COIT20251 Assessment 1 e-Journal
Due Date: Week 5 Friday (12 April 2019) 11.59 pm AEST
Weighing: 30%
Word Limit: 2,500 words
Objectives
• Understand the core competencies of a Business Analyst
• Understand the skills that should be developed
• Identify the need for external and internal environment analysis
• Explore tools and techniques for requirements elicitation and reporting
Learning Outcomes Assessed
? Devise an appropriate and comprehensive knowledge audit plan to support business analysis requirements.
? Use appropriate modelling tools to present the identified knowledge assets and knowledge capabilities within the business context of enterprise systems, as interpreted and analysed through knowledge audits.
? Critically review knowledge management approaches to the implementation of enterprise systems within an organisation and any issues that may arise.
? Appraise the ethical and professional issues relevant to a business analyst working with knowledge-based enterprise systems.
This assessment task is also designed to assess your ability to develop the required graduate attributes of knowledge, communication skills, cognitive skills, technical skills, creative skills, research, self-management, ethical behaviours and professional responsibility, stipulated in the unit profile. Therefore, you should
• reflect on the topics you read
• research and get additional readings as required
• write clearly using correct grammar, structure, and formatting
• follow the requirements and submit in time
• avoid plagiarism
Assessment Task
Mahara keeps track of work each postgraduate student performs in various units. Upon graduation, a student can easily export all such assessment contents showcasing achievement work for future use.
In this assessment, you have to create an e-journal using a software tool named Mahara. You need to hit the Mahara printer image at the bottom of your Mahara webpage to obtain a PDFfile for submission and marking purposes. When printing a collection from your Mahara webpage to a PDF file, Mahara may append a very long site name together with ‘Central Queensland University’ to the collection name, please override such PDF name with ‘A1_StdID_StdName’ when saving.
From the related weekly sections provided in the unit Moodle website, complete readings in the weekly sections Week 1 and Week 2 for tasks 1, 2, 3 and 4, and Week 3 and Week 4 for topics 5, 6 and 7. Complete the readings suggested for these 7 tasks as outlined below, before developing your journal entry in each related week into your e-journal in Mahara. In your reading, you need to analyse the issues involved. Try to jot down key points when reading through a concept. Using your learned concepts, your prior knowledge and related work experience, write down what you have found as missing or doubtful in the topic discussions, e.g. which idea discussed in a specific topic reading was not OK or is currently weak that needs improvement in your opinion. You also write why, what and how you see it needs to improve, when going through each reading.
1. The core competencies (according to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) that a business analyst should have;
2. The critical skills that organisations need a business analyst to possess in order to successfully design and develop a new technology or for technological redevelopment;
3. The models that can be used for strategy formulation analysing the external and internal environment;
4. The relationship between organisational strategy and knowledge audit plan;
5. Leadership and team building skills required by a Business Analyst;
6. Key processes involved in understanding the business context; and
7. Briefly describe the suitability and appropriateness of four of the investigation techniques in requirement elicitation.
Organisation of e-journal
Develop ONE Mahara webpage (i.e. whatever directly visible will be marked). The single webpage must contain all your answers (as different entries) for 7 different topics.
Please NEVER attempt to use ‘Tab’s or ‘Hyperlink’s (not fit for marking). Organise your ejournal in a way that for each topic heading is clearly presented and you present visible subheadings as synopsis, reflection, and critique. For each sub-heading, do as instructed below:
a. Synopsis: Here you provide a summary of each topic in a journal entry.
b. Reflection: You display your deeper understanding of each of the topics. Please link the topics as they logically follow in the business analysis process. Compare and identify the differences. Show your in-depth understanding of each topic. Use examples or cases to explain your points further. Explain as logical-thinking discussions which you may or may not refer to your examples or cases.
c. Critique: Here you critically analyse the practical application of the knowledge and understanding that you have gained in the professional practice of a Business Analyst
or yourself. Discuss what is lacking, what is not good enough, and ways to improve them. Explain why one or more topics in a reading needs to be questioned.
All Submissions Must Follow Strict Guidelines
This assessment item must strictly follow the guidelines below:
• For this assessment item, you will initially prepare an e-journal with all needed journal entries (i.e. your answer to each task item is a journal entry) using the software tool Mahara.
• Your e-journal must have the top line on your Mahara webpage indicating your student names, student ID and date last modified, e.g., John Smith, 1234567, Last modified 15 Mar 2019.
• All contents of your e-journal must be produced on a single Mahara webpage, i.e. without any use of tabs, embedded URL links and words/images with hyperlinks in all the entries. Any variations means your marker will only mark whatever he/she can see at the time of marking. Strictly follow these guidelines so you do not loose marks.
• To prepare work for submission, right click on your Mahara web page content and select Print, which will generate a PDF file for your submission. For the PDF file name, you need to re-name it into 'A1_EJournal_YourID_YourName' for submission.
• You need to upload this PDF file generated from your Mahara for your online submission. Ensure that this PDF file is NOT an image-only file or a corrupted file, so it can be safely checked through by Turnitin upon a submission.
• For any submission file that cannot be safely checked through Turnitin upon a submission, i.e. flagged as 'Resubmit to Turnitin' or shown as without a similarity report generated to help the teaching team for marking purposes, a ZERO mark will be awarded right away.
• This assignment must be submitted by strictly following all the related prescribed guidelines. Otherwise, you will receive a ZERO mark.
A submission not having carefully followed all the guidelines above will be awarded a ZERO mark outright.
References
Use either the Harvard Year Date referencing style or APA referencing style.
An Abridged Guide to the Harvard Referencing Style is available through the link: https://www.cqu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/179954/Harvard-Guide-T1-2018.pdf An Abridged Guide to the APA Style is available through the link: https://www.cqu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/244045/APA-Guide.pdf
Assessment 1 Marking criteria
No. Total Marks: 30% Mark Result
1 Synopsis: Summarises key points in the topics (from 7 topics * 1 mark each) 7
2 Reflection: For each key point, present a clear understanding of the topics using examples or related logical-thinking discussion of the context. The reflections are logically connected to the summaries. (from 7 topics * 1. 5 marks each) 10.5
3 Critique: Demonstrates effective knowledge of the principles and concepts in business analysis practice by being able to address the anomalies, identify the differences in understandings, and spotting differences in ideas or concepts. (from 7 topics * 1.5 marks each) 10.5
4 Effectiveness of the entire submission: Good comprehension, correct spelling, and grammar, and appropriate formatting 2
Penalties
5 Exceeding word limit (reduce 1% of awarded mark for each block of 100 words in excess)
6 Plagiarism (as per policy)
7 Late submission - less 5% lateness penalty
Total Marks 30