Coursework Specification

8/13/2019 Coursework Specification

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EBSY602 Information Systems Quality and Testing

Assessment 2013/14

Website project for the Institute of Corporate Hospitality and Catering

Date set: 4/11/2013 (Learning Week 7)

Date due: By 10.00am via the Registry Office on11/12/2013 (Learning Week 12)

Description: Group work (which includes an individualelement)

Total assessment weighting: 50%

Feedback provided: I intend to provide feedback online viathe Blackboard Group Communicationarea by 24/01/2014

Learning outcomes

This assessment is linked to the following learning outcomes of the EBSY602 InformationSystems Quality and Testing module:

LO3 Be able to work as part of a group to produce a report and apply generalsoftware principles and techniques based on a scenario/case study

LO4 Understand the role and importance of software testing and be able to applygeneral test processes

Your task

Please refer to the case-study at the end of this coursework specification

Mr Jonathan Goodwin, Chairman of the Institute of Corporate Hospitality and Cateringis your Project Sponsor. Jonathan has appointed your project team (from Web Designand Innovation Ltd) to develop the website. The project team must create a workingprototype of the website.

You must provide a full report to the Project Sponsor by 10.00am on 11/12/2013.

This assessment is for groups of minimum 4 and maximum 5 students. All groups mustappoint a Coordinator. Could you please let me know who has been appointed asCoordinator (using the Blackboard Group Discussion Board) by 11/11/2013.



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Part A

1. Evaluate the key organisational benefits of the website project, justifying your answer

( 4 marks)

2. Develop an assumptions list to support your work( 6 marks)

3. Specify the functional and non-functional requirements for the website project

(10 marks)

4. Create an electronic full version of the website storyboard. This must include fullscreen layouts, design, colour coding, navigation and flow between screens.

(10 marks)

5. Create a working prototype of the website using Google Sites which is available viathe Univer sity’s Google Apps environment.

(10 marks)

6. Develop a test plan using the test plan template provided on Blackboard and ensurethat the website has been tested.

(20 marks)

7. Create a user manual for the website (include this in the report appendix).

You must reference any images used in the prototype e.g., if you use the Harvard

numbering system, you can link each image to the reference list.

(10 marks)

Part B (Individual element)

8. Each group member group must create 15 user storycards for the website using theUser Storycard Template provided on Blackboard. The 15 user stories must be inthe following format:

User story number #User role <specify role>:

User story title <specify title>User story description <specify the feature using 2 or 3 sentences>:PriorityEffort

Each group member must select a different user role.

(15 marks)



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9. Prepare a group statement in which you critically evaluate your work as a team.Ensure this is supported by personal statements from each group member.

You are required to keep a log of activities throughout the process and you will beassessed on the objective evaluation of each group member’s contribution. The log

of activities must be included in the final report and for each meeting keep a record ofminutes.

The log of activities should include the date, time and location of each meeting. Alsoinclude actions taken and accountability for action points etc. Please use thetemplate provided on Blackboard.

Each individual must submit a personal statement (maximum 600 words) in thereport using the personal statement template provided. If you do not providethis personal statement you will be awarded zero for the report. The personalstatement is used to explain and justify how you have contributed to group work etc.

(15 marks)

Blackboard Group space

The groups have been created in Blackboard so that group members can collaborate onthe assessment. Can you please ensure you utilise the Blackboard Group spaceeffectively throughout for assessment.

The My Groups panel provides a direct link to the group space you belong to. Can youclick on the My Groups panel which appears following the Course Menu to access yourBlackboard group space. You can expand the panel to reveal all the tools that areavailable for the group to use e.g., File Exchange, Group Discussion Board, Group Blog,email.

You must ensure that you arrange regular meetings to support the communicationprocess in Blackboard. The use of Blackboard does not replace face-to-face meetings.The Blackboard group communication space is intended to facilitate and support groupprocesses.

Report:

Use the report template which has been provided for you on Blackboard. RenameXXXXXX to your team ID e.g., ISQT35.

Ensure that all products are included in both the hard copy version of the reportand the electronic version.

Report structure

Use the report template provided on Blackboard:

Report title and contents page (include page numbers in contents page and mainsection of the report)

For the main body of the report use the requirements set out in parts A and B

Support your work with research and provide full references at the back of yourreport e.g., images

Can you ensure all your products are included in the appendix and each productis labelled separately e.g., Appendix C Website Storyboard, Appendix D Website

Test Plan. If you do this then it will be easier to cross-reference from the mainsection of the report to the products.



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Each group member may be awarded the same mark for the group report. However Ireserve the right at all times to award different marks for the group report component tostudents.

It is the responsibility of all group members to ensure that there is equal effort and

contribution towards the group report. Each group member is expected to contributeequally.

This assessment is a group exercise. Therefore, if you do not complete the work as agroup, I intend to award all members of the group zero for the group report component.

Parts A carries 70 marks and Part B carries 30 marks. The total marks for the report are100 and this represents 50% of the total weighting for the module.

Rules, regulation and requirements

1. Your website can be shared with both students and staff within the

my.westminster.ac.uk domain. Therefore, you must ensure that only groupmembers and I are provided with editing rights to the website. Pleaseprovide me with editing rights to your website latest by 19/11/2013. MyGoogle Apps email address is [email protected] and my usernameis rupars.

2. You are required to submit one bound (not stapled) hard copy version of thereport together with a CD via the Registry Office. The Registry Office is locatedon the First Floor, Cavendish Campus, Room N1.100. Please submit your workvia the coursework posting slots available.

The onus is on all group members to check both the CD and the hard copy

version to ensure that you have met the submission requirements prior tosubmission.

All products must be available in hard copy format as well as on CD. The CDmust only include the report as a single document in Microsoft Word 2010format.

You are expected to produce a concise, well structured and presentable report whichis of professional quality (e.g., grammatically correct). Please note scanned imagesand text are not permitted in this Microsoft Word 2010 document.

If you fail to submit either the hard copy or the electronic version on time (e.g., if

you submit a blank CD), your work will be deemed as late. The University ofWestminster regulations in relation to late submission apply.

3. The CD must be labelled and you must include the Group name, Coordinator’s name,Module Name. For example, Group ISQT35, Lindsay Clarke, EBSY602 InformationSystems Quality and Testing.

The onus is on all group members to ensure that the CD is securely attached to yourreport prior to submission.

4. The CD must be virus checked before submission and do not include any passwordsfor the files.

5. No zipped files are allowed.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



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6. Please complete the Coursework Coversheet CA1 form (which is available via theFaculty Registry Blackboard site) and staple this securely to your assessment.

7. Can you provide a copy of all group communication via the Blackboard Group Space

in both the hard copy and electronic versions of the report (in the appendix).

8. For the final submission, you must ensure that the report clearly has on the title pagethe group code, full name of each group member together with the registrationnumber

9. Conduct research using Library Search as this is intended to support your studies.

Can you use a common standard referencing system (e.g., Harvard numberingreferencing system). Ensure your work has been fully and accurately referencede.g., e-books, journal articles, images used for the website prototype. Please refer toInformation Services Referencing your Work Guide which is available at the following

site:

http://www.westminster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/178101/Referencing-Your-Work-guide.pdf

10. I intend to submit your work via TurnitinUK. Cases of plagiarism will be dealt with inaccordance with University of Westminster regulations.

11. Please refer to the Faculty Registry Blackboard site for details relating to CourseworkSubmission. If you submit either the hard copy or electronic version on CD (or both)late, University of Westminster regulations apply in relation to late submission of

coursework. I intend to award zero for assessments submitted 24 hours after thedeadline and deduct 10 marks for assessments submitted within 24 hours of thedeadline.

12. The University of Westminster operates a ‘Fit to sit’ policy. Please refer to theUniversity’s mitigating circumstances policy which is available at the followingwebsite:

http://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/current-students/your-studies/forms-and-procedures/mitigating-circumstances

13. I intend to deduct 5 additional marks for failure to follow instructions and eachrequirement not met

14. The onus (it is your responsibility) is on you to keep a copy of the work that yousubmit

15. You may be called for a viva if it is deemed necessary (e.g., to assess thecontribution of each group member)

16. If there are issues (e.g., group member not contributing), you must raise these by15/11/2013 latest.








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Institute of Corporate Hospitality and Catering case study

General

The Institute of Corporate Hospitality and Catering (ICHAC). is a national organisationdevoted to the promotion of corporate hospitality in the UK. It has existed for 25 years

but it is only recently that its size has expanded considerably to its present strength ofover 6,000 members. The membership is comprised of Personal Members, CompanyMembers and Training College Members (TCMs). It is a registered charity andvolunteers are key to the success of the Institute, carrying out most of its work.

The UK corporate hospitality market is targeted primarily at organisations that are willingto pay for events organised for employees. For example, sporting events such asWimbledon, participatory events such as archery, business games and motivationalspeakers (e.g., business coaching).

Corporate hospitality events are intended to improve business performance e.g.,customer loyalty and satisfaction, improved productivity and/or efficiency, increase insales performance.

The membership of the ICHAC is distributed across the United Kingdom and overseas.There are 8 branches that organise local programmes of events and look after localmembers' interests. In addition there are also 7 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) thatconcentrate on organising special corporate event management related interests.

The organisation has a governing body, Council (24 members), to determine overallpolicy and an Executive Committee (7 Members) that implements policy, handles day-to-day business and makes recommendations to Council. There are a number ofcommittees and directorates that deal with the various business areas. A smallprofessional unit, the Secretariat deals with all routine administration of the organisation.

Information Technology

The information management and IT facilities within the organisation have evolved overthe years as it has grown and new technology has become available. Today the facilitiesand procedures are severely stretched and there is a major problem that a critical sectionof software is almost obsolete and not commercially supported. Expectations of themembership are high, the introduction of new qualifications has imposed additional loadson existing systems and piecemeal implementation of technology developments has leadto a variety of systems and procedures that do not integrate with one another. An overallinformation management strategy is urgently required, together with the implementationof radical new thinking and facilities for IT support.

Priorities should be as follows:

1. Focus on developing a website and that supports core business operations (e.g.,achieving membership recruitment targets)

2. Interim measures to maintain organisational systems and continuity which takeadvantage of cheap, short-term solutions

3. New long - term strategic applications e.g., use of Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) to support the professional qualifications and certification programme, mobileapplications (e.g., for iPad and other mobile devices).



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Where the organisation is now

1. Publications

• The Corporate Hospitality Magazine is published to all members and provides themain vehicle of communication. This is currently distributed via email.

• Various technical guides on topics such as contracts of employment, copyright, andpublicity materials.

2. Information

• Maintenance of events management e.g., conferences, seminars and road shows

• The publishing of special topic guides e.g., targeted at caterers for corporate events

• Professional qualif ications and certification programme.

These, together with the financing and running of the day-to-day business, all requiremanagement information and reporting. Organisation

The membership of the organisation is as follows:

Class Numbers

Students and Associates 805

Individual Members 2094

Fellows 108

Honorary Fellows 17

Company Members 3012

Training College Members 99

Total 6135

These are distributed across the United Kingdom and overseas as shown in Figure 1.



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0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

%

Northern counties

Scotland & Ireland

Overseas

Midlands & East

West & SW

South & SE

Figure 1: Membership distribution

The 8 branches are located across the United Kingdom, and one is in the United States.The Special Interest Groups operate nationally but tend to be organised from locationsdepending on where the interest lies. They are all co-ordinated and funded centrally bythe organisation shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Organisation of the ICHAC

The Council and Executive Boards meet regularly in Central London but the variouscommittees, branches and SIGs meet in locations most convenient to themselves.Central administration is currently carried out from a small office in Maidenhead, staffedby the Head of Secretariat and four administrators. The Council intends to move thisCentral Administration function to the Head Office located in Central London (prior to theimplementation of the new website).

Good communications are critical to the organisation's operation.

COUNCIL

Commi ttees Br anches SIGS Central

Administration

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Treasurer and

accountants

M embers



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Problem areas

The main problems facing the organisation are as follows:

• Size - The organisation is not yet large enough to finance significant newinitiatives adequately. On the other hand it has outgrown the capacity of itsoriginal information systems and needs major new facilities for the future.

The organisation currently does not have a website and the Council havedecided that a website is of strategic importance for the future (e.g., attractingnew members, raising the strategic profile of the Institute).

• Geographical Separation - The organisation's resources are distributed acrossthe country, giving rise to many communication problems.

• Voluntary nature of its resources - Most members and officials of theorganisation are in full-time employment, often on location and cannot be

accessed immediately. They also use a variety of communications facilities,many of which are not compatible with one another.

• Availability of resources - The Head Office is located in Central London andincludes state-of-the-art conference and meeting rooms which can be used (e.g.,for events and programme of varied talks organised by the SIGs). Thesefacilities are also available for hire by other organisations, but are currently under-utilised.

The organisation cannot rely on availability or take priority on members' time orresources.

Mr Jonathan Goodwin, the Project Sponsor intends to invest in developing a websitewhich should enable the Institute to gain competitive advantage. Feedback obtainedfrom a survey conducted recently by the Institute, indicated that members felt a websitewas critical to success in the future (e.g., members wanted to be able to book events,amend membership details online)

Jonathan would also like to employ creative e-marketing techniques on the website (e.g.,use of email capture software, social and business networking sites such as Facebook,Twitter, LinkedIn).

Lack of presence on the Internet is affecting organisational performance andcompetitiveness (e.g., the Institute currently risks losing members).

These problem areas are compounded by an antiquated database of records, togetherwith piecemeal IT developments that have resulted in systems incompatible with oneanother and are no longer adequate for the loads placed on them. Moreover the maindatabase, although very eff icient in what it does, runs under old software and there is areal danger that it will not be technically supported in the future.

Many of the problems above could be resolved by the implementation of acomprehensive IT strategy.



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Use of information and Information Technology today

The use of information by the organisation may be considered under the following maincategories:

1. Operational information

• The membership database

• The accountancy package.

These provide the information required for administering the members on a continuousbasis (but are not integrated). Information concerning membership numbers and theorganisation's f inancial position is used as an essential input to the day to day running ofthe organisation.

2. Information concerning events and activities

These are promoted by:

• Advertisements in the Corporate Hospitality magazine• Direct mail-shots• The national press

The Project Sponsor would like to be able to promote the Institute’s programme of eventsand activities on the proposed website.

Information in this category is required to be disseminated as a service to members andto the general public. It is usually prepared with word processing or graphics software

and held as paper records. The system is handled centrally by Secretariat and is purelymanual.

3. Publicity and recruitment information for promotion purposes

• Advertisements in the national press and trade publications• Attendance at exhibitions • Mail-shots• Direct recruitment through personal membership contacts.

The information required in this category is essential for the survival and growth of theorganisation. It is prepared manually and distributed by mail or fax.

The Project Sponsor has consulted with the Mrs Jenny George, Human ResourcesManager. The intention is to use the proposed website for recruitment (e.g., to advertisefull-time, part-time and volunteer vacancies).

4. Technical information

This is held in a library of books (e.g., related to catering), papers and a microfichesystem. There are no IT applications at present in this area. The information generatedby the special interest groups is not well publicised.



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Information flows

The main flows of information within the organisation are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Information flows

The main volume of information flows through Secretariat. This is both a strength and aweakness; it provides a central control and archiving facility but is also often a bottleneckdue to lack of resources and IT expertise. Information transfer is usually achieved by thefollowing means:

• Extensive use of telephone and personal meetings

• Extensive use of mail and fax communications

Key information

The key information prepared and transmitted within the organisation is:

1. Status reports from Secretariat to Executive, Council and Branches

• Minutes of meetings

• Membership status reports.

2. Financial reports from Treasurer to Executive and Council

• Membership revenue

• Other revenue

• Expenditure

• Accounts.

(These take the form of formal written reports and, although much of the data is held inthe SAGE accountancy package, the reports are prepared on separate Microsoft Excel2010 spreadsheets.)



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3. Formal reports from the Secretary and other officers of the organisation to Council andExecutive.

(These are invariably typed on a wide variety of word processing systems and, unlessprepared by Secretariat, only paper copies are stored.)

Projects to overcome many of the problems outlined in the report had been the brainchildof one of the members, Jason Smith. He was an IT specialist with a particular interest incorporate events management. His solution was based on a three-pronged attack:

1. Provide an internet-based facility, which would enable the general public and themembership to access different levels of information within the Institute, fromanywhere in the world. Access would be controlled by means of a series ofpasswords. This would enable the head office staff to communicate more efficientlywith one another and the membership. This is of high priority to the Project Sponsor.

2. Migrate the membership database into a new Microsoft Access database. Provide anew membership billing system with electronic links to the SAGE accounting system.

This would overcome the problem of obsolescence, have adequate capacity andwould ensure the long term availability of operators.

3. Introduce an off ice network that would enable information sharing between allpersonnel in the off ice. Provide an integrated email system. This was to increaseoffice efficiency.

Items 1 and 2 are to be implemented in time for the Annual General Meeting in February2014. Item 2 is due to commence as a separate project in December 2013.

The Project Sponsor intends to appoint a Website Administrator prior to the completion ofthe new website.

It was foreseen that the new website would enhance the Institute’s worldwide image so aconsiderable portion of the funds had been allocated from the marketing budget, anotherportion had come from the accountant's operational budget and a third portion was aspecial allocation authorised by Council.

Adapted from Michael Hougham, Henley Management College

Source: Cadle, J. & Yeates, D. (2008). Project Management for Information Systems. 5thedition. Harlow : Pearson Prentice Hall, pages 2-9 (instructor’s resources - case studies)

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