Assessment Task 2 – Skills Test

Case Scenario:

Devon Technical College is a private Registered Training Organisation (RTO) with a campus based in Western Melbourne. It offers over 40 certificate and diploma level qualifications in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector for a large number of subject areas including business, community services, education, information technology, health, hospitality, and many others.

Students select from one of two study shifts (morning or afternoons) to undertake study which is self-directed in nature or trainer led, and to undertake assessments. With the self-directed courses, trainers/assessors are on hand to handle student’s queries, while other courses are trainer led.

There are currently 450 students that attend the institute across a wide range of classrooms. Depending on their studies, students who require access to a computer are given access Windows 10 desktop machine and a word processor and other software applicable to their studies plus access the internet. For classes that are self-directed, all learning materials are provided in print format, as are the assessments.

Student management is undertaken on a bespoke application called “Student Manager”. Student Manager is a tool used to record student attendance, unit completion, student’s notes, and other applicable student management tasks.

Devon Technical College use a mixture of laptops and desktop machines which all have Windows 10 and Microsoft Office 2016 installed on them. The network is managed by two servers:

An Admin server has Windows Server 2016 installed on it and is used by the employees of Devon Technical College. It includes active directory (for domain environment), DNS, DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), and acts as the gateway to the internet. It also asks as an application server for the Student manager application and its associated database.

A Student server also has Windows Server 2016 installed on it and is used by the students for study purposes. It also has active directory on it, and a separate domain implementing DNS and DHCP services.

Network Attached Storage (NAS) is used for accessing both staff and student files. A UPS is used to protect the network from power loss and electrical surges.

The current network diagram of how the network components fits together is shown as follows:

A portion of the organisations Strategic Plan containing strategic goals is provided below:

Mission

To provide quality education.

Vision

To become Australia’s number one education provider using modern technologies and teaching platforms.

Objectives

The current objectives are listed as follows:

To deliver first-class education using modern technologies

To provide customer service excellence beyond expectations

To implement sustainable practices

Strategic Goals

The current goals are listed as follows:

To offer students new ways of learning

To expand throughout Australia

Increase student numbers for the 2019 year

Based on the strategic goals, the provider would like to phase out its print-based learning and implement an online model that it hosts in its network. This will provide a sustainable approach to teaching, and to also allow for expansion throughout Australia within the costs of opening new campuses.

You work in the information technology department at Devon Technical College at its campus in Western Melbourne. Your supervisor has tasked you to determine the best way to implement a Learning Management System (LMS) hosted at the campuses premises, and has provided some further resources that you can use for the implementation:

The following is a portion of the organisations Project Management policy and procedures which you need to follow as part of your job tasks.

Project Management policy and procedures brief:

Recommendation report is to be presented to the Project Manager/Supervisor.

ICT Recommendation report must be updated based on responses from the supervisor.   

Change management plan must be discussed and submitted to the supervisor for review and feedback.

A breakdown of the financial cost for implementing the change(s) is to be documented. Each component should be financially broken-down including hardware/software costs and including the human resources based on the WBS.

Action plan is to be approved by the Supervisor. (What actions/tasks need to be done, Who is responsible, When is the start date, when is the expected completion date, note/description (optional))

Work tasks for implement a system change

When a possible change may be required to the current ICT system you must undertake the four following steps in a sequential order:

Undertake gap analysis using the organisational template form: Gap Analysis Report

Based on identified gaps, research solutions and complete a report using the organisational template form: ICT System Recommendation Report.

Based on the agreed upon changes, develop a plan to implement the changes in an efficient method using the organisational template form: Change Management Plan

Develop individual action plans to implement and manage the changes using the organisation template form: Action Plan.

Activity 1: (Determine objectives and gaps)

In this activity you need to review the scenario, and then complete the following tasks using a word processor:

Provide an overview of the business including its business domain. (50-100 words expected)

Develop a measurable business objective for each of the strategic goals in the Strategic Plan:

To offer students new ways of learning

To expand throughout Australia

Increase student numbers for the 2019 year

Analyse strategic plan and document the effectiveness of current strategic plan against industry environment and organisational objectives developed.

Develop a Gap Analysis Report that identifies the possible gaps and opportunities in ICT and evaluate organisational impact with reference to the strategic plan and the objectives using the following organisational template.  For the gap table, analysis should be kept very high level where you specify:

the current state of each of the three strategic objectives in a few words

the desired state of the ICT system in a few words

the ICT technical gap between the current state and the future state

improvement opportunities, and proposed changes

and what ICT technology will help close the gaps.

You need to replace the text within the “<<” and “>>” characters with pertinent information using the headings and the scenario as a guide:

Gap Analysis Report for Devon Technical College

Executive summary

<<Provide a basic overview of the report>>

Background

<<Provide an overview of the organisation and its current ICT systems>>

Strategic objectives

The organisation has the following strategic objectives:

<<List the strategic objectives here>>

Current ICT network

<<Provide a basic overview of the current ICT network including the current hardware employed and how security of the network is managed>>

Gap analysis

The following table contains gap analysis for each of the strategic goals:

Strategic Objective Current State Future State Gap Technology  Recommendations

<<Provide a list of recommendations based on the gap analysis>>  

Activity 2: (Develop recommendation report)

Note: This activity is in continuation of the previous activity

In this activity you need to review the scenario, the gaps you determined in the previous activity to develop an ICT system recommendation report of what needs to be implemented, and then present this orally to your supervisor for approval.

Using the internet, research what ICT system components should be implemented to support the close the gaps identified in the gap analysis report completed in the previous activity. The research should look at the hardware, software, and security requirements.

Analyse proposed changes against strategic objectives of organisation.

Document the impact of proposed changes to ICT systems and products.

Document the difficulty levels of implementing the proposed changes to the ICT systems and products.

Based on your research from the previous task and using a word processor, develop an ICT Recommendation Report using the following template. You need to replace the text within the “<<” and “>>” characters with pertinent information using the headings and the scenario as a guide:

Present the ICT Recommendation Report to an assessor orally for feedback and approval. Note that the assessor will play the role of your supervisor for the purpose of this assessment task.

You need to:

Present the information in the ICT Recommendation Report orally to the supervisor.

Use listening and verbal skills to respond to clarifying questions from the supervisor.

Use note taking skills to document the responses for the supervisor.

Analysis the responses from the supervisor and update the ICT Recommendation Report as necessary until the supervisor is happy.

ICT System Recommendation Report for Devon Technical College

Background

<<Provide a basic overview of the project including the background including a summary of the gap analysis >>

Strategic objectives

<<List the strategic objectives here>>

Security requirements

<<Detail any security requirements for the network. How will you stop anyone from accessing the system? >>

Hardware requirements

<< Detail recommended hardware components that should be included in the network including their specifications and costs. You should provide URL link(s) to these resources. >>

Software requirements

<< Detail recommended software components that should be included in the network including their costs. You should provide URL link(s) to these resources. >>

Advantages and disadvantages

<< Detail the advantages and disadvantages of the new system compared to the existing system >>

Impact of proposed changes to ICT systems and products.

<< Detail the impact of proposed changes to ICT systems and products considering current strategic objectives>>

Document the difficulty levels of implementing the proposed changes to the ICT systems and products.

<< Detail the difficulty levels of implementing each of the proposed changes to the ICT systems and products>>

Activity 3: (Develop change management plan)

Note: This activity is in continuation of the previous activities.

For this task you need to develop a Change Management Plan using the following organisational template. You also need to follow organisational project management policy and procedures to complete the task.

When developing the change management plan, you are required to:

Prioritise the proposed changes that will present the most valuable opportunities.

Develop a schedule based on the priority of the proposed changes.

You need to replace the text within the “<<” and “>>” characters with pertinent information using the headings and the scenario as a guide:

Change Management Plan for LMS implementation

Executive summary

<< Provides a basic overview of the change management plan >>

Strategic objectives

<< Lists the strategic objectives of the organisation >>

ICT system changes

<< Document what ICT change(s) are occurring to implement the change. This should include a full list of the hardware and software components>>

Schedule

<< Document the tasks that need to be completed including the responsibility of each task. A work breakdown structure (WBS) should be used to sequentially list the tasks, how long each will take, and who will be responsible for each task. >>

Financial

<< Document a breakdown of the financial cost for implementing the change(s). Each component should be financially broken down including hardware/software costs and including the human resources based  on the WBS >>

Once you have completed the Change Management Plan, you should orally discuss and submit this document to your supervisor for review and feedback.

Note that the assessor will play the role of your supervisor for the purpose of this assessment task.

Activity 4: (Develop an action plan)

Note: This activity is in continuation of the previous activities

For this task you must develop an action plan to implement the changes using the Change Management Plan, and the ICT Recommendations Report you have developed, as well as the scenario as a guide.

You also need to follow organisational project management policy and procedures to complete the task.

You should implement the Action Plan using the following organisational template which is a component of the organisations Project Management Policy and procedures:

When developing the action plan, you must:

Document the actions to be implemented.

Responsible person to implement the change.

Targets and required standards to be met considering the propose changes.

Implementation methods to be used.

Action Plan

Action Responsibility Timeline Targets and required standards Implementation Resources and methods

Once you have completed the Action Plan, you should orally discuss and submit this document to your supervisor for review and feedback.

Note that the assessor will play the role of your supervisor for the purpose of this assessment task.

Activity 5: (Undertake cost-benefit analysis)

Note: This activity is in continuation of the previous activities

The Action Plan has been finalised, and the new Learning Management System (LMS) has been operational for the last year.

Your supervisor has tasked you to monitor the resource usage of the LMS and determine whether the project was cost effective for the organisation or not. You have recorded the following values and made the following assumptions:

The LMS cost $50,000 to implement (note this value is only applicable for the first year.

Maintenance costs for the LMS system have been valued at $100,000 for the first year. You have made the assumption that this figure will increase by 5% per year.

30% increase in numbers which has adding extra income of $200,000 for the first year. You have made the assumption that this figure will increase by 10% per year.

Based on the figure provided above, complete a 5 years Cost-benefit Analysis (CBA) by completing the CBA table using the following organisational template:

Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA)

Project: Learning Management System (LMS) implementation

Time frame: 5 years

         Year

          1 2 3 4 5

Cost  

Benefit  

Ratio  

You need to determine the costs and financial benefits for each year over 5 years and calculate the CBA ratio for each of these years, which is the benefits divided by the costs.