DevelopmeI framework and method

Paper details:
You must complete this assignment using the given case study ñ The Youth Action Case Study Firstly, read the information given in the case study (which is attached to this coursework specification). Then produce all of the deliverables detailed below. Note that the case study contains a lot of information about Youth Action – read it carefully.

Course: COMP1648  Development Frameworks and Methods    Contribution: 100% of course
99: Development Frameworks and Methods – Term 1 – MAC    PDF file required
Greenwich Course Leader: Christine Du Toit    Due date: 26th November 2015
This coursework will be marked anonymously
YOU MUST NOT PUT ANY INDICATION OF YOUR IDENTITY IN YOUR SUBMISSION
This coursework should take an average student who is up-to-date with tutorial work approximately 50 hours
Learning Outcomes:
Discuss the role and significance of how information technology can aid the business enterprise.
A.    Critically evaluate the significance of a methodology/framework within an IS development environment.
B.    Apply the principles, concepts and techniques of a RAD methodology to a given development environment.
C.    Appreciate the issues impacting upon the future development and use of methods in industry.
D. Discuss professional and ethical issues relating to information systems development.

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All material copied or amended from any source (e.g. internet, books) must be referenced correctly according to the reference style you are using.

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 Submission Requirements
•    An electronic copy of your work for this coursework should be fully uploaded by midnight (local time) on the Deadline Date.
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•    You must NOT submit a paper copy of this coursework.

The University website has details of the current Coursework Regulations, including details of penalties for late submission, procedures for Extenuating Circumstances, and penalties for Assessment Offences.  See http://www2.gre.ac.uk/current-students/regs for details.

Detailed Specification
This coursework must be completed as an individual piece of work.

You must complete this assignment using the given case study – The Youth Action Case Study
Firstly, read the information given in the case study (which is attached to this coursework specification).

Then produce all of the deliverables detailed below.
Note that the case study contains a lot of information about Youth Action – read it carefully.

Note that you should NOT be referencing journals/book/websites within this coursework – your discussions should relate to what you have found in the case study and/or what you have learnt as a result of undertaking the given activities.
If you refer to information given in the case study, make sure that you reference it appropriately – don’t just copy text from the case study to support your arguments.

Deliverables
There are three sections to this coursework. Make sure that you complete all three sections.

Section A – Justifying DSDM as an appropriate development method        (30%)
The consultant, Samuel Smith, has decided that the most effective way of developing an MIS for Youth Action would be to take a Rapid Application Development (RAD) approach using DSDM. However, management has raised a number of concerns about the use of this approach within his organisation and has asked you to justify your reasoning.

Based on the concerns he has raised, use the information given in the case study, and your knowledge of DSDM/RAD, to write a management summary justifying why this would be a suitable development approach to use. Mention both benefits and drawbacks and refer to examples in the case study.

Your answer to Section A should be in the region of 750-1000 words.

Section B –  High level requirements analysis and MoSCoW prioritisation   (40%)
Appendix C of the case study provides details (including minutes) of a Facilitated Workshop session run by the external consultants and attended by a number of the key staff in the organisation.
At the end of the session a list of ‘high level requirements’ was produced.

This list is inappropriate as a set of requirements for developing a system as a number of the requirements do not meet our criteria for a ‘high level requirement’.

Remember  a high level requirement should be a functional requirement that can be delivered to the user as part of an incremental approach using  a timebox (or number of timeboxes).

Using the information given throughout the case study to help you, complete the following:
B1.    Review the ‘high level requirements’ list given by various attendees during the facilitated workshop.
B1.1    Identify any of the requirements that you feel are not appropriate high level requirements, giving your reasons for this.
B1.2    Rewrite the  list to include between 8-10 high level requirements that you feel are required for building the system. Briefly, justify the need for each of your high level requirements against information you have gathered from the case study.
Your answer to B1 should be in the region of  750-1000 words

B2.    Use the MoSCoW rules to prioritise the requirements in your updated ‘high level requirements list’.
B2.1.    Produce an updated ‘high requirements list’ clearly showing the prioritisation you have given to each of your requirements.
There isn’t a word limit for this answer.

B2.2    Explain how you set about prioritising the requirements and justify your reasons for
The decisions that you made
Your answer here should be in the region of 500 words.

Section C – Legal, Social, Ethical and Professional issues                  (30%)
Samuel Smith, the consultant, also raised a number of legal, social, ethical and professional issues with management. They acknowledged those concerns but asked for further details relating to  (a) the role of a Data controller and (b) the professionalism of any DSDM consultants employed for the duration of the project.

Using the information in the case study to help you, complete the following:

C1:     Produce a management summary outlining the obligations of the Data Controller role within Youth Action. As a part of this, provide a practical example for each of the eight DPA principles, to illustrate a data protection issue that Youth Action may need to address.
The eight DPA principles (Fair, Specific, Adequate, Accurate, Retention, rights, Security, Transfer) have been discussed during class.
Your answer to this  question should be in the region of 750 words.

C2:    Produce a management summary outlining the purpose of the BCS Code of Conduct. As a part of this, provide a practical example for each of the four BCS Code of Conduct sections to illustrate a professional issue that a DSDM developer contracted to Youth Action may need to consider.
The four BCS Code of Conduct sections (Public Interest, Duty to Relevant Authority, Duty to the Profession, Professional Competence and Integrity) have been discussed during class.
Your answer to this question should be in the region of 500 words.

Grading and Assessment Criteria

A
70%-100%    o    Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the issues surrounding current development methodology approaches.
o    Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the issues surrounding the application of RAD/DSDM to a development environment.
o    Demonstrate a thorough understanding of  high level requirements analysis and MoSCoW prioritisation;
o    Apply the MoSCoW rules sensibly, demonstrating a clear understanding of the need for incremental delivery.
o    Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the DPA principles and the practical role of the Data controller.
o    Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the role of the professional and, in particular, the BCS code of conduct.
o    Bring original thought to the argument;
B
60%-69%    o    Demonstrate a good understanding of the issues surrounding current development methodology approaches.
o    Demonstrate a good understanding of the issues surrounding the application of RAD/DSDM to a development environment.
o    Demonstrate a good understanding of  high level requirements analysis and MoSCoW prioritisation;
o    Apply the MoSCoW rules sensibly, demonstrating a good understanding of the need for incremental delivery.
o    Demonstrate a good understanding of the DPA principles and the practical role of the Data controller.
o    Demonstrate a good understanding of the role of the professional and, in particular, the BCS code of conduct.
o    Bring some original thought to the argument;
C
50%-59%    o    Demonstrate an acceptable level of understanding of the issues surrounding current development methodology approaches.
o    Demonstrate an acceptable level of  understanding of the issues surrounding the application of RAD/DSDM to a development environment.
o    Demonstrate an acceptable understanding of  high level requirements analysis and MoSCoW prioritisation;
o    Apply the MoSCoW rules in a sensible way demonstrating an acceptable level of understanding of the need for incremental delivery.
o    Demonstrate an acceptable level of understanding of the DPA principles and the practical role of the Data controller.
o    Demonstrate an acceptable level of understanding of the role of the professional and, in particular, the BCS code of conduct.
o    Bring some original thought to the argument;
D
40%-49%    o    Demonstrate a basic understanding of the issues surrounding current development methodology approaches.
o    Demonstrate a basic understanding of the issues surrounding the application of RAD/DSDM to a development environment.
o    Demonstrate a basic understanding of  high level requirements analysis and MoSCoW prioritisation;
o    Apply the MoSCoW rules in a basic way.
o    Demonstrate a basic understanding of the DPA principles and the practical role of the Data controller.
o    Demonstrate a basic understanding of the role of the professional and, in particular, the BCS code of conduct.

Appendix A
YouthAction Case Study
You have been asked to develop a system and some applications to help manage parts of a charity, YouthAction. The charity is coming under pressure from their funders to demonstrate value for money and are keen to collect suitable data to demonstrate how well each service it offers is running.
YouthAction is a charity based in the south east of England that supports young people through a number of funded projects. Their main service is to provide adventure and outdoor projects or projects which help vulnerable young people to improve their life in some way. Many of the young people are from deprived backgrounds and many are at risk of committing crime.
YouthAction has 45 full time employees working for it, either at its head office or at its service centres. Many of the local projects are run by volunteers overseen by one of YouthActions’s regional managers or service centre directors. There are three regional managers in total. Most service centres have a paid fulltime worker (normally known as the service centre director) dedicated to managing it.
YouthAction have something like 25 different service centres throughout the South of England. Each regional manager looks after about 8 or 9 different services.

Service Centres
A service is made up of one or more projects based at one location. For example, a YouthAction Service Centre based in an old school in East London, runs a youth club, a series of educational support classes, a drop-in centre, a teenage wellbeing clinic and an employment help desk. Each of these projects is funded separately. The centre is open 7 days a week and other youth groups use its premises to run their own activities. The centre is part funded by the local authority, as well as through charitable donations. Another centre, in a more rural part of the world, only runs one project, teaching young people how to become motor mechanics. This project is funded by a major car manufacturer based in the area through the company’s social enterprise fund.
In the past each service centre has run in a fairly autonomous fashion. The service centre manager would normally be responsible for looking after the way the centre operates, the employment of staff and raising funds to support the activities. Regional managers have oversight of the work. YouthAction have provided support to all centres with marketing, financial management, administration, and a range of other activities as requested by centres. Any finance to support a centre is paid to the charity centrally and money is then allocated to the centre and project as required. All salaries are paid centrally. Service centres will manage any volunteers working on projects locally. However all volunteers are expected to be put through a vetting process with the Head Office as many of the people volunteering to work with YouthAction will be working with vulnerable young people. This checking process does not always happen as it should.
The funding of each project will be subject to a contract agreed by YouthAction and the funder. The contract outlines the length of the project, the value of the funding and any constraints on how the funding can be used. A service centre might have 5 or 6 different contracts in place to fund all the activity in the centre.

Management of YouthAction
The YouthAction Trust Board is the group overseeing the charity and the Executive Committee manages the charity on a day to day basis. The Trust Board is made up of the Chief Executive, the Finance Director, and five individuals drawn from the community and industry. The day to day running of the charity is managed by the Executive Committee made up of the Chief Executive, the Finance Director, the Operations Manager, the Marketing Manager and the Director of New Business. In addition, the Regional Directors are asked to be part of the group when necessary.
The charity has invested in a number of central IT systems in areas such as finance and marketing. These systems have been purchased in a piecemeal way and are not integrated.
Each service centre will have its own management team to run projects at its centre, normally chaired by the centre director or regional manager. The normal practice is for service centres to report quarterly on how they are getting on. There is no standard reporting mechanism for gathering the data.

Review of Services and projects
The Trust Board and Executive Committee have been carrying out a major review of the way the charity operates. It is concerned that by having each of the services and projects running autonomously that there is a significant overhead to the charity which could be reduced if much of the management of services was centralised. It is particularly concerned about the investment in IT at a service centre level. It also has significant concerns about the way centres and projects are holding personal data. The charity has recently been reprimanded for failing to keep personal data secure and, in some places, holding incorrect data.
One of the conclusions of this review is that the charity should invest in the purchase or development of a management information system.

IT Services
Each service centre has made its own investment in IT, systems for managing projects, and so on. A recent survey of IT being used in centres has shown that the majority of the data used by centres is held in spreadsheets. In several places, centres are connected to systems operated by a third party. These might be local authorities, health services, or other charities, as required by the needs of each individual project. It is common for people working on a project to enter the same data into 2 or 3 different systems, depending upon the structure of the project and who the funder is.
The IT survey also indicated that much of the IT equipment used by services is out of date and would not be appropriate for a modern management information system.

Appendix B
The Dig-it Project
A service centre in south east London has recently received funding from the local authority in the area to start a new project called Dig-It. The project is to take young people who are at risk of offending and involve them in helping to look after the gardens of the elderly. A young person can be referred to the project from a number of different sources. Typically these would be by a school, the youth offending service, the police, or youth clubs. Elderly people with a need for help with their gardens are referred to Dig-It also from a number of different sources, e.g. the local authority or a charities working with the elderly.
There is one full time worker managing the project and 10 volunteers. There are about 30 young people involved in the project at any one time. The young people are arranged in groups of three or four and each group is led by one of the volunteers. The young people are assigned to working with one volunteer as they join the project. Tim, the full time worker for Dig-it, works out a rota of volunteers (they normally give up one morning or afternoon to working on the project) and matches the groups to the requests for working in people’s gardens. After a group has worked in someone’s garden, Tim will phone or call round to the person to make sure they are happy. Dig-It already have quite a long list of elderly people who have their gardens looked after by the project.
The local authority see this as potentially a very successful project, bringing together the needs of the elderly and helping to rehabilitate young people with social problems. If it is successful they would consider investing more money into the project to allow the employment of another full time worker and provide additional gardening equipment and a van to transport equipment around. However, they want to see regular data about how the project is running.
The Dig-It project has asked YouthAction centrally if they can help set up a system to allow them to record the necessary data for the local authority. They also would like a system that can manage the project with the allocation of young people to teams, sending teams to support elderly people and so on.
YouthAction see this as an opportunity to start developing the management information system. However, they are mindful of the fact that Dig-It is just one of many projects and each of the services has different needs and requirements. Nonetheless, they have agreed to using Dig-It as a prototype to developing a system which will support both Dig-It’s requirements and identify the requirements of the management information system for the charity centrally. There have been some worries from managers and workers from other projects that by focusing on Dig-It, YouthAction might not capture all the necessary information to build an information system to meet all the needs of charity.
The charity’s IT services are not equipped to develop the new system and management are considering the use of an external consultant, Samuel Smith, to lead the development of the prototype system. Samuel met with management and suggested that he hand-picks contractors to help develop the prototype. He also maintained that DSDM Atern would be the perfect approach for development.
Appendix C
Facilitated Workshop

Agenda
1.    Introduction and Terms of reference (10 minutes)
2.    Requirements exercise (20 minutes)
3.    Small group discussion exercise (30 minutes)
4.    Feedback and outline requirements plan (30-40 minutes)

Minutes of Meeting held in Meeting Room A
Present:
Samuel Smith (External consultant) (Chair)
Rita Lester (External Systems Developer)
Hugh Sterling (Service Centre Manager – South East London branch)
Peter Ellis (General Management)
Sandra Lee (Case worker – South East London branch)
Edward van Ryn (Volunteer – South East London branch)
Kevin Marsh (Case worker – North London branch)
Alan Malory (Secretary to Peter Ellis) Secretary

Apologies
None

Introduction and Terms of Reference
Samuel Smith (SS) welcomed all to the meeting and outlined the purpose of the meeting – to identify the main requirements for the new system and set the priority and agenda for the future development.

SS reported that, following the recent meeting with management, it was decided that the prototype system must be developed as soon as possible, as this new programme has received positive attention from government.  They wanted to be confident that the system will not only allow for the management of Dig-It, but also allow future extensions to replace all current informal systems, and centralise operations. The executive have set a target of getting a prototype system up and running within 4 months of the start of the project.

SS outlined the activities for the rest of the meeting.

Requirements List Exercise
Each person was asked to list their requirements for the new system on a form supplied by SM. The following is a summary of those requirement sheets:

Rita Lester (External Systems Developer)
– Login facility.
– Registration and management of volunteers, permanent staff, participating youths and the elderly.
– A scheduling system to assign youths to properties.
– A review system to allow staff members and volunteers to oversee the programme.

Hugh Sterling (Service Centre Manager – South East London branch)
– I would like to be able to extract reports on attendance, group performance, the application of funds, etc.
– I would like to be able to extract a map or calendar, showing the weekly schedules and work assignments, that I can print out and stick to the notice board.
– I would like to be able to find the personal information of all staff and youths so I can contact them if there are issues.
– I would like the colour scheme of the new system to match the colours used in the company logo – green and blue.

Peter Ellis (General Management)
– This system should be the basis for the new, company-wide system and should be highly extendable.
– The system should also be personalisable. For example, if I want a facility that someone else doesn’t want, I should be able to commission it and use it, like a browser plug-in.
– The system should allow me to view reports on each branch to track performance and funds.
– The system should allow for the registration of youths and tracking their progress. After all, that is our main business aim.

Sandra Lee (Case worker – South East London branch)
– The new system must allow for the registration of the elderly who need gardening services.
– The new system must allow for the registration of young people who are supplying gardening services.
– The new system must allow for young people to be assigned to the elderly for working in their gardens.
– The new system must allow me to track the assignments of young people to the elderly and the work schedule.
– The system must allow me to easily change details about people and contact them.
– I want to be able to send messages to people and log all communication between us. This can serve as a running record of communication.

Edward van Ryn (Volunteer – South East London branch)
– The system needs to have searchable manuals and guides for new users.
– The system needs to maintain searchable records of young people.
– We should be able to log information about young people on their records.
– We should be able to define search criteria over all records. For example, a search for “violence” should return a list of all youths who have the word “violence” listed on their records.

Kevin Marsh (Case worker – North London branch)
– The system needs to be able to track various projects at different branches.
– The system needs to be able to provide reporting on all projects at a particular branch.
– The system needs to track what branch a particular youth is registered with. We should also be able to change this, should a person move to a different location.
– The system must be fast, user friendly, and should be error-free.