Play a role as a system analysts and come up with 5 questions and its purposes

5430 Professional Skills for Information Technology Practitioners Semester 2, 2017
1
Due Date:
Task 1 due 8.30 a.m. Sunday 6th August 2017

Assessment One Using various communication media
Total Marks: 100 Weighting of this assessment: 50%

Task 1:
Instructions for Assignment
The scenario given below is based on a realistic business problem; however the role of the business representative will be played by your lecturer.
You are required to complete four tasks – two as a team and two individually. Teams are composed of a maximum of four students. Task 5 (given on the cover page
above) does not relate to this scenario.
Read the following scenario carefully.
Alexander Boswell graduated in September 2013 with a Bachelor of Business (BBus) degree, majoring in Accounting, from Unitec Institute of Technology. He was fortunate
to get a job as trainee in a well-established accounting firm, Auckland Professional Accountants, in January 2014. After working in this firm for three years Alexander
decided to open his own accounting firm: Alexander’s Professional Accounting Services (APAS). He rented an office space on the first floor of a commercial building at
36 Remarkable Street, Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand. He began to provide his accountancy services in January 2017.
In the first quarter of the year he was able to cope with the demand for his services by himself. He used Microsoft Excel 2016 on his personal computer (PC) for
employee and customer records. However, as the number of customers has been increasing steadily, he is no longer able to provide efficient and effective services. So
he advertised for the following positions: one Personal Assistant (PA) and two Chartered Accountants (CAs). From the applications he received, he chose to employ Jane
Barker as his PA, and Lisa Smith and David Parker as CAs. He needs to buy new furniture and equipment and organize office space for each of his newly recruited staff
and for himself (as the General Manager (GM) of APAS).
Alexander wants to setup a local area network (LAN) for his business. He would like to keep all customer records on a file server which should be accessible to him
and all his staff. Different rights and privileges over customer records, as appropriate to their roles, would have to be provided to each member of staff. The
colour laser printer and fax machine that he has been using will also have to become part of the network. Suitable hardware and software will need to be purchased for
all his staff. He would like to buy a portable computer for use at home and an up-to-date hand-held digital device that he can use for after- office-hours
communications.
Alexander also wants to offer online professional accounting services in order to attract and serve potential customers nationwide.
He needs to develop a professional brand for APAS to use on his business cards and office stationery. He will also need suitable software for generating reports and
to manage the financial aspects of his services.
Alexander is seeking your assistance to develop a professional brand, set up the LAN that can meet the needs of his staff, and create a website for his firm so that he
can provide online professional accounting services.
You are a systems analyst. The first thing that you must do is to find out more about the APAS’s proposed LAN. You need to send a list of questions to the GM so that
you can obtain more information that will help you to set up the LAN that will be capable of satisfying the needs of all APAS staff.
Your lecturer will play the role of the GM.

Task 1- Questions

Instructions:
Carefully read the scenario given above and derive as much information as possible from it. Research similar scenarios so that you understand better the questions to
ask. Review the information that you have. Identify the information that you are lacking and develop five (5) questions that will elicit this information.
Send a business email to your lecturer (who will act as the GM) with the questions as an attachment. The attachment needs to be a Microsoft Word document. In addition
to each question, you need to state what type of question it is (open or closed) and the reason it is being asked. Make sure you put your name in the attachment.
Submission:
Send one email to your lecturer with one attachment containing the questions and explanations. Also submit the Microsoft Word document containing the questions (same
as the e-mail attachment) on Moodle using the 2017 Semester 2 Assignment 1 Task 1 submission link.
Marking Criteria The email is professional in tone and appearance. The MS Word document attached is correctly formatted and includes your name. A list of five
questions is prepared with the purpose of each question explained and the type of question being asked is stated. The questions are relevant and likely to elicit the
information expected. The lecturer may print your list so prepare your document appropriately.