Purpose of this Exercise
This activity allows you to demonstrate your understanding of the components of a technology solution and demonstrate your grasp of the concepts covered in the IFSM curriculum (hardware, software, data, networks, etc.). This assignment specifically addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:
• Evaluate, select, and apply appropriate analytical and measurement methods/tools and system development life cycle (SDLC) - methodologies to meet organizational needs.
• Research, assess, recommend/select, and implement information technology that aligns with business needs and meets business objectives.
• Effectively communicate with stakeholders orally, visually, and in writing to determine stakeholders' business requirements, explain how their requirements will be met, and provide ongoing audience-appropriate information.
• Responsibly protect organizations' critical information and assets by integrating cybersecurity best practices and risk management throughout global enterprises.
It also addresses the business strategy, project management, risk management, SDLC, and the enterprise themes.
Assignment
Using the Case Studyand the first two Sections of the Business Case developed by your group, you should independently identify a viable technology solution that will address the business need identified in Section II of your team's Business Case.There are multiple possible technology solutions that could improve the business described in the case study. Your assignment is to come up with one and develop a three- to four-pagepaper (not counting illustrations) that describes the technical components of your proposed solution. In addition, you are to provide a graphical representation of your solution and a spreadsheet of costs. You will want to be sure that you do not identify a solution that is so broad that you cannot describe the components in the number of pages specified for this assignment, or that is so broad that the number of components would require a complex diagram and an extensive cost spreadsheet. Similarly, the solutionmust be robust enough to allow you to address all aspects of this assignment. The three parts of this assignment are more fully described below.
Pre-Approval of Proposed Solution: Before working on this assignment, you must obtain the instructor's approval of the overall proposed technology solution. After your team has identified the business need it plans to address in its business case, you should determine what solution you will propose. Send a Private Message to the instructor identifying the business need the group came up with and describing your proposed solution at a high level - for example: "CRM systems for sales force" or "SCM system for the manufacturing facility" or "integrated xxxx system for the enterprise." This is to ensure you have an appropriate solution and scope prior to doing this assignment.
1. Begin your paper with a brief (1 paragraph) description of the business need identified by your Group in Section II of the Business Case. Then, describe the overall functionality of your proposed solution and each of the components of your proposed solution, to include:
• resources:
o people
o hardware
o software
o data
o network
• and activities:
o input
o processing
o output
o storage
o control
Your paper should explain how these components work together to support the business need identified and how the solution as a whole is appropriate to the business described in the Case Study. The who, what, when, where and how of the system should all be covered, as you envision it being implemented and used.Remember to consider security and include it as appropriate. While external resources are not required, you must correctly cite and reference any resources you use in APA format.
2. You should include at least one original graphical representation of your specific technology solution. It should include all major components of the solution. The file "Example_Network_Diagram" shows the level of detail needed and provides sample icons for use in constructing your drawing, if you choose to use them. You should include labels as to what the purpose of the component is, e.g. email server, database server, system administration PC, etc. The make/model/capacity/etc of the devices does not need to be included - simply their generic device type (router, switch, server, etc) and their function (email, database, etc).
3. You should attach an Excel spreadsheet with the list of components, the quantity of each required and a unit cost and a total cost associated with each one. These general cost estimates may be obtained from any source, but the sources should be cited - for this you can use a footnote type of reference. In your spreadsheet beside the item, you can put the number of the reference used and list the references at the end. For example: Database Server (1) and then below show: 1. Dell website xxxxxxxx(properly listed in APA format). Personnel and other "soft costs" do not need to be included; however, if you specify software (e.g., xyz accounting package) then you need to show the cost of that. Every item in your description of resources and your graphical representation needs to be included on the cost spreadsheet.