Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Learning Outcomes:
A, B, C, D
Plagiarism is presenting somebody else’s work as your own. It includes: copying information directly from the Web or books without
referencing the material; submitting joint coursework as an individual effort; copying another student’s coursework; stealing or buying
coursework from someone else and submitting it as your own work. Suspected plagiarism will be investigated and if found to have
occurred will be dealt with according to the procedures set down by the University. All material copied or amended from any
source (e.g. internet, books) must be placed in quotation marks and in italics, with a full reference to the source directly
underneath the material. Your work will be submitted for electronic plagiarism checking. Any attempt to bypass our
plagiarism detection systems will be treated as a severe Assessment Offence.
Coursework Regulations
1. If no submissions were made before the deadline, coursework submitted up to two weeks late that meets
the criteria for a pass will be treated as a referral. It will be subject to university regulations for
referral work.
2. Coursework submitted late without an Extenuating Circumstances claim will receive a ZERO grade. If
you have extenuating circumstances you may submit your coursework up to two weeks after the
published deadline without penalty but this is subject to acceptance of your claim by the School
Extenuating Circumstances Panel. If your claim is rejected then you will receive a zero grade for
your work.
3. Coursework submitted more than two weeks late will be given feedback but a grade of non-submission will
be awarded regardless of any extenuating circumstances. However, if your Extenuating
Circumstances claim is accepted then the Extenuating Circumstances Panel will recommend to the
Progression and Award Board that you be permitted to retake a different item of assessment at a
future assessment point.
Deliverables
There are three sections to this coursework. Make sure that you complete all parts. You will not be able to
pass the coursework by only completing the rich picture and use case parts. The majority of marks are for
the discussion and critical analysis.
Section A ‐ Requirements Analysis using Rich Pictures (30 marks)
This section requires you to use information from all of parts of the case study (not just the Appendices).
You should use examples from the case study to illustrate any points you make but do not just cut and
paste from the case study.
A1. Draw a rich picture for the complete Child Support Agency environment.
Make sure that your diagram is clear, readable and contains a key identifying the symbols you
have used. Hand drawn diagrams are preferred to computer generated diagrams. Do not spend
hours making them look pretty, but make sure they are readable.
A2. Describe and justify the process you followed to arrive at your final picture. In describing this
process, answer the following four questions:
A2.1 How did you identify the key actors in the environment?
A2.2 What led you to chose the key issues and areas of conflict affecting this environment you
have included in your diagram?
A2.3 What is the main focus of the environment shown in your picture?
A2.4 Where does the control of systems, data, processing lie in the environment as shown in
your picture?
In completing this section, you should justify the choices you made. Your answer to part A2
should be in the region of 1000 words.
Section B – Requirements Analysis using Use Case Modelling (30 marks)
Appendix A of the case study provides information about the Contract system.
B1. Draw a use case diagram for the system clearly identifying the actors involved.
B1.1 Write a primary scenarios for each use of the system
B1.2 Write secondary scenarios for each use of the system
B2. Describe and justify the process you followed to arrive at the final use case diagram. In describing
this process, answer the following four questions:
B2.1. Why have you chosen the actors you did and why are they key to the system?
B2.2 Choose one scenario. How did you identify the key activities to include in it?
B2.3 How did identify alternative uses to produce the secondary scenarios?
B2.4 You will have needed to make some assumptions about the system. In real life what
questions would you have asked to get the necessary information? Who would you have
asked?
In completing this section, you should justify the choices you made. Your answer to part B2
should be in the region of 1000 words.
Section C – Critical Analysis of the tools used (40 marks)
Compare and discuss the usefulness of the two tools used for carrying out requirements analysis for
complex human activity systems such as that described in the case study.
Your answer to Section C should be in the region of 2000 words.
Deliverables checklist:
Submit a report containing the following:
Part A
• Rich Picture of whole problem situation, suitably annotated
• A discussion of the process followed to produce the rich picture, justifying decisions made (1000
words approx)
Part B
• A properly annotated Use Case diagram of the Contract system including primary and secondary
scenarios
• A discussion of the process you followed to produce the diagram and scenarios, justifying decisions
made (100 words approx)
Part C
• A comparison and discussion of rich pictures and use case modelling (2000 words approx)
You do not need to use any additional material from journals/books/websites/etc.
to complete this coursework. This coursework examines your ability to model a
problem and critically analyse the tools you have used. Any unnecessary material
from other sources describing Rich Pictures and Use Cases will be ignored when
assessing your work and may result in having your mark reduced.
Grading and Assessment Criteria
You would be expected to show a thorough understanding the requirements
A
analysis using appropriate tools;
demonstrate a clear ability to abstract relevant information from given
documentation and write a requirements specification;
demonstrate clear understanding of using rich pictures and Use Case analysis;
critically reflect upon work completed;
70%- demonstrate a wide reading of the subject area;
100% bring original thought to the argument;
be fully referenced where required and formatted to an acceptable standard.
You would be expected to show a good thorough understanding the
requirements analysis using appropriate tools;
B
demonstrate an ability to abstract sensibly from given documentation and write
a requirements specification;
demonstrate understanding of using rich pictures and Use Case analysis;
show evidence of personal reflection;
give examples from the case study;
60%- demonstrate some reading of the subject area;
69% bring some original thought to the argument;
be fully referenced where required and formatted to an acceptable standard.
You would be expected to show some understanding of requirements analysis
C
using appropriate tools;
show some understanding of the critical issues in relation to the given
documentation and write a requirements specification;
demonstrate some understanding of using rich pictures and Use Case analysis;
Some evidence of being able to reflect upon own work
50%- use the case study to show examples;
59% demonstrate some reading of the subject area;
be properly referenced and formatted.
You would be expected to show examples of requirements analysis using
D
appropriate tools;
show that you can model some parts of a system based upon given
documentation and write a requirements specification;
discuss the benefits of using rich pictures and Use Case analysis;
Attempt to reflect upon own work;
40%-
give relevant examples of from the case study;
49%
be properly referenced and formatted.
Children Support Agency Case Study
The Children Support Agency (CSA) is a national charity based in the UK that cares for young people (aged
12‐24) who require additional support to help them live their lives effectively. There are 4 key areas where
CSA work, housing, family support, education & training, and tackling crime. For example, CSA manages a
project to provide safe and affordable housing for homeless young people. They also run a project in North
London to help tackle knife crime and, from the same office, manage an IT training course for young people
who have previously committed crime.
Organisation Structure
CSA have a head office in central London. They have recently moved there having previously had two main
offices, a small one in London and a larger one on the South Coast of England in Brighton (about 70 km
away). Previously, all of the administration support and services were based in the Brighton office with just
a small presence in London. Some of the staff working in Brighton chose not to move to the new London
office and, as a result, CSA have had to employ a number of new members of staff. In particular, the Human
Resources department has had an almost complete overhaul of staff, with just one junior member choosing
to move to London. The remainder, including the head of department, are all newly appointed.
Nationally, CSA run 60 different projects, 10 housing projects, 15 tackling crime projects, 20 education &
training projects and 15 family support projects.
To help manage these projects effectively, CSA is split into 3 geographical regions, Northern, South West
and South East. Each region is managed by a Regional Director who is supported by an administrative team.
As well as managing existing projects, the regional director is also responsible for developing new projects,
sorting out the contracts with funding bodies, identifying project deliverables, and so on. This is done in
partnership with the appropriate Area Manager and the Contract and Funding Raising Department at the
head office. The regional office staff are based in one of the Area Offices in their region.
Within each region, there are Area Offices which coordinate the projects being run in that area. There are 6
Area Offices in the Northern region, 8 in the South East and 5 in the South West. Each of these offices is
managed by an Area Manager who is responsible for overseeing the management of all of the projects
being run in that area (typically, an Area Office will be responsible for 3‐4 projects.)
Projects
Some projects are large, looking after a significant number of young people, resources and budget, whilst
others are quite small. Regardless of size, each project has a Leader Worker, who is responsible for
overseeing and managing the project. In some cases, where there are a number of small projects grouped
together in one Area Office, there is just one member of staff managing them all. For larger projects, there
is a project team, normally made up of 4‐6 members of staff. The Lead Worker is responsible for managing
the project team.
All projects are funded by outside bodies, either funded by an appropriate government agency or receiving
funds from trusts who support the kind of work carried by CSA. Each project has a contract which identifies
the budget, the length of time that the project will run for, how many staff should be employed and a set of
deliverables (such as how many young people should be supported by this project and what targets should
be set.)
All projects have to produce regular monitoring reports for their funding bodies, but there is a wide range
of the level of reporting required, depending upon the type of project and who the funding body is. Some
of the projects in the area of education & training are for running government training contracts through a
government agency, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). These are highly regulated and require a
significant amount of reporting back to the LSC on monthly basis. Much of the funding depends on these
reports being properly made. At the other extreme, some projects funded by trusts only require an annual
or bi‐annual report to explain how it is going.
Central Services
The head office contains the Chief Executive and her admin team, Finance department, Human Resources,
Marketing, and Administrative Services. The ICT department, which is fairly limited in scope, is managed
through the Finance Department. Administrative Services is responsible for collating the appropriate
management information for the organisation, as required by the Board of Trustees and the Senior
Executive Group. The Contracts and Fund Raising team are managed through Administrative Services.
The Senior Executive Group (SEG) is made up of the Chief Executive, the Finance Director, Head of HR,
Marketing Director, Administrative Services Director and the three Regional Directors. This is the key
decision making body for CSA, although all decisions need to be ratified by the Board of Trustees.
System Requirements
The Senior Executive Group, supported by the Board of Trustees, has decided that the time has come to put
in place better management tools to help manage CSA. As a result, they have requested that a
management information system be built that will help the Head Office to monitor projects. The system
should also provide effective tools to help Regional Directors, Area Managers and Lead Workers to manage
their work. At the heart of the system will be the recording and monitoring of key performance indicators
(KPIs) for each of the projects managed by CSA. Each department at head office, should be able to see
information as it relates to their department. Likewise, the Regional Directors will need to see the data for
their region, Area Managers for their area and Team Leaders for their project.
The system is to be developed under the joint guidance of the Director of Administrative Services and the
Finance Director.
The system should also record centrally all contracts that are in force, to help the contract team manage
existing contracts and develop future contracts for new projects. (see Appendix A – Contract System.)
Current Position
CSA recognise that there is significant work required to achieve a successful development of this system.
Historically, projects have been developed and implemented on an almost ad hoc basis. As a result there is
a very wide range of management styles across the organisation. Each of the Regional Directors has a very
different approach to doing things and there has been no real guidance from the SEG as to how things
should be done. Also, each project has different requirements for reporting and deliverables. Therefore,
there is no consistent way of running a project.
Due to the kind of work that they do, the staff are, in general, very people centred. Many of them lack any
real interest for information technology and a significant number of staff see using any form of technology
as an unnecessary burden on their work.
There is no standard way that projects record information about users of their services. Some projects
record their data using a paper based system whilst others have created simple databases or spreadsheets
to help maintain records. One or two of the larger projects have invested heavily in IT and building their
own databases to meet their requirements.
Requirements Analysis Interviews
The following are some extracts from a number of requirements analysis interviews that have taken place
at CSA in preparation for building the management information system.
Jim Massey (Administrative Services Director)
“The management information system is my idea. I have been working here for 12 months now, and I think
it is fair to say that the management of CSA is a mess. There is no consistent way that things are being done
and we need to tackle that. My job is to make sure that we run efficiently, and show our funders that we
are providing value for money. Unless we do this we will find it increasingly difficult to obtain new contracts
in the future which will undermine the organisation as a whole.
I want to use the introduction of this system to change the way things are done throughout the
organisation. We can’t afford to allow everyone to do their own thing. In a way, I want to introduce
centralised management by stealth, forcing staff to follow a single way of doing things by making them use
the management information system to record core data about the projects and the young people they are
working with.
I also understand that this is a large development project and critically we need to sort out the core
functionality before adding any of the bells and whistles. At this stage we don’t want to introduce a case
management system for managing the detail of what goes on in projects. That would be too complex.
The other things that I am concerned about are making sure that staff are supported properly as we
introduce the new system, so they require proper training, making sure that this is a secure system as much
of the data held is personal data and confidential, making sure that it is easy to use, a lot of staff seem
terrified of using IT.
The development of this system is jointly managed between myself and Steve Sutherland, the Finance
Director. I’ve had a chat with him and I think we are in agreement what needs to happen. It is important
that we make this a success as future funding from the Board of Trustees is dependent on us showing them
that it works.”
Steve Sutherland (Finance Director)
“I’ve been asking for a system like this since I arrived 9 months ago, and it seems that I have finally got my
way. It was quite clear that Area Managers and Regional Directors haven’t been providing accurate financial
data for some time and that clearly isn’t good enough. This new management information system must be
about managing the finances of local projects, anything else is of secondary importance.
Of course there cannot be a hard connection between the finance system we use and the MIS as that
would open up all sorts of security risks which we don’t want to open up. Whoever builds this system must
think how we can share data between the two systems without compromising our finance system.
In fact, security is of utmost importance. A member of staff should only be able to see data for which they
are authorised to see. We should make sure that that part works properly before using the system live.
I’ve talked Jim about this and I’m pretty confident that we are in agreement as to what is required.”
Sally Smith (Head of HR)
“I’m afraid that I cannot help much with this development. I’ve only just arrived and I have my hands full
sorting out the HR department. The HR software is years out of date, and the data that we hold is full of
errors. I’m more concerned about getting that fixed. I’ve spoken to the Chief Executive and she seems
confident that we can get the funding for a new HR system in the next year or so. I’d rather we
concentrated on that rather than playing about with this management information system.
The only thing that I am worried about it is that there is no connection to our system. And I don’t want
personal information being entered into the MIS about CSA staff. It is hard enough managing one system,
let alone having the same data in two places.
I want to make sure that Area Managers come to us first to set up staff records before entering it anywhere
else. I’ve already had problems with Area Managers holding their own staff records.”
Julieanne Black (Information Quality Officer, Administrative Services Department)
“I’ve only just been moved to this post. It is my job to make sure that the projects provide accurate and up‐
to‐date information so that good decisions can be made centrally. As a result, Jim has asked me to manage
the MIS development as it has a significant overlap with my job.
If I’m honest, it is something I could do without. I’ve got enough on my plate trying to persuade projects to
send back accurate KPI information every three months. However, it is a system that is long overdue so I
am totally committed to making it a success.
Jim and I are in agreement, we need a system that will allow projects to enter the core data into the system
which we can use to measure KPIs. The system will need to hold basic data about each young person that
we work with as they are central to measuring performance in each project. So we will need to record
when a young person joins us, and then the same basic information about who they are, address date of
birth, and so on. After that, it is about recording information that we can use to measure performance. So
for example, one of the KPIs is to identify that all young people are properly registered with local health
services within a reasonable period. We therefore need to record that information into the system.
But what we don’t want is to get distracted with providing projects with a system to manage individual
young people’s cases, records of interviews with the young person and so on. That would be far too
complex at this stage and there are a number of systems already available to do that job. I’d rather we look
at those and see how we can integrate them into the MIS rather than writing those parts from scratch.
I’m sure those who work at projects will say they we need a case management system. We will need to be
firm and make sure that we keep to providing core functionality and leave the extra parts until later.
An important part of the system is to support the Contract & Fund Raising Team. One of the problems that
we have is that centrally we have no clear record of which contracts are currently in force, what the
deliverables are required, the deadlines of each contract and so on. We need to manage this part of the
organisation better and the contract is central the MIS as each project is linked to a contract being
operational. “
Sean McNally (Northern Regional Director)
“I’ve worked for CSA for nearly 20 years and I seen ideas come and go. I’ll wait and see if this one comes to
anything.
What I need is a system that will help me manage my staff in my region. What I don’t need is a system that
allows head office to continually interfere with what we do. I try to run a well organised region and I think
everyone respects what we do in our office. We have tried to support the projects from within our own
resources and have invested heavily into things that I think makes their job easier such as IT and databases.
I wouldn’t like to have yet another system that my staff have to deal with on top of everything else they do.
They are already overworked.
I also don’t want them to feel that we are spying on what they do. Much of what they do relies on trust and
I want them to trust us.”
Peter Jackson (Area Manager, Bridlington Area Office)
“I’d be very pleased to be part of any group that will help develop your new system. I have lots of ideas
about what it should do. I’ve worked here for 18 years, so I know exactly what is needed. In fact, we have
already developed a database for our office which you might use it as a starting point for anything you
produce. It looks after all of the information we need to hold about our project users. I’ve written it using
Microsoft Excel as I went on a course. The only problem is that it takes a while to find individual pieces of
data which is always annoying when we are trying to fill in the returns for Julieanne’s KPIs. It can often take
a couple of days getting all that data together.
What we really need is something to help us manage projects. Sue, one of the Project Managers, for
example, would like something that will allow her to record details of any interviews she has with the
young people she is dealing with. This would be very useful because that would mean we can share the
information amongst the team in Bridlington. The sharing of information is very important to the work that
we do.
We could also do with a system that will produce all of the data that we have to send to our funding bodies.
If you could do something that will send the correct information directly to them, then that would be
great.”
Sue Williams (Team Leader, Bridlington Tackling Crime Project)
“I understand that you are going to solve all of my problems! That’s great because I seem to be spending
the whole of my time doing administration. I chose to work for CSA because I want to work with children
and help them in some way. Now all I seem to do is to fill in forms, check forms, write reports, check any
amount information being sent to me. Then we get Julieanne, with her KPIs, phoning up saying, can you
just change this piece of data or add that piece of data. I haven’t got the time for it. What is a KPI anyway?
They don’t seem to be of any use to me. Just giving me additional work.
It is all very well for those people down in London in their fancy new offices to tell us what we should be
doing, but I don’t think they realise what it is like running a project like this. When you have a kid who is
about to do something stupid, I don’t know, break into a house, commit suicide, or whatever they are
about to do, then you have to drop everything and run to sort out their problem. Admin is the last thing on
my mind when that happens. But now we are being told that admin is our highest priority which strikes me
as completely back to front.
There seems to be something wrong here. Aren’t we, us people who are working in the projects and
dealing with the children, the people doing the real work for CSA. Yet, it seems to me that there is a lot of
resources going into giving those in London nice comfy offices and clever databases. Don’t get me wrong, I
realise that these things have to happen, but it would be nice if someone down there thought about us
people first for a change.
Peter does his best to help us with his little database, but to be honest, I’ve never been very good with
technology. Apparently I keep on entering the wrong information into Excel, is that what its called, and
then Peter has to come and mend what I have done. Hope you will be training us to use this new database,
you’ll have you hands full in this office!
What I really need is to have a system that will magically do all of the admin for me, then I can get on with
my proper job.”
Appendix A – Contract System
Central to everything done at CSA is the contract. Each project that is run by CSA needs a contract with the
funding body. The contract defines precisely what is required for the project in terms of deliverables, when
and how monies will be paid to CSA, the length of the project, staff, resources, and so on. It is a very
important object for the successful running of CSA.
Each contract needs to hold the following information:
• CSA Contract Id
• Name of Project
• Date Agreed
• Start Date
• End Date
• Funding Body (name of body, contact details and so on)
• Budget
• Proposed Schedule of payments to CSA (including dates and amount to be received)
• Deliverables for project
• Area Office
• Lead Worker
• Other staff working on contract
The contract team need to hold this information centrally so that CSA can manage existing contracts and
plan for future ones. Currently some contract information is being held in regional offices and, in some
cases, Area Offices. This has led to a disjointed and confused state with information lost and deadlines
being missed.
By holding the information centrally, this will stop separate offices bidding for the same contracts. In the
past, because there has been no central overseeing of contracts, some Area Offices have competed with
other offices for running a project which has led to confusion and, in some cases, losing the contract. A
central contract database will overcome this problem.
One of the roles of the contract team is to develop new projects. They need a record of existing contracts
to write bids for future funding for contracts. They should be able to use the contract database to identify
similar contracts that have been successful in the past to help write bids for future projects and contracts.
The bidding process is as follows:
A new project starts as a lead. A lead might be a tender from a government agency to run a particular
service (e.g. training or housing) or a notice that a trust fund is willing to make available funding for a
project in a particular area.
Once a lead has been received then the contract team, in partnership with the appropriate Regional Office
and Area Office, will identify if it meets the criteria for CSA (i.e. age of beneficiaries, in one of CSA core
areas of work, etc). if this is ok, there will be an audit of resources to make sure that CSA are able to meet
the requirements of the tender or identify what would be needed for the project to succeed. The team
working on the bid will then make a Go/No Go decision as to whether to proceed any further. If not, then
the information is put on file. If it is thought to proceed, then the bid is written to meet the criteria of the
funding body and also goes to SEG for agreement.
Once the bid is written and checked that the criteria has been met, it is sent to the appropriate funding
body.
There are three possible outcomes from the funding body: yes, you have won the bid; no, you have failed in
your bid; yes, subject to some changes.
Where the answer is no, the information is put on record along with the reasons why it has failed.
Where the answer is yes, subject to changes, a decision is made whether the changes are appropriate and
CSA is able to meet them. If it is felt that this cannot take place then it becomes a no and the funding body
is informed of this. If it is yes, then it follows the procedure below.
For all agreed bids, a new contract is created. This sets up all of the relevant information for the contract as
shown above. There is also a series of tasks that occur, including making sure that the resources are put in
place, staff are appointed, a lead worker is allocated, marketing and publicity occurs to advertise the new
project. This continues until the project starts and the project is then monitored until its end date. For
many projects, CSA is able to bid for future funding as the project comes towards its close date. When this
occurs it follows exactly the same pattern as above.