ASSESSMENT GUIDE
Critical Thinking Analysis
INFS5602 Digital Capabilities
Due Date: March 8, 2024 , 1pm (Sydney time) – Week 4
Term 1, 2024
UNSW Business School 1
Assessment Summary
Assessment Task Weighting Due Date* Learning Outcomes
Assessment 2: Critical Thinking Analysis
The individual assignment involves identifying and analysing a
digital business problem.
15% Week 4, Friday March 8 1PM CLO1, CLO3, CLO5
* Due dates are set at Australian Eastern Standard/Daylight Time (AEST/AEDT). If you are located in a different time-zone, you can use the time and date converter.
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Assessment Details
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Due Date Weighting Format Length/Duration Submission
Turnitin
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improper citation or misappropriated content. Each Turnitin assignment is checked against other students' work, the
Internet and key resources selected by your Course Coordinator.
If you are instructed to submit your assessment via Turnitin, you will find the link to the Turnitin submission in your
Moodle course site. You can submit your assessment well before the deadline and use the Similarity Report to
improve your academic writing skills before submitting your final version.
You can find out more information in the Turnitin information site for students.
Late Submissions
The parameters for late submissions are outlined in the UNSW Assessment Implementation Procedure. For INFS5602,
if you submit your assessments after the due date, you will incur penalties for late submission unless you have
Special Consideration (see below). Late submission is 5% per day (including weekends), calculated from the marks
allocated to that assessment (not your grade). Assessments will not be accepted more than 5 days late.
Extensions
You are expected to manage your time to meet assessment due dates. If you do require an extension to your
assessment, please make a request as early as possible before the due date via the special consideration portal on
myUNSW (My Student profile > Special Consideration). You can find more information on Special Consideration and
the application process below. Lecturers and tutors do not have the ability to grant extensions.
Special Consideration
Special consideration is the process for assessing the impact of short-term events beyond your control (exceptional
circumstances), on your performance in a specific assessment task.
What are circumstances beyond my control?
These are exceptional circumstances or situations that may:
• Prevent you from completing a course requirement,
• Keep you from attending an assessment,
• Stop you from submitting an assessment,
• Significantly affect your assessment performance.

Available here is a list of circumstances that may be beyond your control. This is only a list of examples, and your
exact circumstances may not be listed.
You can find more detail and the application form on the Special Consideration site, or in the UNSW Special
Consideration Application and Assessment Information for Students
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Assessment 2: Critical Thinking Analysis

Week 4, March 8, 1pm

15%
Business Analysis Report
1,500 words maximum (this includes all headings, tables, appendix and in-text referencing)
Via Moodle course site
Description of assessment task
The individual assignment involves identifying and analysing a digital business problem.
Summary
• This assessment is to be undertaken individually
• This assessment is worth 15% of the course total marks
Important Dates
1. Business Report: Week 4, Friday March 8, 1pm
*All dates are set in Australian Eastern Standard/Daylight Time (AEST/AEDT). If you are located in a different time-
zone, you can use a time and date converter.
Expected Learning
• Examine the core information systems components in digital transformation [PLO1]
• Produce logical and well-justified plans for the leveraging of information systems tools to optimise
organisational efficiency and effectiveness and to compete in a global marketplace [PLO1, PLO2, PLO3, PLO5]
• Critically analyse a range of cultural, security, privacy and ethical issues faced by individuals and
organisations in the context of information systems transformations [PLO2, PLO5, PLO6]
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Part 1: Background
Purpose
This Critical Thinking Analysis is a “choose your organisation” assignment which focuses on problem identification
and articulating the problem (in writing) in a brief direct professional manner. For this assignment, you do not need to
propose solutions (that will be done in the Group Project). In this assessment, the goal is to understand the problem
and its causes in a given business environment. This problem identification is to simulate the real-world business
environment in which you might be asked to investigate, understand and explain a problem.
Scenario
You belong to a team of new junior consultants, specialising in Information Systems, at a leading international
consulting firm. Your boss, the Senior Vice President (SVP) of your firm is concerned with the productivity of your
business unit. The SVP wishes to improve the skill of early career consultants by training you (the new junior
consultants) to work on a problem identification analysis task with a focus on restaurant chains or hospitality
chains. According to IBISWorld 2023 report overall restaurant industry in Australia accounts for $20bn with mid-range
and premium dining about $14bn revenue.
The SVP does not want you to solve the problem, but wants to see your capability in identifying and analysing a
problem.
The SVP criteria outlines the following:
1. You can choose a restaurant chain/ /hospitality group that operates in Australia. Some examples are provided
below – however, you may select something else if it meets the following criteria:
(i) the group or chain must have a physical outlet (i.e. dine in restaurant, accommodation,
entertainment centres). Take away only is not accepted
(ii) there must be at least 10 restaurants/food and beverage outlets operating in Australia. Some
examples of these chains are:
a. Merivale
b. Sydney Restaurant Group
c. Solotel
d. Applejack
e. Australian Venue Co.
f. ALH Hotels
g. Pacific Concepts
h. Trippas White Group
i. Momento Hospitality

(Tip: try to choose a organisation that interests you. You don’t need to avail of their offerings and services (i.e.
dine in their restaurants) but will need to find a way to observe, source information,etc.)

2. The organisation must have operated for at least 10 years. (Organisations that have operated for some years
will offer a wider range of issues/problem/opportunities to consider.)
3. The business must have an online presence (website/app) AND a physical services location. You will need to
read about/investigate the organisation’s products or services online. (Digital capabilities is a significant area
in organisations so this is useful from a research perspective.)
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Part 2: Business Report
You will write a report of no more than 1,500 words (including all headings, tables, appendix and in-text referencing)
that addresses the following:
1. Undertake an analysis of the organisation and its external business environment. (25%)
Provide an explanation of what you think would impact the success (or survival) of the organisation. This may
include your analysis of the industry, competitor organisations and any significant pressures your chosen
organisation is facing. Clearly justify your analysis with the use of examples.
Tip: It is useful to first write your full analysis and then cut back to what is critical. It is easier to decide which
points are the most important once you’ve drafted an outline. This funnelling technique is often used in business
to fine tune decision making, especially when you need to decide what is critical/immediate.
2. Using Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas (OMB), undertake an analysis of the organisation’s internal
environment and business strategy. (30%)
You may insert a diagram of the OBMC (same as the Tesla and Netflix examples provided in the Week 2 lecture)
In your analysis, be guided by the following questions:
• Are the business model components of the organisation supportive of the value the organisation is
trying to deliver?
• Which business model components do you believe could be a source of challenges or issues within the
organisation in delivering their value proposition to their customers?
• Ideally, the structure of the business model components is aligned with the organisation’s overall
business strategy – comment on the alignment or misalignment.
Tip: The 9 components are linked with each other so to be able to address the above questions succinctly and
effectively it is useful to critically analyse their relationship with each other and their relationship to the overall
business strategy. The goal here is to identify the strengths and the weakness by looking at the building blocks
of their business. Once you’ve written this section, ask yourself – will the SVP better understand what this
organisation is about based on how I presented this section?
3. Based on your analysis of the current state of your chosen organisation in items 1 and 2 above, identify two
digital capability critical issues or opportunities faced by the business. (30%)
These issues can be a problem or opportunity that you think need immediate attention. Describe the facts of
each issue. You will need to provide specific examples of where the product or service needs attention or
improvement. To support your arguments, you will need to discuss why they are critical at this stage of the
organisation's life. You will also need to explain how you arrived at the decision that they are critical issues.
Tip: Use the funnelling technique to write this section. In business, you will typically start with a list of issues
and then go through a process of evaluation to decide what is critical (i.e. what has the greatest impact to the
company? Greatest risk? Greatest potential financial gain or contribution to objective?. This will lead you to your
decision on the two most critical issues. As budgets for projects and transformations are often limited, you
often need to justify why the project deserves priority funding and support.

It is important that you provide the SVP with information that is customised for the chosen organisation rather than
producing generic and vague information. You should demonstrate that you understand the business context and
articulate any assumptions that you have made about the business (if necessary).
In order to write this report, you have to undertake research. However, you should ensure that you use the information
gathered from your research to illustrate and support your argument - you should not simply copy or describe your
research findings.
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Your report does not need an introduction or conclusion.
Your report can include an appendix (this is included in word count limit) with a short description of the organisation
(no more than 100 words) and link to the organisation’s website if you think this would be useful to the SVP.

Formatting and Communication Quality (15%)
• File format: Microsoft Word
• Formatting: Use of appropriate headers, footers, page numbers, etc
• References: All quotations and third-party material should be referenced using the Harvard referencing system
• Quality of communication

Use of generative AI
As this analysis task involves some planning and research, you are permitted to use generative AI software (such as
ChatGPT) to generate initial ideas. However, you must develop or edit those ideas to such a significant extent that what
is submitted is your own work (i.e. only occasional AI generated words or phrases may form part of your final
submission).
A significant copied and pasted response (40% or more) from any generative AI tool with little to no self-development
will result to 0 mark for this assignment and may be subject to academic misconduct review. It is recommended that
you keep copies of the initial prompts to show your lecturer if there is any uncertainty about the originality of your work.
You are required to submit the original AI generated responses as an appendix and properly cite your source. To cite:
OpenAI (Year Accessed). ChatGPT. OpenAI. https://openai.com/models/chatgpt/

Submission details
You must submit a single Microsoft Word document that includes:
• Cover page (fully completed and signed) – excluded in word count
• Main Business report - no more than 1,500 words in total including all headings, tables, in text referencing and
appendix
• Reference list (no more than 1 page) – excluded in word count
• AI responses used for the assessment should be on a separate page (last page after the reference list but no
more than 1 page)- excluded in word count



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Part 3: Marking Rubric
Report (15% of course marks)

Criteria High Distinction (HD) Distinction (D) Credit (C) Pass (P) Fail (F)
Problem
identification:
comprehensive,
considered and
relevant (Q3)

• Clearly and
professionally
introduces and
summarises the
problem.
• Provides highly relevant
and considered context
and evidence,
demonstrating a very
strong understanding of
the organisation and its
external environment
and business model.
• Clearly introduces and
summarises the
problem.
• Provides relevant and
considered context
and evidence,
demonstrating a
strong understanding
of the organisation and
its external
environment and
business model.
• Introduces the
problem but misses
some details.
• Provides mostly
relevant context and
evidence,
demonstrating a
sound understanding
of the organisation
and its external
environment and
business model.
• Introduces the
problem but misses
many details.
• Provides somewhat
relevant context and
evidence,
demonstrating some
understanding of the
organisation and its
external environment
and business model.
• Does not clearly and
correctly identify the
problem.
• Does not provide
relevant context and
evidence,
demonstrating a lack
of understanding.
Analysis: critical
with well-justified
arguments (Q1-
Q3)
• Critically analyses the
problem by applying and
synthesising a range of
highly appropriate
theories and research.
• Develops a convincing
and well-justified and
well-rounded argument
that is supported by
evidence and highly
detailed analysis.
• Critically analyses the
problem by applying a
range of appropriate
theories and research.
• Develops a well-
justified and well-
rounded argument that
is supported by
evidence and detailed
analysis.
• Analyses the problem
by applying a range
of appropriate
theories and
research.
• Develops a mostly
justified argument
that is supported by
evidence and
analysis.
• Analyses the problem
by applying some
appropriate theories
and/or research.
• Develops an
argument that is
supported by limited
evidence and
analysis.
• Does not critically
analyse the problem
and does not apply a
range of appropriate
theories and or
research.
• Does not develop a
well-justified and
well-rounded
argument.
Communication:
clear, concise and
coherent (Overall
report including
format)
• Consistently expresses
information clearly,
concisely and coherently
in language appropriate
for the intended
audience, context and
purpose, and with
• Expresses information
clearly, concisely and
coherently in language
appropriate for the
intended audience,
context and purpose,
with accurate
expression/grammar.
• Expresses
information clearly
and concisely, using
language mostly
appropriate for the
intended audience,
context and purpose,
with generally
• Expresses
information
somewhat clearly
and concisely, using
language somewhat
appropriate for the
intended audience,
context and purpose,
• Does not express
information clearly,
concisely and
coherently in
appropriate language
or with sufficiently
accurate
expression/grammar
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accurate
expression/grammar.
• Presents all information
logically using a
structure that flows well
and promotes
understanding.
• Accurate use of Harvard
referencing system.
• Presents all
information logically
using a structure that
flows well.
• Accurate use of
Harvard referencing
system.
accurate
expression/grammar.
• Presents information
logically using a
structure that
generally flows well.
• Mostly accurate use
of Harvard
referencing system.
with some accurate
expression/grammar.
• Presents information
with some structure.
• Somewhat accurate
use of Harvard
referencing system.
to make meaning
clear.
• Does not present
information logically
or structure text
coherently.
• Inaccurate use of
Harvard referencing
system.