RECENT ASSIGNMENT

Assignment specifications
It will be necessary for students to use literature/online resources to complete this assignment, so please ensure you cite and reference any such materials using the Harvard format. Marks will be deducted for incorrect referencing, so please ensure you follow the referencing guide. Plagiarism detection will be used in this assessment.
It is VERY important that you do not copy content directly from either the text or Internet resources: this assignment is to be in your own words. You will lose marks if you do not use your own words! Actual plagiarism will result in the instigation of the student misconduct process.
What do I need to do?
Download the template. There are ten (10) tasks, one for each week: the tasks are detailed below (and also in the template file).
Each task requires you to collect and summarise two (2) online resources. Note - these must be online - you must be able to provide a URL to them. Each resource summary should be around a maximum of 150 words. You should collect interesting and relevant resources that address the task. The resources must be specific to the topic (i.e. just focus on a technology or topic). These can include online blog posts, trade and academic articles. The resources should be substantial and contain information directly pertinent to the task. Each resource must contain different information (i.e. do not collect two resources that provided the same information). The course textbook (and textbooks in general), sites such as Wikipedia and HowStuffWorks are not suitable resources.
For each task, there is a table to complete in the template. Please fill in the information required and submit the document via this page by the due date.
Hints
Hint 1: Do a bit every week
This assignment is not onerous, especially if you complete each weekly section as you complete each week of the course – that means writing less than 300 words per week. However, it will be much harder if you try to complete all ten sections in week eleven!
Hint 2: Choose interesting and relevant resources
You will be assessed on the relevance of resources. Choose specialised, specific resources that helped you gain a deeper understanding of the topic area. Do not use generic web pages from sites like Wikipedia and “How-Stuff-Works”. Make sure each resource provides different information.
Markers will be checking your resources - i.e. they will go to the resources you link to. If the resources are generic (i.e. are not focused on a particular technology) or are not substantial, you will lose marks.
Hint 3: Look at this example
An example of a completed task is below. Note the first response (Resource 1) is good – so aim for something like this. The second response (Resource 2) is not acceptable, so if you submit anything like it, you won’t pass the assignment! The reasons? Poor resource selection (Wikipedia), no Harvard reference and a block cut and paste (highlighted) from the site (no citation, no original content).
Example
Task Find two resources that explain aspects of IT Service Management.
Resource 1
(Good Response) Title and Reference:
COBIT versus ITIL
Ibaraki, S 2014, online, COBIT versus ITIL, viewed 29/01/2015, http://blogs.technet.com/b/cdnitmanagers/archive/2014/04/06/cobit-versus-itil.aspx .

Summary:
This resource is a blog entry discussing the differences between CoBIT and ITIL. I chose this resource as there is a lot of confusion about the way in which ITSM is applied and the distinction between the CoBIT and ITIL implementations is frequently unclear. Ibaraki explains that CoBIT provides the governance and metric structures while ITIL delivers on the actual mechanics and “how-to” processes. The author makes an interesting observation that it is wrong to simplify COBIT as providing the ‘why’ and ITIL providing the ‘how’ because both ITSM mechanisms have considerable overlap and both need to be used at the same time. I found this article very useful in explaining the differences and similarities between these two aspects of ITSM.
Resource 2
(Bad Response)
Title and Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_service_management

Summary:
This pages talks about ITSM. It says that IT service management (ITSM) refers to the entirety of activities – directed by policies, organized and structured in processes and supporting procedures – that are performed by an organization or part of an organization to plan, deliver, operate and control IT services offered to customers. It is thus concerned with the implementation of quality IT services that meet the needs of customers, and is performed by the IT service provider through an appropriate mix of people, process and information technology.
Hint 4: Ask!
If something in this assignment description is unclear, or you are just not 100% sure about something, please ask for help. Your teaching team really do not mind if you ask us to clarify something. We do mind when we have to fail you because you haven't submitted what was asked or met the assignment requirements
What do I need to submit?
You are required to submit a single document in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). Use the template as the basis for your submission. Apart from providing your response to the weekly tasks, do not modify the document - especially do not delete the marking sheet.
Marking Criteria
A detailed tabular marking criteria is provided as part of your submission template - please ensure you read it before attempting the assignment. You will be assessed on the relevance of the resources you select as well as the clarity and detail of your discussions.
Plagiarism Checking Information
On uploading your assignment for the first time you will be able to immediately see your similarity score. However, a 24 hour delay exists for the release of similarity scores for the submission of successive items (drafts).
To be clear, the delay will not apply to your first draft which will receive a Turnitin similarity score as soon as possible.
This mandatory delay was implemented by Turnitin to minimise misuse of the similarity-checking service by students who were simply modifying their submissions to avoid match detection and without citing sources appropriately.