Report+Outline

SHAPE \* MERGEFORMAT CCT225: Information Systems Winter 2009 Course Instructor: M. Max Evans


 * Meeting Time:** Tuesday 9-11 am SE 1142
 * Office Hours:** Tuesday 11-12 pm CCIT 3018
 * Email: ** HYPERLINK "mailto:max.evans@utoronto.ca" __max.evans@utoronto.ca__

Catalin Bidian, B.Sc., M.Ec.Inf., M.I.St. Email: HYPERLINK "mailto:catalin.bidian@utoronto.ca" __catalin.bidian@utoronto.ca__
 * Supervising Teaching Assistant:**

The purpose of the group project assignment is for you to apply the concepts learned in this course to a particular case or example of an organization and information system. You will divide yourselves into groups of maximum 4 students, with the work to be divided roughly equally between the members of the group.
 * Group Project**

For your project you must pick **one** of the following two options:

**Focus on the Organization:** Pick an organization or sector and focus on how one type of information system or combination of systems within that organization contributes (or doesn’t contribute) to its effectiveness.

Give an introduction and historical background/context of the organization; Describe the information system you have selected. What type is it? What does it do? How does it work? Has the company always used it? What was the rationale for its development? Provide a detailed example of the technology at work within the organization; How is the organization set up internally? How does the technology reflect this? (or if a sector, how is the sector organized); What is the external environment that the organization is operating in? What are its competitors or similar type organizations? What systems do they use? What are the strategies, tactics, goals, and objectives they have set for the technology within the organization?
 * Part 1: Situation Analysis**

**Focus on the Information System/Technology:** Pick one information system and focus on one or two organizations as well as giving an overview of the challenges and opportunities in the environment or market in which that system/technology is used.

Give an introduction and historical background/context of the system/technology; Describe the information system you have selected. What type is it? What does it do? How does it work? Has the company always used it? What was the rationale for its development? Provide a detailed example of the technology at work within the organization(s); Who developed the technology and who are the major players in its introduction and diffusion? What competing or similar technologies are there? Will this technology/system displace another system or physical process? Describe and discuss. What strategy, tactics, goals, and objectives are used by either the developers or the users of this technology?
 * Part 1: Situation Analysis**

Whether you have chosen option (1) or (2) perform a SWOT analysis based on your situation analysis performed above.
 * Part 2: SWOT Analysis**

What are the strengths? What are the weaknesses? What the opportunities? What are the threats?

Remember to back up your analysis with examples and with cited sources.

Discuss your opinion of the choices the organization has made or with the state of the technology/system and its prospects for the future; Do the strategies/tactics/goals and objectives reflect the situation as you have analyzed it? Outline at least 4 recommendations you would make for the organization (with regard to the system you have discussed) or the system? Back up your recommendations with your analysis; Discuss how this case/technology may impact your own lives and/or careers; Write a conclusion that sums up your findings and arguments. The organization you choose can be a corporation, small business, non-profit organization, government agency, or other type of organization.
 * Part 3: Recommendations**
 * Suggested Topics**

The technology system you choose can be an internal business application, database system, communication system, or an underlying infrastructure technology. It can also be a product or service that a company provides as long as it is an information system.

Some examples from previous years:

Ebay’s purchase of the Skype voice communication company; Smart Systems for Health – provincial initiative to connect the offices of doctors, hospitals, labs, public health offices, community care centres, and pharmacies to improve the way personal health information is shared in Ontario; Teranet Inc. and their online land registry (or any of their other products); Rogers Communications and their attempts to introduce VOIP technology;
 * Organization or sector:**

Web Services and/or Service Oriented Architectures and their applications in a particular sector (i.e. the travel industry); Delivery of Internet Broadband over power lines: prospects and implications for power and telecommunications industry; Bit Torrent – implications for peer-to-peer and entertainment industries; Online Mapping technologies – Google Maps, Geocoding and rendering (example Telcontar); Collaboration or Knowledge Management Systems; Open source development – example SAKAI, a community software development effort to design, build, and deploy a new Collaboration Learning Environment (CLE) for higher education.
 * System/Technology:**

This group project assignment is divided into 4 components (submissions):
 * Submissions**

Group Project Proposal; Group Project Interim Report; Group Project Final Report; Group Project Presentation Slides (includes self and peer assessment).

Research for **each** submission should be made using at least 8-10 secondary sources, with at least 2 scholarly sources. Primary research is certainly allowed but not required. Should you choose to do primary research, please see course instructor beforehand for further details.
 * Research**

To access the most research resources, choose a topic that is relatively new, yet not so new that sources will be scarce. It should have implications beyond one local business, yet a local or Canadian connection is welcome.

Research should be conducted through company websites, newspapers and online journalism, as well as scholarly sources (journals, books, and conference publications). Your sources should be documented using an accepted citation style (APA, MLA). Do not use only company literature, as you will not find any criticism and/or alternative perspectives. Each report must include at least 2 scholarly sources, so keep this in mind when selecting a company or technology.

The assignments are to be submitted in writing before the beginning of class, on the due date, as specified in the Course Syllabus. Keep the following guidelines in mind:
 * Submission Format and Guidelines**

Use easy to read fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial 12pt type; Use 2-line spacing and 1 inch margins throughout the entire paper; For the Group Interim Report and Group Final Report provide a table of contents; Use bold, italic, and underline only when needed to highlight certain sections of your paper which you may want to draw attention to; Figures and tables are each to be numbered (e.g. Figure 1, Table 1), in sequential order, and captioned at either the top or the bottom (be consistent); Use only one standard for citations (e.g. APA, MLA) – do not mix them.

Good grammar and citation style will be worth a full letter grade in the written reports. For other details about the course rules and procedures please see the Course Syllabus.
 * Editing**


 * Deliverables**

Your group will submit a 1-2 page Group Project Proposal, due on January 20th, 2009, at the beginning of the class, worth 5% of your final grade.
 * Group Project Proposal**

The following should be included in the Group Project Proposal: Full names of all the group members along with the student numbers and email addresses; The citation style you chose (APA, MLA); Project title: provide a meaningful title for your project (i.e. __**not**__ //Group 4 Project Proposal//); Indication of topic; Draft outline of report (with suggested ideas for each section outlined above); Indication of how the group’s work will be divided. Remember, work is to be divided roughly equally between the members of the group. Examples of how the work can be divided: //Example A:// Research and proposal writing; Report writing; Project presentation slides (self and peer assessment should be done individually, by each member of the group); Research, coordination, proofreading. //Example B:// Introduction/context/history; Description of System/Technology and example of technology; Internal/external factors/SWOT; Strategy/Recommendations/Conclusion/Bibliography/Citations.

Your group will submit a 10-12 page (not including the references) Group Project Interim Report, due on February 10th, 2009, at the beginning of the class, worth 10% of your final grade.
 * Group Project Interim Report**

The following should be included in the Group Project Interim Report: Full names of all the group members along with the student numbers and email addresses, the project title and the citation style you chose in the Group Project Proposal, all on the front page; Table of contents; Part 1: Situation Analysis Part 2: SWOT Analysis One page documenting preliminary recommendations based on the situation analysis and SWOT analysis. References

Your group will submit a Group Project Final Report consisting of a total of 25-30 pages, due on March 31st, 2009, at the beginning of the class, worth 15% of your final grade.
 * Group Project Final Report**

The following should be included in the Group Project Final Report: Group Project Interim Report (not including the preliminary recommendations) Updated Table of contents; Part 3: Recommendations Based on the situation analysis and SWOT analysis done in the Group Project Interim Report, outline at least 4 recommendations you would make for the organization (with regard to the system you have discussed) or the system; Back up your recommendations with your analysis as well as the secondary sources (i.e. justify and discuss your recommendations); Discuss how this case/technology may impact your own lives and/or careers; Final project conclusions that sum up your findings and arguments References

Your group will submit a 17-24 slides Group Project Presentation, due on April 7th, 2009, at the beginning of the class, worth 5% of your final grade.
 * Group Project Presentation Slides**

This submission will include the self and peer assessment form that must be completed by each group member separately (not included in the page count) (will be further discussed in class). Up to 20% of your individual mark can be decided through the peer and self-assessment forms. These forms are strictly confidential and will be provided by the course instructor during the course.

Slides should be printed **and** emailed to both the course instructor and the TA. Duplex (both sides) printing is allowed, but please do not exceed two slides per page.

The following should be included in the Group Project Presentation Slides:

Full names of all the group members along with the student numbers and email addresses and the project title (first slide); One slide per each point outlined in the Situation Analysis; One or two slides per each point outlined in the SWOT analysis; One or two slides for each recommendation you make (including the key points of your analysis and discussion for each recommendation); One or two slides with your findings of the impact the case/technology may have on your lives and/or careers; One slide for bibliography (last slide).

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