOS PROVIDER CODE: 01856K RTO NO. 90501 73

Task A: Determine support areas

In this section you will undertake three separate tasks to identify and record information technology used within an organisation. This will include identifying stakeholders of the system, demonstrating an understanding of the organisational structure, culture and politics in relation to its support requirements in order to be able to determine what level of support is required by each organisational unit.

Task B: Develop support procedures

In this section you will verify support needs, establish support procedures and write a service level agreement to meet customer expectations.

Task C: Assign support personnel

In this section you will identify IT skills required to assist each organisational unit with support activities and assign personnel according to human resource processes. You will also provide support using agreed procedures and obtain regular feedback on the allocated support.

Task D: Identify key information sources

In this section you will identify information repositories, review organisational documentation, develop critical questions to elicit information from stakeholders and ensure that quality information gathering techniques are used.

Task E: Gather data

In this section you will research on information gathering workshops and interviews, review reports and other data sources for relevant business information, confirm business-critical factors and analyse group and individual responses to define business priorities.

Task F: Prepare data analysis for review

In this topic, you will learn how to analyse and evaluate information gathered for accuracy and consistency, and document and communicate purposes of business requirements


Task A: Determine support areas

Read the scenario and answer the questions listed below:

Business Scenario

D&K Books Pty Ltd is a bookstore owned by Mr. Dean Kerr. The business occupies two levels of an office building connected by escalators and lifts. D&K Books employs approximately six sales staff, one operation manager, two administrative officers, a bookkeeper and a marketing manager. They have an Ethernet network consisting of ten PCs (Intel I3 Desktop cloned), two switches, a router and three printers. They use the QuickBooks software to manage their entire business, including sales, inventory, ordering, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and employee management. They also have two EFTPOS terminals one on each floor.

D&K Books has a Linux server that stores all of the data including the QuickBooks database. The server is backed up to tape regularly. They also have a website (hosted on an Australian ISPs server, dynamic and static pages using asp.net) on which customers can browse the product catalogue and view current specials. They also lease a telephone system from Live Telecoms. The PABX (phone system) consists of a main switchboard and five remote phones with three incoming lines and a message-on-hold queue system.

Task A1: Identify information technology (HW and SW)

List the technology in use in D&K Books and consider the following:

What sort of support does the technology require?

Who is likely to provide this support?

Does the support arrangement already exist?

Present your answer in a table such as the one below.

Table 1: Information Technology in Use

Technology Description Support Required Provider Support

Already

exists?



Task A2: Identify stakeholders and project sponsor

The questions that follow are based on the organisational chart shown below:

If you were building a website for the organisation represented by the organisational chart provided above, who would you identify as the stakeholders in this project?

If you were building a website for the organisation represented by the organisational chart provided here, who would you identify as the project sponsor?

Task A3: Identifying support requirements

If you were implementing a website for a customer that consisted of a large number of static and dynamic web pages such as an electronic store with a database backend, what possible support functions could you implement?

Task B: Develop support procedures

Task B1: Customer support procedures

a) Describe one positive and one negative experience you have had when seeking assistance from a telecommunications company, an ISP or a computer supplier. Your experience may be via telephone, email or even voice recognition

b) Using the experiences described above please answer the following questions. What support aspects were professional and/or unprofessional? How long did the support process take? Were the steps logical? Did they solve your problem? Was the call deflected to another area?

c) Suggest a strategy to deal with the negative service situation that you described

Task B2: What makes great support?

Answer the following question in approximately half to one page

What is positive about the support philosophy of Unwired as described in the information below?


Case study of Unwired

At Unwired, we are committed to providing reliable, high-quality corporate grade services to ensure that your business is always connected.

Our Unwired Business solution comes with the reassurance of a 99.99% availability Service Level Agreement ('SLA').

The following SLA outlines the minimum Unwired service level commitment to our customers:

Up to 1 hour fault response target

Up to 4 hour fault restoration target * Scheduled outage email notifications

24 hour 7 day assistance with service related issues all year round

A direct contact 1300 850 344

Our dedicated and trained staffs monitor the Service in real time.

Unwired will take ownership of the problems covered by the SLA and resolve them in the shortest possible time, unless prevented by circumstances beyond its control.

Please contact our business team on 1300 029 209 or drop us an email to find out how we can help you and your business.

(Sourced from http://www.unwiredbusiness.com.au/service-level-agreements )

Task B3: Establishing a service level agreement

Read through the following article and write a report of not more than 200 words on whether you agree or not with 7 steps in establishing a Service Level Agreement.

Key Steps in Establishing a Service Level Agreement

A service level agreement is an excellent tool for helping two parties improve communications, manage expectations, clarify responsibilities and build the foundation for a win-win relationship. However, establishing an agreement is neither a quick nor a simple process. Having worked with numerous organizations internationally on establishing SLAs, I recommend paying particular attention to the following key steps:

1. Gather background information

Both the customer and the service provider need to start by gathering information so that each has a solid basis from which to negotiate. Before eliciting commitments from their service provider, customers should carefully review and clarify their service needs and priorities. And before making any commitments to customers, service providers should examine their service history and determine the level of service they can realistically provide. In addition, service providers should assess customer satisfaction so as to clearly understand customer concerns and establish a baseline for assessing service improvements.

2. Ensure agreement about the agreement



The two parties to an agreement often have different views about the role of the SLA and what it can realistically accomplish. Both sets of views may be valid, yet sufficiently different as to cause a breakdown in SLA negotiations. Before any SLA development work is done, it is advisable for the two parties to hold an open discussion to ensure that they have a basic level of agreement about the agreement. If they don't and until they do any further SLA effort may prove futile.

3. Establish ground rules for working together

In this critical, but often overlooked, step the SLA developers (those assigned to negotiate the SLA) focus not on the agreement, but on the process by which they will work together to create the agreement. Issues to be discussed include the division of responsibility for development tasks, scheduling issues and constraints, and concerns regarding potential impediments. In addition, the developers can benefit greatly by discussing their communication styles and preferences. By identifying similarities and differences right up front, they will be in an excellent position to minimize conflict.

4. Develop the agreement

This is but one step in the process of establishing an SLA; it's not the entire process. In this step, the two parties create a structure for the SLA document and then discuss debate, negotiate and, over time, reach agreement about the contents of the agreement. In doing so, they may each solicit assistance, input or feedback from others in their own organization. The duration of this step typically varies from several weeks to several months, depending on the developers' previous experience with SLAs, their familiarity with the key elements of an SLA, the demands of their other responsibilities, and the state of the relationship between the two organizations.

5. Generate buy-in

The result of Step 4 is a draft of an agreement, not a completed agreement. Before implementing an SLA, all members of both parties who have a stake in, or responsibility for, the success of the agreement should have an opportunity to review the draft, raise questions, and offer suggestions. Using this feedback, the developers can conduct further negotiations, gain the necessary approvals, and finalize the document. In addition to generating buy-in, this step improves the quality of the final document.

6. Complete pre-implementation tasks

This step entails the identification and completion of tasks that must precede SLA implementation. Such tasks might include, for example, developing tracking mechanisms, establishing reporting processes, developing procedures for carrying out stated responsibilities, communicating expectations to staff, providing pertinent training.

7. Implement and manage the agreement

An agreement that is not managed dies upon implementation. Management responsibilities include providing a point of contact for problems related to the agreement, maintaining ongoing contact with the other party, conducting service reviews, coordinating and implementing modifications to the SLA, and assessing and reporting on how the two parties can further enhance their working relationship.


Article sourced from http://www.nkarten.com/sla.html#key

Task C: Assign Support Personnel

Task C1: Skills categories

Classify the following into soft skills and technical skills. Your answer should take the form of a table shown below.

A knowledge of Linux

The ability to work under pressure

The administration of Windows 2008 Server

The ability to formulate network and IT policies

The ability to write network documentation

The ability to give presentations

Soft Skills Technical Skills

Task C2: Review job placement ads

Log on to an online recruitment site such as https://jobs.nsw.gov.au. Look at how their advertisements are written for IT support roles. Select two or three samples to analyse and compare with the list of skills in Task C1 to answer following questions:

Are the skills in Task C1 appropriate for an IT support role?

Did the ads clearly mention about recruitment process and desired availability of the applicant?

Did the ads specify types of support (e.g. off-site/on-site) the applicant needs to provide?

Did the ads specify the person to whom the applicant will be reporting?

Task D: Identify key information sources

Task D1: Classifying source documents

Question 1: How would you categorise an interview with the project sponsor? (Choose one)

1. Quantitative; internal; people 2. Qualitative; internal; people 3. Qualitative; external; people 4. Quantitative; internal; document 5. Qualitative; internal; document



Question 2: How would you categorize: A memo to the IT department? (Choose one)


Question 3: How would you categorize: A report on the number of errors logged at the helpdesk? (Choose one)


Task D2: Research downloads times

This task is intended to help you qualify the quality of information sources.

Answer the following questions and submit your answers to your teacher:

How long will users wait for web pages to download?

What is the URL for the source you quoted?

Can you trust the source you quoted? Why/Why not?

(Hint: consider the search parameters "download speed" + "research")

Task D3: Advantages and disadvantages of surveys

Before you answer the questions below, read pages 15 -26 of the article Statistics - A powerful edge! from-http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/DetailsPage/1331.01996

Now, fill in the missing word

1. One advantage of a is accuracy.

2. is a disadvantage of a census.

3. Speed is an advantage of a sample .

Task D4: Interview structures

This task is intended to help you identify different interviewing techniques.

To do this, search the Internet to answer the following questions and submit your answers to your trainer:

1. What are structured and unstructured interviews? (Hint: use the key words structured+unstructured+interview in your search parameters)

2. What are pyramid, funnel and diamond interview techniques? (Hint: use the key words pyramid+funnel+diamond+interview techniques in your search parameters)


Task D5: Joint application design

Question 1: A reason that may cause JAD to be ineffective is? (Choose one)

3. Employees at the lower end of the organisational ladder are involved 4. The JAD team consists of mainly senior management with decision authority 5. Users and IT specialists should be brought together in a 3-to-1 ratio 6. Objectives of the workshop have been defined before the workshop commences

Question 2: According to the article author, "Usually JAD Workshops last for ___________ with several sessions, and require several key participants to be present"? (Choose one)

1. 1-2 days 2. 3-5 days 3. 6-7 days 4. 7-9 days

Task D6: Data gathering technique evaluation

This task is intended to assist you in evaluating different data-gathering techniques. The results of this research should impact on the techniques deployed, given a specified goal and a defined budget. This activity is used to assess this resource in a holistic manner.

You are required to search the Internet or research textbooks for relevant and reliable information sources that enable you to identify the advantages and disadvantages of data-gathering techniques.

Use your research to complete the Technique Evaluation Template given below.

You will need to submit appropriate references for your sources. You must reference at least FOUR different sources within your total submission. The sources may be online and/or paper-based (such as textbooks).

Each information gathering technique should be completed within its own section of the Technique Evaluation Template. The information gathering techniques are:

Textual research - reviewing documents

Interviews

Questionnaires

Workshops - JAD

Technique Evaluation Template

Name of the Information Gathering Techniques

Advantages Disadvantages

1

1

2

2



3

3

References

WWW References

URL Page Title Access Date

(by student)

1

2

3

Paper-based References

Author (s) Year published Page no. Publication title Publisher

1

2

3

Task E: Gather data

Task E1: Problem statements

Consider that you have been given the task of interviewing a member of an organisation in order to identify the business problem or opportunity.

You have reviewed the information given to you, and you have found there is not enough information to complete the Business Requirements Report for your client Windsor Institute.

You have requested an interview with the Finance Officer and have asked several questions.


Interview Transcript We have been given some information; however, we need to clarify some issues in order to develop a Business Requirements Report.

Legend:

Bold Italicised text =Your questions or statements

Standard text = Finance Officer's answers

To clarify the issue, what do you see as the main problem that you need to resolve?

I can't record the purchase price of PCs and where they are presently located.

Can we explore this further? Is it the current value of the system or the purchase price that you want to retain?

We want a system so we can record PCs at their original purchase price and the date of the asset purchase. A method of depreciation and the current depreciated price might be good to keep, but lets look at this in an enhancement to the system.

How do you want us to identify the location of the PC?

The system must identify PC locations by room number and campus.

Where do you get PC values from, and how do you know that they are correct?

The PC values are recorded on supplier orders and supplier invoices. The new system must source PC prices from supplier invoices. It would be nice if the new system could reconcile differences in pricing between orders and invoices

Review the interview transcript above and answer the following question:

Question: What do you think the problem statement would be?

Task E2: Open and closed questions

In this task you need to classify following questions as either open or closed questions.

Question 1: What size is your PC monitor?

1. Open ended question 2. Closed question

Question 2: Are you well today?




Question 3: Why do you use this form?


Question 4: What would you do with the new information you collect?


Question 5: Why?


Question 6: How do you rate your satisfaction with the system?


Task E3: Questioning sensitivity

This selfcheck question is intended to help you understand questioning sensitivity and context.

The wording in a question may unduly influence responses. In the following questions political sensitivity influences the results:

Do you think the US was right or wrong in sending American troops to stop the Communist Invasion of South Korea ? (Opinion Research Centre, January 1951)

Wrong 36%

Right 55%

Dont Know 9%

Do you think the US made a mistake in deciding to defend Korea, or not? (Gallup, January 1951)

Mistake 49%

Not a Mistake 38%

Dont Know 13%

Which two words in the first question influenced political sensitivity and produced a higher affirmative result?


Task F: Prepare data analysis for review

Task F1: Analyse data

You have been asked by your manager to collect data from a survey about your companys intranet. You and your manager feel that the site needs an upgrade, but you need evidence to support this view.

Select a method that shows the results of the survey, which are listed below:

78% use the site regularly.

65% find it easy to navigate.

36% believe it should be upgraded.

40% believe it needs more multimedia.

55% have had technically problems with the site over the last 12 months.

74% stated that the intranet is crucial to their daily business.

31% stated that the colours used in the site were poor.

15% stated that they still use paper manuals and avoid the site.

Your task is to analyse the data and present the findings in a clear format to support your view while answering following questions:

What data would you highlight?

What data would you possibly omit?

How would you present the data in your report and/or your presentation?

Task F2: Functional requirements

1. What is the purpose of the Requirements Report?

a) to communicate the requirements

b) to confirm the requirements

c) to gain agreement from the client

d) all of the above

e) none of the above

2. Fill in the missing word:

Non-functional requirements define any within which the current system

operates.

3. Answer true or false:

The functional requirements define the services that the system provides.

NEW-Assessment Task 1 (Online).pdf

Documents