Page 1 of 6 Enterprise Data Management INFS 5089 2017 Student's Assignment Guide (Internal and External) Management Proposal Enterprise Data Architecture 40% 2500 words Due: Sunday, 7 May 2017, 11.00pm Late assignments: 20% per day deducted Last updated: 2.4.17, 10.30am Design a high level Enterprise Data Architecture for a nominated enterprise. Include recommendations of which EDM technologies and methodologies should be used and why.Page 2 of 6 About this Assignment This assignment is giving you practice in bringing together the knowledge you have acquired in this course, applying it to a business need and being able to communicate that. Imagine that you are presenting your proposal to the senior management team of your chosen organisation. Assume that the audience know little about enterprise data management, but they want to make better use of their data which is why you have been invited to submit a proposal. However, the assignment is not just a sales pitch – you must demonstrate that you know what you are talking about, back up your arguments with evidence, communicate new concepts and demonstrate to the audience that you would be worth engaging. Nominated Organisations Choose one of these: • Bunnings Hardware • McDonald’s • Salvation Army Or choose your own, but check with Stuart first Enterprise Data Architecture Diagram In the one place, this diagram should communicate your proposed data architecture and your understanding of what would information they need based on your understanding of their business needs. The remainder of the assignment will explain the diagram and how you came to suggest particular components or approaches based on what information the organisation needs. Therefore, become familiar with examples of these diagrams - what they contain, what they communicate, what they leave out. The readings will be useful, in particular Gartner’s Best Practices for Delivering Targeted and High-Impact Reference Architectures (G00321883). Don’t be concerned trying to find the ‘right’ diagram format – you are communicating to a business audience so it has to make sense to them. If you find examples from similar organisations feel free to include those, but better to focus on coming up with one yourself. Keep in mind the scope of the proposal is all information across all business operations – ie. the enterprise view. Include both internal and external sources as well as cloud based sources. The diagram only needs to be high level so you can see all the parts together, but importantly it must be specific to your chosen organisation, not a generic diagram. Business need Start the proposal with your views about the business needs of your chosen organisation. The lecture on Business Drivers for EDM will give you some ideas, but also do research into the organisation itself – such as its strategic plan, annual report. These will tell you the priorities of the organisation. You will need to explain how EDM can help the organisation to achieve thosePage 3 of 6 priorities. Some priorities will be issues or threats the organisation is facing, some will be opportunities or initiatives they are pursuing. EDM is useful in both situations. Business operations Describe at a high level the business operations, such as we have been doing in class (see Identify Data Needs in the EDM Strategies and Architectures lectures). This would show the audience you understand how their business works. Feel free to use information about business operations from researching the organisation itself, but don’t spend too much time – this is just to set the context for what information exists and is needed. Information and sources Use the processes we have been using in class to identify which information (not data) the organisation requires to perform its business operations. There should be a link between each set of information to business operations. Some information will be needed in more than one business operation. Consider also the information needed for operational, tactical and strategic purposes and internal and external information and sources. The reference diagram should show the sources. Include a list of information (not data) items under the business processes you identify. EDM technologies and methodologies Provide (brief) explanations of the following and the technologies needed: • the data lifecycle • how the data should be integrated and shared (consider partners and suppliers) • how new information requirements can be identified • how to manage master data • how the data can be brought together for reporting and analysis Feel free to use the Gartner Hype Cycles to recommend particular types of technologies, but don’t focus on a specific tool or vendor – it will be more useful in your profession if you are knowledgeable of a range of tools from different vendors. Also keep in mind this proposal is not a full Enterprise Data Strategy and consider what business requires from EDM (as outlined in the EDM Strategies and Architectures lectures).Page 4 of 6 Useful resources • Gartner material – see the ‘Using Gartner’ tip sheet • Vendors like Oracle and IBM • Weekly readings/viewings Marking criteria The assignment will be marked on how well you cover each of the points: Area Weighting Your understanding of the organisations business needs 10% Identification of the business operations 10% Identification of the information to meet business operations (at operational, tactical and strategic levels) 15% Identification of the sources/systems for current and potential information 15% Data Architecture Reference Diagram 15% Knowledge of EDM technologies and methods 15% Referencing • Correct referencing as per UniSA guidelines • Quality of references • How recent references are 5% Use of formal business or academic language 5% Correct grammar and spelling 5% Layout and professional presentation 5% Keeping within the word limit - For each of these you will be given a rating of ‘Excellent’, ‘Good’, ‘Fair’, ‘Poor’ or ‘None’ (if the section is missing). As a guide, if all ratings are ‘Excellent’ you would receive a High Distinction for the assignment (between 85-100%) or if all ratings are ‘Good’ you would receive a Credit (between 65-74%). The more you can back up your suggestions with research, examples, etc the higher mark you will receive. Presentation/structure The structure should be in a logical format that flows well. As a minimum include a title page and section headings. The title page is separate to the assignment cover page.Page 5 of 6 A sample template for the assignment is available on the course website. You don’t have to use this template, you can come with your own structure. For instance, the sample template includes a Table of Contents and Executive Summary, you can leave these out if you want. Since this is proposal for a business audience, it should be presented in a professional format making it easy to read. The use of diagrams and graphs, particularly to show figures will earn more marks. An efficient layout is also important but don’t spend too much time on making it look good and not enough time on the content. Using bullet points are OK occasionally but you'll need sentences for each point (ie. just a bullet point list with no explanation isn’t suitable). Word limit 2500 words +/- 10%. (2250 – 2750 words) Marks will be deducted if the assignment is too short or too long. Keeping to a word limit requires a focus on what the reader most needs to know. These are included in the word count: • The 'body' of the assignment: o Headings o Direct quotes ** o Summary/Executive Summary (if you chose to include one) o Diagram headings and captions These are excluded: • Title page • Table of contents • References • Footnotes ** you will gain more marks by writing using your own words then using lots of direct quotes Referencing Referencing is important for assignments to: (a) expand your knowledge of the assignment topic and (b) provide evidence to the claims you make and (c) demonstrate you know what you are talking about to make a convincing proposal and (d) provide other examples or case studies The general rule is if you are using information or data that is not of your own creation then you need to acknowledge it. Not only is this for academic integrity but to add weight to your recommendations – to show they are just not opinions. This includes the screenshots, data you use and points taken from the presentations. How many references? That depends on how many points you are making. Generally, more is better because you have used more sources to understand the topic and reinforce your points.Page 6 of 6 A minimum of 3 references is required. Just adding as many references as possible without using them in the assignment won't earn maximum marks. If you plagiarise (ie. copy from references and don't include it in quotes or include a reference) you will be penalised – students have fail assignments for doing this! We want your understanding on the topic, not copied words from experts – this only demonstrates that you can research well, not apply your learning. Reference quality The type (quality) of references makes a difference and this is considered in the marks as well. Feel free to use the readers and links from the lectures and Course Outline. Avoid marketing/vendor sites and general websites - the quality is not assured because anyone can get a website up regardless of their expertise and marketing material from software companies is usually biased. The exception would be news sites when you want to report an event or where they are the sole vendor of a technology. Finding references by Googling them is a poor approach – try the library catalogue instead. Reference recency Since this area is a fast-moving area use references from the last 5 years. Consider if you were a senior manager considering a review or proposal – would you trust a report that is using information from 6 years ago? The exception is if the reference is one of the supplied readings/viewings for the course. Referencing style Please use the Harvard style of referencing in-text citations. Refer to section on ‘Harvard Rules’ and ‘Harvard Guide’ here www.unisa.edu.au/referencing References must be in English. References must be available when the assignment is being marked. Other • Do not write in the first person (“I”) • Use formal language – this is a report intended for business. Good luck!