Faculty of IT

31097 IT Operations Management

Assignment 1

Objectives :   This assignment will help you meet the following subject objectives :

• Understand the role of an IT Manager;
• Understand the staffing, recruitment and consulting issues;
• Understand the responsibilities of the IT Department;
• Appreciate the management of problems;
• Understand the Vendor Relationship;
• Understand the facets of Customer Service;

Task : As the Manager of the Operations Department at Under Milkwood, you must present all project proposals to the Under Milkwood Investment Review Board. The project proposals should argue the case giving both arguments for and against the proposal and should also look at some alternatives (which, of course, may be continuing the business  in the current fashion).

Your task is to write a proposal to present to the Investment Review Board for either of the two alternatives below. The proposal should cover the Business, Technology, Operations, Processes and People (BTOPP)  implementation of your proposal.

Alternative 1 : You have decided to produce a Competency matrix for staff in the Operations Management Department. The main rational is to better utilise your staff. Obviously producing the Competency Matrix will take time and resources (people and perhaps software, i.e. you need to look for any software packages on the market (briefly to get the idea), or perhaps consider producing a spreadsheet and macros to help manage the data).

Prepare a proposal for the Investment Review Board. The proposal can be thought of as a Feasibility Study, i.e. if you get acceptance you will then go and make detailed plans and costs. For this exercise do not pay much attention to costs except to indicate likely ballpark costs of software packages, hiring of any casual staff, etc.

You should also briefly indicate what is involved in extending the Competency Matrix to all of Under Milkwood’s software and hardware staff and the arguments for and against doing this.

Scope : Your proposal should have the following sections Management Summary, Table of Contents, Scope, Objectives, Proposal (business value, i.e. arguments), Details (briefly), BTOPP plus Risk analysis, Costs (where relevant), Benefits (summary), Recommendations, References (would not be in a Business Proposal,  but I would like them when you use them, recommended), Appendices (if applicable).

Your proposal your should be a business report form, except as this is an academic exercise, I would like you to use and include any references you draw on.

Assessment :

A significant proportion of the marks will given from your BTOPP appraisal in your proposal. Please make sure you fully understand the scope of BTOPP. It is also fundamental in the assignment 2.

The Marking Scheme is as follows:

Presentation    5%

• Cover sheet (student #, name ,essay title)
• Management (executive) summary
• Quotes, Diagrams (where applicable)
• Correct bibliography
• Correct English expression, & spelling

Development     5%

• Introduction, body of essay, & recommendations
• Logical division of chapters or sections
• Assertions backed up by quoted sources

Content     15%

• Correct length of answer without verbosity (maximum 13 pages).
• Deal correctly & fully with the topic?
• Arguments for and against
• Clarity in the overall aim of the answer
• Clarity and sufficient amount of analysis
• No large amount of material quoted

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