Faculty of Business, Government and Law Business Intelligence Systems 7156 and 6680 Assignment 2: Proposal Requirements for DSS/BIS Project Due Week 5, Wednesday 15th March 2017 by 11pm Value 10%, 1000 Words, Individual Work. For this project, each student is expected to develop individually a computer-based decision support system (DSS) or business intelligence system (BIS) using a software tool or application of choice. The purpose is to analyse the raw data provided in a dataset and to generate insights by presenting the information in a meaningful way. You are required to download a Department of Social Services (DSS) dataset from https://data.gov.au. The dataset is at https://data.gov.au/dataset?groups=community and called “DSS Payments by Commonwealth Electoral Division". Prior to the election last year, The Conversation published "a snapshot of the key issues affecting each state and territory in the lead up to Saturday’s election" (see, for example, https://theconversation.com/state-of-the-states-tasmania-17318 ). These snapshots suggest that some government funding decisions can be seen to be located in electorates for political advantage or pork-barrelling . The question has been asked whether social security payments are fairly distributed across the country or is there evidence of politically motivated spending in marginal electorates by major parties for electoral gain ? Your task is to get the facts by accessing available data on these DSS payments by electorate and any other publically available datasets to see if there is evidence of biased spending. The project is worth 40% of your marks in the unit and consists of three stages : 1. Proposal to a maximum of 1000 words, worth 10% and is due week 5. This requires you to build knowledge by drawing on source material. You will need to build knowledge around the setting for the problem. The following readings are expected to bring new ideas or insights. While they may reinforce your original thinking on how to proceed, alternatively they could take you in an entirely different direction. Research source material with an industry focus includes ‘white’ papers from software vendors, ‘grey’ literature from government, newspaper articles for political awareness, community literature such as from Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), and professional literature such as Information Age, published by the Australian Computer Society. Google is also a good starting point. Research source material with an academic focus includes articles from journals, books and conferences published after a rigorous peer-review process. Google Scholar is also a good starting point. 2. Presentation of ongoing progress worth 10% and due week 10. Students may present in either of two ways - a. online in a 5 minute video submitted to Moodle by the end of week 10. The student must be the actor who is visible and speaking in the video, or b. face-to-face in the week 10 tutorial. The presentation by the student must be no longer than 10 minutes and 3 slides. If a student does not present as specified, there is an automatic fail grade awarded for the unit. 3. DSS/BIS prototype must be functioning and non-trivial (although not too complex) with a user-friendly interface. This stage is worth 20% and due week 12. The report briefly documents a. the development process, and b. a user guide, and c. a research component which tells your ‘story’ about the data and your interpretation of findings, drawing on predominantly industry sources for undergrads (7156) while postgrads are expected to use industry and academic sources (6680). The assessment overall is scaffolded with each stage incrementally contributing to your learning. The assessment is designed to enable you as a student to acquire an understanding of the business intelligence field as well as to develop graduate attributes: analytical and inquiry skills; writing, oral and interpersonal communication skills; organisational abilities, and a sense of professionalism. Project Proposal This task draws on your growing knowledge from previous Information Systems units such as Database Design, Systems Analysis and Modelling, Designing Human-Computer Interaction and Research Methods (PGs 6680). This document explains the requirements for stage 1 (Project Proposal). Stage 2 (Presentation) and stage 3 (DSS/BIS Final Project Prototype) will be explained in the near future. There will be time during classes over the semester to work with your tutors on your project. Regarding the Data … Your task is to investigate the data and determine the problem, design and build a prototype, extract information to ‘tell us what we should know about the data’ from this dataset, and then to present the information meaningfully and visually. You are provided with raw data in csv format. You need to create the problem, context, setting, users and uses of the data. We are not prescriptive in this regard. We would like you to use your imagination. The data has a story to tell. If there are terms you do not know, research those terms. After all, being resourceful is an expectation of UC graduates. Examine the data. The data is de-identified. We can assume it is open data for public viewing. Ask some BI questions. What does the data tell you ? Who would want that data ? Think about users and uses of the data ? Focus on one organisation or individual user such as an investigative newspaper report, rather than be too general. What questions could be asked ? Would analysis of the data assist the government to make decisions and policy ? Are other datasets required to get the answers ? We suggest you ‘play’ with the data. Would you like to aggregate the data further ? You may wish to 'clean' it. There is no requirement to use all the data, that is, there is no need to use every row and every column of the data for your prototype, just what applies to your identified problem. You may need to access other data. If you are not strong with statistics, there are other ways to analyse the data. Building tables and querying the data is another way. Think about data visualisation. Try using the National Map http://nationalmap.gov.au/ . Criteria for Proposal Report: 1000 words Section Words Executive Summary: Brief overview of the proposal and recommended course of action. Introduction: The contents of the proposal. Section 1 Identification: Based on your research, provide a brief description of the context of your project, what problems and issues are relevant to the dataset, what systems exist already, what do they do or not do in terms of business analytics ? Section 2 Analysis and Design: Refer to early BIS lectures. 1. Statement of the problem and solution eg, what is the problem and what are you are intending to do ? 2. Who are the users of the proposed system ? Explain level of managerial control (operational, tactical, strategic) for your system and why ? 3. Explain decision structure (structured, semi-structured or unstructured problem) and why ? 4. DSS/BIS architecture including • model deployed (optimisation or what-if or heuristics or simulation or satisficing etc) • issues with provided data eg is it ‘clean’, adequate, timely, complete, accurate etc ? 5. Software options proposed for the DSS/BIS prototype solution eg Excel, Access, Powerpoint click-through, SAS software, Tableau, C#, Java, etc. Which software option do you prefer and why ? Do not use too technical an explanation. 6. Design an interface to display your findings. Think about business analytics and data visualisation through graphs, charts, dashboards etc. Suggest you check out the National Map tab http://nationalmap.gov.au/ Conclusion: Concluding remarks including how you think you will generate the evidence to support your proposal. Incorporate a plan for the development of the DSS/BIS prototype in the final stage of the project due week 12. 100 100 300 400 100 Total 1000 Guidance on Scholarly Writing Guidance on scholarly writing is available from the University of Canberra Study Skills resource http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills and referencing from the library site http://canberra.libguides.com/referencing . As well, forthcoming classes will discuss writing requirements. By submitting an assignment you are certifying that the assignment is the product of only your work, based on your personal study and/or research. Collaboration or collusion is not permitted in the production of this assessment item. All material and sources used must be acknowledged. The university takes a very dim view of attempted deception - passing off others' work as your own. Read the Academic Integrity Policy! If you have any doubts about how to handle intellectual property, follow the link on our Moodle site to the Academic Integrity Module. It is not acceptable to simply copy and paste from sources. Exact or direct copying is a last resort and should be done only to emphasise a point that is best explained in the words of the original author. Exact copying should be in italics or between apostrophes (depending on the reference style) and must always be referenced with author, year and page number, if known. It would be expected that exact copying is no more than 5% of the report. Even when paraphrasing, by re-writing the ideas of other authors in your own words, you will need to reference. The University of Canberra has available, through LearnOnline (Moodle), text-matching software that helps students and staff reduce plagiarism and improve understandings of academic integrity. Known as URKUND, the software matches submitted text in student assignments against material from various sources: the internet, published books and journals, and previously submitted student texts. Submission Instructions The assignment should be organised using the following guidelines: • The assignment must use 12 point font size minimum and at least single line spacing with appropriate section headings. • Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed at the end in a reference list. Harvard referencing style must be used. • Marks will be lost for poor writing, inadequate structure, careless presentation, and if the word limit is exceeded by more or less than 10%. Extensions Requests for an extension must be received by the convenor on the authorised extension form, accompanied by supporting documentation, before the due date else penalties may apply for late submission without an approved extension. Refer to Assessment Policy and Procedures for details. Marking Rubric for Project Proposal: worth 10% Awesome Amazing Admirable Attempted Unacceptable Grade Mark HD 9-10 DI 8 CR 7 P 5-6 Fail <5 Proposal Content 5% All topics are pertinent and covered in depth. Ability to think critically and to synthesise source material is demonstrated. Logic is clear and easy to follow with strong arguments Topics are relevant and soundly analysed. Consistently logical and convincing Generally relevant and well analysed. Mostly consistently logical and convincing Some relevance and analysis presented. Adequate cohesion and conviction Little or no understanding of the topic. Missing content. Lacks conviction. Descriptive rather than critical thinking demonstrated. Arguments are confused and disjointed Proposed Project Plan 2% Well thought-out plan, do-able within timeframe Completion within timeframe most likely Completion possible Some chance of succeeding Totally unrealistic plan and timeframe Proposal Structure (Executive Summary, Introduction Body and Conclusion) 1% All elements are present and very well integrated. The proposal is the exact length. Headings are clear for each section Components present with good cohesive and appropriate section headings Components present and mostly well integrated. Most headings are given Some components present Proposal lacks structure, is much too long or too short. Not readable Writing Style 1% Totally clear with excellent English expression and spelling Clear writing style Generally clear writing style Sometimes clear writing style Lacks clarity with many grammatical and spelling errors Research and Referencing 1% Excellent use of creditable sources. Accurate referencing. Obvious that outstanding effort made Extremely good effort Good effort made but not outstanding Made some effort. For example, Web searches only Very little attempt to reference. Lazy effort with inaccuracies Student Name: Student Id: Date Submitted: ………………/………………/ 2017 Mark Achieved: Grade Achieved: 5