ASSESSMENT BRIEF
Subject Code and Name ACCT6001 Accounting Information Systems
Assessment Assessment 2 – Business Process Analysis
Individual/Group Group of 3-4 students
Learning Outcomes (a) Analyse and articulate business processes and recognise the role of accounting information systems in enhancing business process design.
(e) Communicate with IT professionals, stakeholders and user groups of information systems
Submission By 11:55pm AEST/AEDT Sunday end of week 5/Module 3.1
For Intensive class: By 11:55pm AEST/AEDT Sunday end of Week 3/Module 3.2
Weighting 25%
Total Marks 100 marks
Context:
This assessment is designed to develop student’s understanding of business processes; analyse existing organisation’s processes; and suggest ways to improve the organisation’s current business process inefficiencies.
Submission Instructions:
• Students will organise themselves into groups of 3 to 4. Students will work in their groups to prepare a response to ALL of the case questions listed at the end of the case study.
• Students that have not formed groups by Week 02, will be placed into groups by the learning facilitator
• Students need to submit a report, presented in proper report format (including a reference list). The report needs to be submitted though the submission link available on the Blackboard. One copy of this report needs to be submitted in Word format by a representative of each group on the Blackboard
Case Study
Eljay is a large online education provider (school) consisting of administration, teaching and corporate services teams. Students of often email the school with questions about learning and teaching materials, assessments, and IT-related problems that require the school to process and solve the problem. These student queries are managed based on their type (teaching, assessment, IT), priority and status. The three levels of priority identified by the school include: “important”, “normal” and “less important”. The status of a student query (e.g. job) includes: “Open”, “In Process”, “Re Process”, “Solved”, “Closed”. Queries are logged in a job management system (excel spreadsheet saved on a SharePoint site), which enables the school to manage the details of the life cycle of the query from start to finish. In addition to recording student details, this system records the job code, description, type, priority, and status of the job as it progresses through each team.
The current business process begins when a student emails the school with a query. Employees within the administration team, who have less content-related knowledge, manually load each student query into the job management system. When this job is created, it is assigned an “Open” status by the administration team. Every query that employees from this team enter into the job management system is given a job code which is used to uniquely identify the student query. Once this code has been created in the system, an email is sent to the student with the job code (e.g. the reference number for the query). The student must mention this job code every time an inquiry about the status of the query is made. Any queries that are easily resolved (e.g. those that involve common problems) are assigned to employees within the administration team who work directly with the student to resolve the query. If an employee from this team is unable to resolve a student’s query, the job status is changed to “In Process” and the query is forwarded to the teaching team who have extensive content-related knowledge.
When a manager from the teaching team has the time to review the queries assigned to the team, they update the priority level of the job. The manager will then assign each job to an employee depending on the priority and existing workload of employees in the team. Once a teacher has been assigned to a job, the query is investigated, and a solution is developed and emailed to the administration team. An employee from the administration team changes the status of the job to “Solved” and emails the solution to the student. A request to verify that the query has been correctly resolved is included in the email. If the student’s reply to this request informs the administration team that the query has been successfully resolved, the job status is changed to “Closed” and the job is complete. If the student emails to notify the administration team that the query has not been resolved, the status of the job is changed to “Re Process” and the query is emailed back to the teaching team. The teaching team then goes through the process all over again.
If employees from either the administration or teaching team are unable to provide the student with a solution (e.g. for an IT-related query), the corporate services team is called upon to finish the job. The corporate services team work directly with the student to resolve the query. When the student’s query is resolved, the corporate services team notify the teaching team, who update the status of the job to “Solved”. An employee from the administration team, emails the student to inform them that a solution has been reached and the job is set to “Closed”.
The school would like to reduce costs by removing inefficient and ineffective processes while at the same time improving student response times.
Required
a. Draw a business process map outlining existing processes for managing student queries Identify (include swimlanes in your diagram).
b. Identify strengths and weaknesses in the existing system for managing student queries.
c. Research and report on ways to improve the business processes. As you address the weakness, consider how IT can transform the processes of the organization (include references to support your suggestions).
d. Draw a new business process model that outlines your suggested improvements.
e. Include in the Appendix of your report, minutes of meetings held between group members (Include a list of actionable tasks, team members responsible for those tasks, deadlines, and progress towards completing tasks)
Learning Rubric: Assessment 1
Assessment Criteria Fail
(Unacceptable) 0-49% Pass
(Functional)
50-64% Credit
(Proficient) 65-74% Distinction
(Advanced)
75 -84% High Distinction
(Exceptional)
85-100%
Understanding of the business processes in the organisation
30%
The description of the steps to achieve the goal of the organisation has not been identified correctly.
Business process diagram incorrect.
Activities, stakeholders and notations are incorrect.
Swimlanes not shown.
Business processes (step by step description) has been identified but some (around 30%) steps are missing.
Business process diagram is consistent with the current business processes.
Activities and stakeholders are identified but incomplete.
Some notations are incorrect.
Swimlanes are shown but some stakeholders are missing. Business processes (step by step description) has been identified but some (around 20%) steps are missing.
Business process model is consistent with the current business processes.
Activities and stakeholders are mostly identified (around 2-3 items missing).
Most notations are correct (2-3 incorrect notations).
Swimlanes are used for multiple stakeholders, 2- 3 stakeholders are missing. Business processes (step by step description) are detailed and complete.
Business process model is consistent with the current business processes.
Activities and stakeholders are identified.
Notations are correct. Minor errors (1-2 errors).
Swimlanes are used for multiple stakeholders, complete and correct. Business processes (step by step description) are detailed and complete. Exceptions and variations in the process are also shown.
Business process model is consistent with the current business processes.
Activities and stakeholders are identified.
Notations are correct.
Exceptions and variations are shown in the model.
Swimlanes are used for multiple stakeholders, complete and correct
Problem Analysis Critical business issues (processes to be improved) were not identified (or incorrectly identified). Processes to be improved were correctly identified but incomplete. Processes were correctly identified but missing 1 or 2 issues.
Processes which have greatest impact were All processes were correctly identified.
Processes which have greatest impact were all All processes were correctly
identified
Processes which have greatest impact were all identified and have justified and explained
ACCT6001_Assessment Brief 2_Business Process Analysis_Due at week 3
30% Objective (s) of the requirements of the process was (were) not identified (or identified incorrectly)
Inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the processes were not identified (or incorrectly identified) Processes which have greatest impact were not identified.
Some objectives of the requirements of the process were identified but incomplete.
Some inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the current processes were identified.
One of the following were incomplete: organisational level, process level and the job/performer level inefficiencies and ineffectiveness identified but incomplete.
All objectives of the requirements were identified but lack details.
Some inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the current processes were identified.
The following were discussed: organisational level, process level and the job/performer level inefficiencies and ineffectiveness but some discussions are incomplete. identified and have detailed explanation and justification.
All objectives of the requirements were identified and discussed in detail.
All inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the current processes were identified with detailed explanation and justification.
The following were discussed: organisational level, process level and the job/performer level inefficiencies and ineffectiveness were all identified and explained in detail. the reasons in detail and convincingly.
Excellent and convincing explanation and justification of the following:
• Objectives of the requirements • Inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of the current processes • Organisation level, process level and job/performer level inefficiencies and ineffectiveness
Process Improvement and use of IT
30% Recommended changes
are very general, lacks detail, does not answer the problem.
Business process diagram is incorrect or does not Recommended changes answers the problems and provides alternative solutions but lack detailed
explanation and justification.
Business process diagram reflects the recommended changes with some Recommended changes answers the problems and provides alternative solutions and detailed explanation and justification. Some explanations are not convincing.
Business process diagram reflects the Recommended changes answers the problems and provides alternative solutions and detailed explanation and justification. Explanations are convincing. Main problems were prioritised. Excellent explanation and justifications of the
recommended changes. Main problems were categorised and prioritised. Alternative solutions were evaluated.
Business process diagram reflects all the recommended changes with no errors.
ACCT6001_Assessment Brief 2_Business Process Analysis
incorrect notations and missing elements.
10-12 recommended changes with few incorrect notations and elements. Business process diagram reflects the recommended changes with no errors.
Team Work
10% Does not participate effectively in a team environment.
Places individual goals ahead of the group responsibility.
Hinders the group process and upsets the schedule. Participates effectively in teams.
Identifies team and individual goals, tasks, responsibilities and schedules.
Contributes to group processes.
Supports the team. Contributes to small group discussions to reach agreement on issues.
Works together with others towards shared goals.
Renegotiates responsibilities to meet needed change. Understands group dynamics and team roles.
Facilitates team development.
Renegotiates responsibilities, tasks and schedules to meet needed change. Builds team’s identity and commitment.
Leads teams.
Evaluates teams’ outcomes.
Implements strategies for enhancing team effectiveness.
ACCT6001_Assessment Brief 2_Business Process Analysis