Assessment Criteria:
Assessment task details and instructions
Your Task
You are a consultant who has been employed to advise on the effective implementation of strategic changes. You are required to produce the following for the case study provided below:
Part A: Analysis – Business Process Models and strategy analysis
In this section you should develop
- A series of at least two Business Process Models, which capture the existing and your proposed business processes. The models should follow the BPMN notation shown in the lecture slides. You can utilise Microsoft Visio, Word, PowerPoint or appropriate alternatives to create the models.
- Strategic analysis: You should use at least one recognised analysis technique such as SWOT, PESTLE etc
Part B: Open Source Software Comparison Table
In this section, you should conduct research into a suitable software solution. You should decide on the set of characteristics which you will use to evaluate the software and your research should consider 4-5 alternatives in detail. This section should be presented as a table.
Part C: Report
In this section, you should write a report which provides an overview of the current situation together with a roadmap outlining how the proposed changes to the business can be achieved to the benefit of the business. This should draw on your analysis in Part A, include your recommendation for software in Part B, and provide recommendations for ensuring that the strategy is effectively implemented, including consideration of the challenges ahead.
This section should follow standard report structure:
Title Page – Contents – Introduction – Main Section – Conclusions and Recommendations – References.
You should use appropriate theories, frameworks, models, that we have covered in the module, to inform and justify your recommendations.
art D: Reflection on your contribution to the online discussion
In this section you should submit a 250-word reflective summary, accompanied by your own self-assessment of your contribution to the online elements throughout the module, using the table labelled ‘Reflection Self-Assessment Pro forma’ in Appendix A (copy and paste it into your assignment document). The reflective report should include your detailed reflection on your learning process of theories, frameworks, models that we covered in the module, supported with evidence (pasted URLs) from the online discussion forum.
Using the Discussion Forum
The module syllabus will feature discussion forums for you to explore the assignment/share your ideas and findings of group activities. It is recommended that you use these to:
- Share papers and articles that you have found on relevant topics (remember to include links / reference / pdfs if you do this!)
- Discuss the changes to the ways of working – i.e. discuss what processes will change and explore how these might work in practice. You might also consider the changing information needs of the business
- Discuss and share examples of Open Source software that could be of use.
- Present the practice/outcomes/discussion of group activities outside class.
Please don’t be shy of using the discussion forums – the purpose is to give you experience of using collaborative technologies.
This is the marking table which will be used to guide the marking of assessment components:
| Section | Content | Word Count | Marks |
| Part A | Analysis – Business Process Models and strategy analysis | 1000 (equivalent to) | 30 |
| Part B | Open Source Software Comparison Table | 500 (equivalent to) | 20 |
| Part C | Report | 1250 | 40 |
| Part D | Reflection on your contribution to the online discussion | 250 | 10 |
| Total | 3000 | 100 |
The case study: Music Mates
Music Mates is a group of three musicians who have been performing together for approximately two years. The group have regular repeat gigs around the North West of England, which provides enough funds for them to be paid as part-time professional musicians. In addition to their musical talents, Alexander, Sergei, and Vassily, are experienced sound engineers, who provide a PA service for the Music Mates gigs and for a number of other bands in the North-West area. They share a wide network of friends who are also musicians and they often promote other bands. But recently these other bands have asked them to be agents for an agree fee. If they decide to take this professional route, it would mean that they could work full-time as musicians/agents.
However, they are aware that starting the agency would require a business approach. They would be responsible for advertising events, social media marketing, keeping business accounts, providing an updated calendar of events, and keeping track of the communications between themselves, the clients who want to book bands, and the bands who are signed to the Music Mates agency.
At the moment, they use a website, a Facebook page, and the SoundCloud audio platform. Alexander, Sergei, and Vassily all have iphone’s and macbook pro laptop computers. They realise that starting the agency requires a business approach, which includes software that will support their business. They have read about Customer Relationship Management software and Enterprise Resource Management software, which appears to offer the type of information technology support that they will need. However, they need professional help before they can make any final decisions about investing funds in business software. They are also interested in the possibility of utilising Open Source Software, but require information on the advantages and disadvantages.
Growing Music Mates into a full-time small to medium enterprise business that supports three members of staff will mean significant changes and there are some concerns that using business technology might change the close working relationships which exist between Alexander, Sergei, Vassily and the bands with which they have personal connections. They are keen to run the business in a democratic style and as such, everyone will have an equal vote on any business decisions. Therefore, they require a report that can be read and understood by each of them. You are the OIM consultant who is responsible for researching this business and providing a consultancy report.
