Management Information Systems Assignment

1. Relevance to learning outcomes

The assignment covers the following learning outcomes:

• Evaluate approaches to communicating and managing data using personal productivity software tools.
• Analyse application domain knowledge relevant to information systems development.

2. Overview

In the assignment you evaluate a range of software functions relative to a given business context. Part of evaluating a software function is figuring out how the function works. Namely, instructions on how to use the software are not provided, and part of your work on the assignment is figuring out how the software works based on the software documentation and on formal and informal support materials available on the Web. In fact, part of the assignment is devoted to you writing documentation explaining how software functions work (see section 3, item 2).

3. The assignment report

Submit your assignment as a report covering the following aspects:

1) A detailed description of your interpretation of the business context. (The business context is introduced in section 4.)

2) Evidence of you executing the software functions to simulate their use in the business context (presented using screenshots accompanied by explanations in English).Structure this part as an explanation of how the functions work. Part of this is creating simulated data relevant to the business context. Some seed data may be provided, but you may need to extend it in size and complexity to get full marks. The list of software functions to cover is given in section 4.

3) Your qualitative (using words, rather than numbers) evaluation of how appropriate is each function for use in the business context. Some of the criteria you may consider are ease of use, time savings, and the quality of the resulting outputs. You are marked for the depth of your analysis, not for how positive your evaluation is. (Occasionally, depending on your interpretation of the context, it may be appropriate to argue that a function is not suitable.)

4. Software functions to cover

You are required to cover the following functions

1) External data import functions of desktop database software (e.g. Microsoft Access or OpenOffice Base)

2) Database queries

3) Data export functions of desktop database software

4) Templates feature of word processors

You might get extra points for adding further, related functions that are appropriate to your interpretation of the business context.

5. Business context

Evaluate the software functions listed in section 4 for use in the following business context.

A business analyst has the following data, presented as three separate text-based documents:

1) a list of customer names next to customer IDs

2) a list of purchases, with a date, a customer ID, and a product ID listed for each purchase

3) a list of product descriptions, with a product ID and a product description given for each product

For some of the customers, the analyst needs to generate documents listing product descriptions for the products that these customers have purchased. The documents should be professionally and consistently formatted and may include, along with product descriptions, some extra explanations and comments. Each document should mention the customer it is intended for by name.

You may need to make further assumptions about the business context. The assumptions may relate to the background of the people involved in using the software or about the organisation, as well as about the details of how data is formatted or the software is used.

If you wish to evaluate the software functions for a context different from the one given in this section (e.g., for a context related to your workplace), contact the lecturer. (In such a case you may also negotiate with the lecturer a different list of functions to cover, appropriate to the new context.)

Report Structure -

• Title page
• Table of contents
• Tables of figures
• Introduction
• Results (explaining how you used software)
• Discussion/Conclusion