Team Research Project

·         Weight 35% of the final grade

·         Due no later than 11:00 p.m. on Sunday of Unit 2, 4, 9, and 10

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this assignment, students will have achieved the following:

·         develop experience in working within a team

·         review a real-world business and its IT challenges

·         adopt a sound evaluation system and analyze the possible alternatives that could be used to address IT problems.

Project topic

All teams will work on Starbucks, an S&P-500 company and the world’s largest coffeehouse chain. Starbucks is a public company. To start researching the company, you may want to look at its website (https://investor.starbucks.com/ir-home/default.aspx)  and its annual reports (https://investor.starbucks.com/financial-data/annual-reports/default.aspx).

Learning Team Agreement

·         Weight ungraded

·         Due no later than 11:00 p.m. on Sunday of Unit 2

Part 1. Team Research Project (Initial Report)

·         Weight 10% of the final grade

·         Due no later than 11:00 p.m. on Sunday of Unit 4

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this assignment, students will have achieved the following:

·         analyze the structure of an organization and role of IT,

·         describe IT systems in an organization, and

·         evaluate IT system needs in an organization.

Brief Description

Analyze an organization’s background, governance and leadership structure, competitors, IT operations, and IT challenges.

SubmissionInstructions

Organizations today rely heavily on information technology in their daily operations and providing services. In this project, you will select an organization/enterprise according to the theme provided by your instructor, and identify and analyze the information technology being used in that organization/enterprise. At the start of the course, the instructor will elaborate on the theme and also create the teams. For example, the instructor may suggest that you only select an organization within a geographic region or within an industry sector. The project will be completed in two parts. Each part should not be more than 1000 words.

Initial part of your report will have the following sections:

a) Introduction – Provide a brief introduction to your report and the overall IT topic that you will study. Briefly describe what the organization specializes in terms of providing services or producing goods.

b) Organizational Description – Provide a description of the organizational and governance structure including the leadership team, the locations, headquarters, number of employees, and its competitors.

c) Information Technology Systems – Describe the IT systems utilized by the company such as the software and hardware. Try to be as specific as possible.

d) Information Technology Challenges and Opportunities– Identify an IT challenge or a challenge that can be solved using IT. Briefly describe how the organization is solving this challenge. Be as specific as possible.

This part of the report should not be more than 1000 words.

Evaluation and Feedback

The Team report will be marked in its entirety out of 100. The following rubric indicates the criteria students are to adhere to, and their relative weights to the assignment overall.

	Activities/Competencies Demonstrated	% of Final Grade
1	Content – The submission must demonstrate solid research and insightful observations.
	a. Description of the organization	/25
	b. Description of the IT operations	/25
	c. Identification of potential challenges insightful and realistic.	/25
2	Writing Style and Organization
	Writing Quality – Writing must be logically organized and free of grammatical and typographical errors.	/15
3	References – All references should be cited as per the APA style manual.	/10
	Total	/100

Part 2. Team Research Project (Final Report)

·         Weight 15% of the final grade

·         Due no later than 11:00 p.m. on Sunday of Unit 9

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this assignment, students will have achieved the following:

·         apply modelling theories to the decisions made by organizations through the review of the literature, and how these concepts apply to real-world problems and

·         demonstrate understanding of course concepts by critiquing decisions and providing recommendations for the next steps.

Brief Description

Perform a literature review and prepare an implementation plan.

SubmissionInstructions

Continue from the initial report. Perform a literature review of the topic that you are studying. Find at least 5 articles relating to your chosen organization/industry/topic that helps in better understanding the IT situation in the chosen organization. The articles should preferably be peer-reviewed, however, articles from news reports and magazines are also acceptable. The key is to find specific details relating to your topic rather than discussing generic information.

Add the following sections to the initial report:

1. Chosen Solution – Based on the literature review, readings, discussions, and other course material, describe the IT solution implemented by the organization. Describe the techniques and systems that were implemented as part of solving the IT challenge identified in the initial report.
2. Implementation Plan – Based on the literature review, readings, and analysis of the organization, describe how the IT solution will be implemented by the organization. This section could discuss a planning, purchase (or build), and implementation steps. Be as specific as possible.

3.       Conclusions –Summarize the keytakeaways and provide your insights into the IT challenge, solution, and implementation.

This part of the report should not be more than 1000 words.The combined final report should not be more than 2000 words. It is important that the two parts form one cohesive report.

Evaluation and Feedback

The Team report will be marked in its entirety out of 100. The following rubric indicates the criteria students are to adhere to, and their relative weights to the assignment overall.

	Activities/Competencies Demonstrated	% of Final Grade
1	Writing Quality – Writing must be logically organized and free of grammatical and typographical errors.	/15
2	Content – The submission must demonstrate solid research and insightful observations.
	a. Literature review	/25
	b. Discussion of the chosen solution	/25
	c. Discussion of the implementation plan	/25
3	References – All references cited as per the APA style manual.	/10
Total	/100

Part 3: Group Project (Final Presentation)

·         Weight 10% of the final grade

·         Due no later than 11:00 p.m. on Sunday of Unit 10

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this assignment, students will have achieved the following:

·         develop experience in working with a team,

·         develop skills to present information to an audience, and

·         critical analysis of the IT needs of an organization.

Brief Description

Analyze an organization’s background, governance and leadership structure, competitors, IT operations, IT challenges, and implementation plan.

Submission Instructions

Submit a group narrated PowerPoint presentation reflecting on your experience in this project. Similar to the team report, the presentation should have the following slide structure:

• Introduction – High-level description of the project.
  • Organization description – Briefly describe the organization.
    • IT Systems – Briefly describe the IT systems in place.
    • IT Challenges – Identify the challenges.
    • Solutions – Discuss the solution to the challenges.
    • Conclusions – Provide key takeaways from the presentation.

The presentation should have a maximum of 15 slides. The slide titles in your presentation may not be the same as above, however, make sure that you cover the major aspects of your final report. Teams are encouraged to be creative in presenting their findings and conclusions. You should include a narration with your slides. The idea behind using voiceover is that the reader is able to better understand your presentation. Do not include lots of text in the slides. Include the high-level bullet points, which you can elaborate in the Notes section or in the voiceover.

Evaluation and Feedback

The Team Presentation will be marked in its entirety out of 100. The following rubric indicates the criteria students are to adhere to, and their relative weights to the assignment overall.

	Activity/Competencies Demonstrated	% of Final Grade
1.	Critical Analysis and Research (70%)
	a. There is a good balance of text and illustrations in the presentation.	/40
	b. Appropriateness of research	/30
2.	Communication (20%)
	a. Uses language clearly and effectively	/10
	b. The presentation provides new insights about the case study/video, which is clearly highlighted and conveyed to the audience.	/10
3.	Attention to Detail (10%)
	a. The slides are accompanied by a voiceover or a presentation script	/10
Total	/100