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FIT3174 IT STRATEGY AND GOVERNANCE

Semester 1, 2022

Assignment 1: A critical assessment of IT strategy

Value: This assignment is worth 20% of your final assessment in the unit.
Type of Assignment: Group (group of two from the same tutorial)
Submission Date: Friday, 8 April 2022, 4:30pm
Submission of the Assignments: Your assignment should be submitted to Moodle/Turnitin.
The file names should contain Unit Code, assignment number and your group ID, similar to
the following example:
FIT3174A1_GroupID.docx OR FIT3174A1_GroupID.pdf
Only one of the group members will need to upload the assignment file on Moodle for the
group, but all members must click the 'submit' button to accept the student submission
statement.

Learning outcomes:
Demonstrate the capability to develop IT strategies which are consistent with the corporate
strategy of business organisations, and to describe how IT strategies can be applied to
improve IT function and organisational performance.

Broad Assignment Aims:
This assignment is designed to assess your understanding of IT capabilities and how
organisations can employ the IT portfolio for executing strategies. Students are required to
demonstrate their understanding of how various technologies can support organisational
value-chains.
This assignment is a case study approach to general problem solving (which involves
problem analysis and solution planning), also applicable in IT strategy uses. The knowledge
you need to apply is all linked to planning an IT strategy (lesson 1 - 5).
Students are provided with the initial resources needed for the assessment. You are required
to seek additional material from a variety of sources. You must specify any sources used in
the submission using appropriate referencing styles.

Report Outline:
A recommended report outline is as follows:
 Title page (with assignment title, student name, Group ID, unit code, tutors name)
 Table of contents
 Introduction section, e.g., purpose, scope
 Body (responses to the assignment tasks)
o Introduction to the business/organisation
o Analysis of cases’ current and/or future technologies capabilities
o Evaluation of the IT and/or business strategy
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o Implementation of risk management
 Conclusion e.g. summarise strategies highlights, how proposed strategies fulfil the
purpose you mentioned in the Introduction; the implications of not having this integrated
business and IT plan put in place, future directions.
 One single aggregated reference list at the end of the document.
 Appendix – indicating each person’s contributions in any of the following areas, in a
reasonable style: conceptualisation, desk research, analysis, writing-up, and editing.

Writing style:
 Use an IT/business report genre (https://www.monash.edu/rlo/quick-study-
guides/features-of-reports).
 Font - Times New Roman font, size 12, and single space.
 Paging - each page (except the title page, table of contents) must be numbered.
 Write in neutral voice.
 Writing clear sentences and paragraphing, for examples:
o Writing clear paragraphs: https://www.monash.edu/rlo/research-writing-
assignments/writing/clear-communication/writing-clear-paragraphs
o IT report: approaching the task: https://www.monash.edu/rlo/assignment-
samples/information-technology/approaching-the-task
o Writing style attributes: https://www.monash.edu/it/current-
students/resources-and-support/style-guide
References:
Students are encouraged to search for relevant extra readings and draw on suitable literature
from academic publications as well as practitioner outlets. All sources of information must be
fully and appropriately acknowledged using in-text citation and reference list. The reference
section should use the American Psychological Association (APA) style of referencing
(https://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/apa).

Late Submissions:
Late submissions will be penalised as stated in the submission link in Moodle.

Assignment Assessment Criteria:
Your submission will be evaluated in terms of the following criteria:
 Depth of analysis.
 Completeness and correctness of arguments.
 Clarity of expression.
 Use of appropriate references to support arguments.

Group Assignment:
This assignment promotes students’ collaborations via group work – collaboration of two
students per group. Students must form their group within the same tutorial, the latest being
the end of Week 4. You will choose your group via the Assignment One Groups (see Moodle
Assessments page).
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Students will be graded as a group. Every student in the group is required to actively
participate and contribute to the assignment. These would be used as a basis for marks
adjustment for the final score (if necessary) of the assignment. At the end of the assignment,
all students must complete their Peer Assessment (to be made available in Moodle)
confidentially and individually. Failure to complete the assignment peer assessment by the
due date might result in a lower mark for the final score.


Instructional Guidelines
There are two parts in this assignment. In the first part, you need to analyse the case provided.
Discuss the organisation’s nature of business, their IT capabilities, and critique the strategies
discussed. In part two, you will choose a case organisation, then based on your research about
the case organisation, apply the knowledge learnt to date in this unit to develop an
IT/business strategy.
You are required to seek information beyond the resource provided below. However, you are
not required to contact the organisation for information. You may make reasonable
assumptions, justify them in the report, and support them with appropriate references.

Part 1:
Review the article “Bank of America Transforms Its Information Technology” (available in
Moodle):
https://lms.monash.edu/pluginfile.php/14287768/mod_resource/content/1/Bank%20of%20A
merica%20Transforms%20Its%20Information%20Technology.pdf
1. Introduction to the business/organisation (4 marks)
Demonstrate your understanding of the case organisation.
 Descriptions of the case organisations
 Discuss the organisation’s nature of business, status, etc.
 You are encouraged to seek relevant information beyond the article provided.
2. Analysing the technology capabilities (7 marks)
Demonstrate your understanding of the role of technology in the case organisation.
 Identify the technologies used in the case organisation.
 Discuss the purpose of each technology in the case organisation.
3. Evaluating the IT/business strategy (7 marks)
Demonstrate your understanding of the strategies in the case organisation.
 Identify the business and/or IT strategies proposed and/or implemented in the case
organisation.
 Critique on the strategies mentioned.
4. Identification of risks (7 marks)
Identify two risks that would impact the strategy/strategies (in task 3), and state how you can
mitigate these risks.

This part (Part 1 write-up) should be approximately 800 words (+/- 10%) in length.
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Part 2:
Select a case organisation (from online or other reading materials) and complete the
following tasks.
1. Introduction to the business/organisation (8 marks)
Demonstrate your understanding of the case organisation.
 Descriptions of the case organisations.
 Discuss the organisation’s nature of business. For example, you can use the Porter’s
value chain to describe the core business activities and provide examples for each of
the components in the value-chain.
 Status, challenges, etc. For example, you can use Porter’s Five Forces to describe the
forces threatening/competing with the business/organisation.
2. Understanding the technology portfolio (8 marks)
Demonstrate your understanding of the technology portfolio of the case organisation.
 You may select one specific business area of the organisation (e.g., logistics,
marketing, sales) or decide to have a broader perspective (e.g., across all areas of the
business).
 You must justify your understanding of the portfolio by identifying the purpose of
each technology in the case organisation. Identify at least five technologies in the case
organisation’s technology portfolio.
3. Developing IT/business strategy (33 marks)
Develop two new IT/business strategies for the case organisation.
 Your discussion of each strategy should include the strategy categories, e.g., type,
level. (2 marks)
 Discuss how the proposed strategies maintained the business’s competitive
advantages. You are encouraged to use at least two applicable theories or frameworks,
for example (but not limited to) Porter's Generic Competitive Strategies, Resource
Based View of the firm, Contingent Resource Based Theory, etc., to provide a logical
rationale for the strategies that you have developed (5 marks)
 Discuss the role of IT in each of the strategies. (5 marks)
 Discuss the strategies using balanced scorecards or the 6 W’s, including the expected
outcomes and the approach for measuring the effectiveness of the strategies. (18
marks)
 There are marks allocated for the overall coherence of the strategies (3 marks)
4. Threat or opportunity? IT strategies prepared for uncertainties (10 marks)
The COVID-19 situation introduced several influences that will impact your business
strategies. Identify three and discuss the nature of these influences (threat or opportunity) on
the day-to-day business activities, and/or supply chain. How would you adjust your IT
portfolio to mitigate the issues?

This part (Part 2 write-up) should be approximately 2200 words (+/- 10%) in length.


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References (8 marks)
Include at least ten significant1 references and cite them in the body of your assignment
report and add full references in the bibliography (use APA style).

Overall presentations (8 marks)
Overall presentations, e.g., writing structure, flow, headings/subheadings, paragraph
construct and linkage, general grammar.


1 These may include websites and newspaper articles and should be as current and substantive as possible – you
are expected to provide at least four published peer-reviewed academic articles, e.g., journal, conference article,
book, book chapter. You should acknowledge all sources of information.