MODULE:

INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

ASSIGNMENT TITLE:
CITY COURIERS
DECEMBER 2013
Important Notes:
Please refer to the Assignment Presentation Requirements for advice on how to set out your
assignment. These can be found on the NCC Education Campus. Scroll down the left hand
side of the screen until you reach Personal Support. Click on this, and then on Policies and
Advice. You will find the Assignment Presentation Requirements under the Advice section.
You must familiarise yourself with the NCC Education Academic Dishonesty and
Plagiarism Policy and ensure that you acknowledge all the sources which you use in your
work. The policy is available on Campus. Follow the instructions above, but click on
Policies rather than Advice.
You must complete the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work. The form is
available on the Policies section of Campus. Scroll down the left hand side until you reach
Personal Support. Click on this and then click on Policies and Advice.
Please make a note of the recommended word count. You could lose marks if you write 10%
more or less than this.
You must submit a paper copy and digital copy (on disk or similarly acceptable medium).
Media containing viruses, or media which cannot be run directly, will result in a fail grade
being awarded for this module.
All electronic media will be checked for plagiarism.
Marker's comments:

Moderator's comments:

Mark:

Moderated
Mark:

Final
Mark:

Introduction
City Couriers is an established company that provides courier services for business and domestic
customers. It has been providing this service for almost ten years. The city is divided into fifteen districts
and each district is served by a team of four couriers. Each team works between 06:00am and 18:00pm
delivering various items from one business to another and between businesses and homes. The company
headquarters are based five miles outside the city, in an office where the following staff work: two
receptionists, one manager and ten administration staff. The receptionists send and retrieve telephone
calls, text messages and emails to and from customers and couriers regarding deliveries and pass on the
information to the administration staff who maintain the companys customer and employee databases.
The Senior Administrator and one other administrator deal with customers payments and couriers
wages. The Manager keeps up-to-date with the day-to-day running of the business by liaising with the
Senior Administrator and deals with any problems that cannot be resolved by the administration staff.
The Manager wants to expand the companys operations and provide services for new customers and
employ more couriers but to do this the information system that is currently used needs to be looked at
and re-developed. For example, instead of the couriers using mobile phones to liaise with the
receptionists, they could be issued with hand-held terminals that can record and relay their exact locations
at any time and thus cut down the number of phone calls that need to be made and the number of text
messages and emails sent. Details of new and cancelled deliveries could be uploaded to the terminals at
any time.
You have been requested by the Manager and Senior Administrator to analyse the current information
system and provide them with advice on how they can introduce a system that is efficient, reliable, secure
and user friendly, and will improve the experience for customers and staff of City Couriers.

Task 1 - 25 Marks
Information Systems Analysis and Methodologies
a) Describe THREE (3) types of information gathering methods that you have decided to use to help you
find out more information about City Couriers information system and explain why you have chosen
each method. (15 Marks)
b) Describe the potential problems that you could encounter when collecting information during your
analysis. (6 Marks)
c)

Explain how a transaction processing system could improve the companys operations. (4 Marks)

Task 2 25 Marks
Hard, Soft and Combined Approaches to Information Systems Analysis
a) Construct a data flow diagram that illustrates the information system at City Couriers. (15 Marks)
b) Discuss which one of the approaches to information systems analysis hard, soft or combined you
would prefer to use for your analysis of City Couriers information system. (10 Marks)

Information Systems Analysis

December 2013

Final

NCC Education 2013

Task 3 25 Marks
Stakeholder Analysis and CATWOE
a) What does the abbreviation CATWOE stand for? Explain why undertaking a CATWOE analysis of
the information system at City Couriers will be useful. (13 Marks)
b) Identify and describe each CATWOE element of the information system. (12 Marks)

Task 4 25 Marks
People-Oriented and Process-Oriented Analysis
a) Describe what benefits using ETHICS could bring for the staff at City Couriers if its
recommendations after analysis are accepted. (12 Marks)
b) Produce a conceptual model of the information system. (13 Marks)

Guidance
Consult with your tutor/lecturer if you are uncertain about any aspects of the assignment.

Submission Requirements

A word-processed formal report that contains all the written components of the assignment.
Save your report as: ISA_Assignment_YourName_StudentNumber_Date
Warning: All media must be virus free!
Media containing viruses, or media which cannot be run directly, will result in a FAIL grade being
awarded for this module.

You must read and understand NCC Educations policy on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism.
You must complete the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work form and attach the completed form to
your assignment.

Information Systems Analysis

December 2013

Final

NCC Education 2013