Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Greenwich Coordinator: Mrs Keeran Jamil Due: 9th April 2010
This coursework should take an average student who is up‐to‐date with tutorial work approximately 50 hours
Learning Outcomes: B,C,D,E,F
Plagiarism is presenting somebody else’s work as your own. It includes: copying information
directly from the Web or books without referencing the material; submitting joint coursework as
an individual effort; copying another student’s coursework; stealing or buying coursework from
someone else and submitting it as your own work. Suspected plagiarism will be investigated and if
found to have occurred will be dealt with according to the procedures set down by the University.
All material copied or amended from any source (e.g. internet, books) must be placed in
quotation marks and in italics, with a full reference to the source directly underneath the
material.
Your work will be submitted for electronic plagiarism checking. Any attempt to bypass our
plagiarism detection systems will be treated as a severe Assessment Offence.
Coursework Submission Requirements
• An electronic copy of your work for this coursework should be fully uploaded by
midnight (local time) on the Deadline Date.
• The last version you upload will be the one that is marked.
• For this coursework you must submit a single Acrobat PDF document. In general, any text in the
document must not be an image (ie must not scanned) and would normally be generated from other
documents (eg MS Office 2007 using "Save As .. PDF").
• For this coursework you must also upload a single ZIP file containing supporting evidence.
• There are limits on the file size.
• Make sure that any files you upload are virus‐free and not protected by a password otherwise they
will be treated as null submissions.
• Comments on your work will be available from the Coursework page on the Intranet. The grade will be
made available in BannerWeb.
• You must NOT submit a paper copy of this coursework.
Coursework Regulations
1. If no submissions were made before the deadline, coursework submitted up to two weeks late that meets
the criteria for a pass will be treated as a referral. It will be subject to university regulations for referral
work.
2. Coursework submitted late without an Extenuating Circumstances claim will receive
a ZERO grade. If you have extenuating circumstances you may submit your coursework up to two weeks
after the published deadline without penalty but this is subject to acceptance of your claim by the School
Extenuating Circumstances Panel. If your claim is rejected then you will receive a zero grade for your work.
3. Coursework submitted more than two weeks late will be given feedback but a grade of non‐submission
will be awarded regardless of any extenuating circumstances. However, if your Extenuating Circumstances
claim is accepted then the Extenuating Circumstances Panel will recommend to the Progression and
Award Board that you be permitted to retake a different item of assessment at a future assessment point.
4. All courseworks must be submitted as above.
THE PROBLEM SCENARIO
The Scene
Ictbuild Ltd. is a medium‐sized company that develops software and systems for use in the
construction industry. It originated approximately 15 years ago as a foundling company. After
struggling to survive due to a period of national economic downturn, the company began to prosper
and expanded rapidly from five employees to 30 employees and has continued to expand ever since.
The company chairperson, its founder, is an entrepreneur with some construction industry
knowledge but little computer expertise. In view of his character and past experiences, great value
is placed on the sales staff. These staff travel to clients offices giving demonstrations and all have
portable PCs and mobile phones. Most of the construction information is graphical in nature and,
therefore, the sales staffs also carry portable digitisers.
The research and development staffs are predominantly involved in developing and maintaining
software that is specific to construction industry applications. The team has for many years used
networks.
Ictbuild also employs several technicians who install software on existing client hardware or on
proprietary PCs and networks that are delivered as a complete system to the client. A large
proportion of the company’s income is from the maintenance contracts that they encourage clients
to take out and from revenue generated by upgrading their Ictbuild software. The company also
employs a small number of construction industry specialists. These staff form a buffer between the
sales staff, who generate ideas for new products and features, and the programmers, who transform
the ideas into reality.
Ictbuild also makes use of large proprietary databases of building component descriptions and costs
for use by quantity surveyors and estimators. Ictbuild’s clients using these pay for a licence from the
copyright owners (not Ictbuild) to make use of them.
Geography
Originally, the company was situated in a science part situated next to a university. Expansion into
an established company meant that it had to relocate and, fortunately, suitable premises were
secured nearby. Ictbuild is housed in part of a relatively new two‐storey building. The building is
quite long. Ictbuild occupies half of the building length, and both floors of that half.
Some issues
• Increasingly, sales staff are wasting a great deal of time stuck in traffic.
• Most R&D staff have home computers and the team is thinking about approaching management
to request permission to have the freedom to work from home where appropriate.
• Due to the pressure of work, endemic in the organisation since the leaner years, software staff
are little more than programmers, albeit very competent ones. Some of the principles of good
Software Engineering practice are rather abused or ignored, especially:
requirements elicitation
testing
documentation
The problems have manifested themselves recently due to the resignation of the Software
Manager, who is about to take up a senior position in a rival company. Unfortunately, he was
the sole ‘owner’ of much key information.
• Senior management wish to develop the company web site to handle e‐commerce. They feel
that this is particularly appropriate to the innumerable small construction companies wishing to
purchase individual PCs, digitisers, Ictbuild packages, and proprietary software. Many of these
companies are thought to buy on impulse.
Your task
You are invited, as an experienced consultant, to put together a strategic plan and a technical report
(the final report), on the basis of the evidence supplied in this brief. The plan should include the
following deliverables (These should conform to sections of your report):
1. An identification and prioritisation of the problems facing the organisation. A rationale needs to
accompany your identification of problems.
2. Recommended solutions to identified problems in terms of (discussion of proposed solutions
and screen designs):
a. Possible design approaches to developing an e‐commerce website for Ictbuild.
b. Highly secure staff interface which allows them to login to the Intranet to do the
following:
i. Remotely login to update work
ii. Carry out e‐meetings via video conferencing links with remote clients
c. An Enquiries System that deals with client queries and problems.
d. Your report should also contain a realistic budget proposal which covers the following
areas:
i. Set up and Development costs
ii. Maintenance costs
The design and development approach:
o This should include some sample pages to demonstrate the design approach used and a
sample database ‐ YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT A FULLY FUNCTIONAL E‐
COMMERCE SITE.
o The sample pages can be in HTML. There is no need to include any connectivity to the
database.
o All images and sample downloads must be free of copyright.
Note if Wizards or other Program Generators are used then they need to be clearly acknowledged.
Assessment Criteria
An introductory chapter covering background 5%
Evidence of Research (identification problems with rationale, outlining the key
issues and findings of the report). 10%
Possible design approaches to developing an e‐commerce website for Ictbuild 30%
Highly secure staff interface which allows them to login to the Intranet to do
the following: 20%
i. Remotely login to update work
ii. Carry out e‐meetings via video conferencing links with remote clients
An Enquiries System that deals with client queries and problems. 20%
A realistic budget proposal which covers the following areas:
i. Set up and Development costs 15%
ii. Maintenance costs
Total 100%
Note: Literature used needs to be properly referenced within your report. It is not acceptable to
just submit a bibliography at the end of your report. You will lose marks.
Grading Criteria
>=70%
Appropriate factors and criteria are selected and justified.
Appropriate literature has been critically reviewed.
A high quality of the proposed technologies are presented where other possible options are also reviewed and
rejected
A high quality technical specification has been produced.
A detailed budget for developing the site is presented
Critical evaluation and specific conclusions are presented.
>=60%
Appropriate factors and criteria are selected and discussed.
Appropriate literature has been reviewed.
The proposed technologies are presented and other possible options are also reviewed and rejected
A sound technical specification has been produced.
A sound budget for developing the site is presented
Some evaluation and conclusions are presented.
>=40%
Factors and criteria are selected and discussed.
Some literature is reported.
There is an attempt to present possible technologies and other possibilities are mentioned.
There is some technical specification.
Some attempt at presenting a budget is present
Very little if any evaluation or conclusions are presented.
<40%
Factors and criteria are not selected and discussed.
There is no literature review or report.
There are no or very little technology proposals or mention of other options.
Very poor technical specification.
Very poor or no budget
Very poor or no evaluation or conclusions are presented.