20ISP486 Information Architecture
Group Coursework Assignment
- Number in a group: 4-6 people (students to form their own groups based on self-selection)
- What do I need to hand-in/complete?
- Group Management Report (no more than 30 pages of A4) which includes an Executive Summary of no more than 2 pages of A4. You can use appendices if required.
Deadline 14:0028th January. Please submit an electronic copy via the Learn module.
- Electronic peer and self-assessment(web-pa) http://web-pa.lboro.ac.ukby 14:00 1st February
Coursework Overview
You work for a large international organisation that has over 100,000 customers. After recently completing a university course you have decided to take the initiative and look at more cost effective ways to store and retrieve information. Your boss frequently talks about the semantic web but isn’t sure what it can offer the world and in particular your organisation.
Your attention is taken by the fact the organisation has grown organically and when it first started, it managed all its customer records through an MS Access Database. In fact they still use the same system today. There is some concern in the organisation, and lots of rumours, that the Access database will only hold a finite number of records and the organisation might be close to reaching that number.
Currently the database is used by Sales and the Accounting Department. It is also accessed by external organisations that pay for the privilege of accessing good quality customer records for marketing purposes. Or that’s what they are told!
With your focus on the future, you have told your boss that you are going to undertake research into the possibility of a new database and you will present the findings to her in a report and give a verbal presentation to the board of directors. What she doesn’t know is that you are going to look at the feasibility of using the basics of the semantic technologies to hold the 100,000 customer records. However, at this stage you are not sure of the benefits of doing this over a traditional Customer Relationship Management system or even keeping with the existing Access database, but this will be detailed in your report. Other areas you have decided to investigate and cover in the report are:
