COIT20251 | E-Journal Mahara Assignment Brief |

Objectives

• Understand the core competences of a Business Analyst 
• Understand the skills that should be developed
• Identify the need for external and internal environment analysis
• Explore tools and techniques for requirements elicitation and reporting

Learning outcomes Assessed

• an appropriate and comprehensive knowledge audit plan to support business analysis requirements.
• Use aDeviseppropriate modelling tools to interpret and analyse the business context for enterprise systems.
• Critically review approaches to the implementation of enterprise systems within an organisation and any issues that may arise.
• Appraise the ethical and professional issues relevant to a business analyst.

Assessment Task

This COIT20251 e-journal mahara assignment brief item consists of two parts: Part A, and Part B. For each part you have to create an e-journal using a software tool named Mahara and export your e-journal into Moodle as an html file.

Assessment 1: Part A (1000 words) - worth 10 marks

Complete readings in the weekly sections (esp. Week 1 and Week 2) on the unit Moodle site. In your reading, you need to analyse the issues involved. Try to jot down key points when reading through a concept. Using your learned concepts, your prior knowledge and related work experience, write down what you have found as missing or doubtful in the topic discussions, e.g. which idea discussed was what you think was not OK. You also write what and how you see it needed to improve, along the page margins when reading through each reading.

                                                                     

                                                                                                                    

Organisation of e-journal

Organise your journal entry under the headings of Synopsis, reflection, and critique
To effectively present your work, you organise it under three sub-headings for each topic, i.e.

• Synopsis: Summarise your learned key concepts from each topic,
• Reflection: provide succinct reflective examples or logical-thinking discussions to demonstrate your in-depth understanding on the topic, and
• Critique: point out shortcomings in the readings for each topic, e.g. what is not good enough in article A, how it could be done better, lack of a specific sub-topic discussion in a reading, through an e-journal under each of the topics below:
  • The core competences (as Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)) that a business analyst should have;
  • The critical skills that organisations need a business analyst to possess in order to successfully design and develop a new technology or for technological redevelopment;
  • The models that can be used for strategy formulation analysing the external and internal environment; and
  • Relationship between organisational strategy and knowledge audit plan.

Assessment 1: Part B (1500 words)- worth 20 marks

Create an e-journal focusing on the topics

1. Leadership and Team building skills required by a Business Analyst
2. Key processes involved in understanding the business context
3. Briefly describe the suitability and appropriateness of four of the investigation techniques in requirement elicitation.

These topics are covered in Week 3, and Week 4. You should complete the readings suggested in the Weeks 3, and 4 sections provided in the unit Moodle website, before writing your journal entry. 

This assessment task is also designed to assess your ability to develop the required graduate attributes of knowledge, communication skills, cognitive skills, research, self-management, and ethical and professional responsibility, stipulated in the unit profile. Therefore, you should

• reflect on the topics you read
• research and get additional readings as required
• write clearly using correct grammar, structure, and formatting
• follow the requirements and submit in time
• avoid plagiarism

Organisation of e-journal

Organise your journal entry under the headings of Synopsis, reflection, and critique

• Synopsis: Here you provide a summary of each topic in journal entry.
• Reflection: You display your deeper understanding of each of the topics. Please link the topics as they logically follow in the business analysis process. Compare and identify the differences. Show your in-depth understanding of each topic. Use examples or cases to explain your points further. Explain as logical-thinking discussions which you may or may not refer to your examples or cases.
• Critique: Here you critically analyse the practical application of the knowledge and understanding that you have gained in the professional practice of a Business Analyst or yourself.  Discuss what are lacking, what are not good enough, and ways to improve them. Explain why one or more things in a reading need to be questioned.

References

Use the Harvard Year Date referencing style. The Abridged Harvard \Reference Guide is available through the link:
https://www.cqu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/14032/Harvard_Guide_update_for_2016_13 0116.pdf

Assignment Submission

Create your e-journals using a software tool named Mahara and export your e-journals. A zip file will be created that contains the index.html file and other folders containing images and necessary support files. Submit this zip file.