University of Central Lancashire

BSc (Hons) Business Computing and Information

Systems

Managing Information Systems Projects

Assignment - Resit
Spring 2020

Words: 1600
Weighting: 40%
Learning Outcomes assessed: 1,2,3,4,5
Submission date: 03 July 2020 (11.59pm UK time)
Module Leader: Shane McMordie
Important notes

• Please refer to the Assignment Presentation Requirements for advice on how

to set out your assignment.
• You must familiarise yourself with the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism
Policy relating to this programme and ensure that you acknowledge all the
sources which you use in your work. The policy is available to access though
your programme handbook.
• You must complete the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work found at
the back of this assignment.
• Please make a note of the recommended word count. You could lose marks
if you write 10% more or less than this and additional words may not be
marked.
• You must submit a digital copy of this assignment through the CN virtual
learning environment. Media containing viruses, corrupted media, or media
which cannot be run directly, will result in a fail grade being awarded for this
module.
• All electronic media will be checked for plagiarism.
Assignment Guidance
The learning outcomes assessed in this assignment are as follows:

Module Description
Learning
Outcome
LO1 Analyse the stakeholders’ requirements for a given information systems
scenario.
LO2 Understand and apply techniques for requirements elicitation and
enhancement.
LO3 Discuss and evaluate different techniques for the planning, monitoring,
control, governance, quality management and evaluation of information.
LO4 Justify
systems the use of eitherprojects.
development a Traditional or Agile (or Hybrid) approach to the
project management of a particular information systems problem.
LO5 Critically evaluate different approaches to managing information systems
projects.

• It is the student’s responsibility to familiarise themselves with the Academic Dishonesty

and Plagiarism policy contained in the Programme Handbook.

• Any assignment submitted after the submission deadline, without prior approval, will be
given 0% and the student will be referred.

• The late assignment submission may be marked as a referral attempt, but only a
maximum mark of 40% can be awarded for that particular assessment.

• If a student requests an extension to the official submission date this must be done in
writing to the Course Director at least five full UK working days before the official
submission date. This request must be accompanied by supporting evidence.

• This assignment is worth 40% of the overall final mark for the module.

• Students should write no more than 1600 words (+/- 10%) for this assignment.
Additional words may not be marked.

• Students are encouraged to read widely in preparing for the assignment, making
reference to articles in academic journals and other relevant sources.

• All references should be cited in text and included in a reference section at the end of
the report using the Harvard Referencing Scheme.

• The Statement and Confirmation of Own Work must be completed and submitted with
the assignment.

• This assignment must be submitted by the due date and time as given on the front of
this assignment.

• Please refer to the Assessment Criteria contained in the Programme Handbook which
shows how the level of marking relates to your standard of work.

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Managing Information Systems Projects © NCC Education Limited 2020
Submission Requirements
You must read and understand NCC Education’s policy on ‘Academic Dishonesty and
Plagiarism’.
You must complete the attached form ‘Statement and Confirmation of Own Work’.
You must attach the completed form to your assignment.

Scenario: Moving to Cloud Computing

You are a project manager working for a mid-size manufacturing company in your country.
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) has told you that the business’s information systems
must be modernised. Some of them are self-hosted, and are getting difficult to maintain
and upgrade. Others are outsourced to third parties in expensive contracts with insufficient
monitoring and flexibility. There are also some critical business processes which are still
based on semi-manual procedures and should be automated. Finally, some worrying
problems have emerged in the areas of data integrity, security and privacy.

“I think we can solve all these problems”, the CTO says. “I want to move our important
information systems to the cloud. I have asked the IT Department to create a technical
solution design. I want you to develop a project plan for managing the migration of our
systems and data to the cloud. But before you can develop a good project plan, there are
some issues you must think about carefully. I have written up these issues as an
assignment with five tasks. I want you to write answers to all 5 (five) of these tasks.”

This assignment is not about technology, so you are not required to show you have a
technical understanding of cloud computing. However, you may wish to do some basic
research on cloud computing, so you understand a little about the technology context.

Scenarios such as this never contain full information. You may therefore make any
reasonable assumptions about this scenario that are appropriate for answering the
assignment questions.

Your answers to all question must demonstrate that you have applied your learning to the
given scenario. To pass the assignment it is not enough just to summarise theory, without
also applying the theory to the scenario.

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Managing Information Systems Projects © NCC Education Limited 2020
Assignment tasks
There are FIVE (5) tasks set out below. Please complete all FIVE (5) tasks for your
chosen organisation (see scenario guidance above).

Task 1: Stakeholders (20 marks)

Identify a theory that can be used for project stakeholder analysis. Critically evaluate
how this theory could be applied to the scenario.

Task 2: Requirements

(a) Explain why there are likely to be challenges in finalising the requirements for this
project. (10 marks)

(b) For each challenge, outline a solution. (10 marks)

Task 3: Planning

(a) Outline your ideas for making sure the quality of this project is as high as possible.
(10 marks)

(b) Critically discuss why there is disagreement about what “quality” means in the
context of project management. (10 marks)

Task 4: Agile
Explain why agile is the most appropriate methodology for managing this project.
(20 marks)

Task 5: The Project Manager

To be successful, a project manager needs certain capabilities, skills, knowledge and
experience. Citing theories from academic literature, write a description of the perfect
project manager for this project. (20 marks)

End of Tasks

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 Statement and Confirmation of Own Work

Programme/Qualification name:

All NCC Education assessed assignments submitted by students must have this statement
as the cover page or it will not be accepted for marking. Please ensure that this statement
is either firmly attached to the cover of the assignment or electronically inserted into the front
of the assignment.

Student declaration

I have read and understood NCC Education’s Policy on Academic Dishonesty and
Plagiarism.

I can confirm the following details:

Student ID/Registration number:

Name:

Centre Name:

Module Name:

Module Leader:

Number of words:

I confirm that this is my own work and that I have not plagiarised any part of it. I have also
noted the assessment criteria and pass mark for assignments.

Due Date:

Student Signature:

Submitted Date:

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Managing Information Systems Projects © NCC Education Limited 2020