Assignment Task

Case Study 

Mr Amazing has opened the Amazing Dessert Bar and Restaurant in 2017. Due to the business`s recent growth, the manual processes are no longer able to handle the orders. With an automated system for order handling, customer management and resource planning, management will be able to ensure that customers enjoy good service, and customer and financial data are current and more accurate. Mr. Amazing has purchased a point of sale system, the details are provided in Appendix – C. Moreover, Mr. Amazing is considering implementation of an application (software), which can be purchased off the shelf and then customized in house by the IT team. This application (called Amazing App) is a restaurant management system that will facilitate order management, table management, customer management and historic data analysis to facilitate purchasing and inventory management processes to reduce the cost and improve operations.

Mr Amazing has decided to hire you as an IT consultant. Your assignment is to review the strategic plan of the company and analyse how IT is matching the strategic objectives. You also need to analyse how IT in future will be aligned to support the business achieve its strategic objectives. Your major responsibility is to set up the IT solution to implement Amazing App, which is the future strategic direction.

• Please refer to the strategic plan given in Appendix-A
• Please refer to organizational policies and procedures in relation with ICT change management provided in Appendix - B
• Please refer to information on current ICT systems and practices in the organisation including operating systems, hardware, and security in Appendix- C and Appendix - D

Task

1. Questions

• What is a change and how strategic IT and Business objectives can be aligned through a change?
• What are key sections of an action plan for ICT changes and ICT projects?
• How can you evaluate competing products and services for a project in your organization? (Consider cost, technology, training requirements and professional competency in your IT organization).
• Describe three key organisational objectives of Amazing Restaurant, considering the current restaurant industry environment.

2. Considering that Amazing restaurant is a small business organization, answer following:

• What do you think? Is amazing a small IT shop? Why?
• Which point of sell system they have?
• Why it is necessary for them to have Wireless Network?
• What is the purpose of Access point device?
• What do you think they will back up? (e.g. POS data, Windows OS)

4. Appendix D indicates that Amazing Restaurant has a very comprehensive IT policies documentation.

• Why it is important for them to have these policies?
• Name each policy they have.
• Do you see any gaps in these policies? (Please give reason whether your answer is affirmative or negative)
• Emergency Management of IT
• Website Policy

5. Read Appendix C- Current ICT Systems and Appendix E – Description of Amazing App.

• What gaps do you see in current infrastructure? Describe what hardware and software they will need to purchase in order to run Amazing App.
• Prepare a sheet (just like Appendix C) for future state of ICT Systems.
• What do you think are three key opportunities and advantages of having Amazing App for business of Amazing restaurant?

6. As in order to have Amazing App, the restaurant will need extra hardware and software, and its implementation will be a change. Prepare a report on proposed change.

• The tile of report should be ‘Proposed Change for Installation of new Hardware and Software for Amazing App.
• Provide an introduction, include strategic business objectives of Amazing restaurant (refer to task 2)
• Refer to the gaps and opportunities in ICT systems. you have identified in Task 5, describe them in your report.
• Propose the change in next section, describe:

Impact of Change.

1. Include sheets of current and future state of ICT Systems here (Task 5-b), this will show where you are and where you want to go. Then describe impact of your change on ICT Systems.

2. Do you see any changes in policies defined in Appendix D

3. What human resources will you need to maintain the systems?

4. Describe scope of the change, Application development or installation is not part of this change. This will be a separate project.

5. Propose Implementation/action Plan for the change. Write down steps with assumption that the required hardware and software has been purchased. Consider:

Severity:

• Insignificant: Risks that bring no real negative consequences, or pose no significant threat to the organization or project.
• Minor: Risks that have a small potential for negative consequences, but will not significantly impact overall success.
• Moderate: Risks that could potentially bring negative consequences, posing a moderate threat to the project or organization.
• Critical: Risks with substantial negative consequences that will seriously impact the success of the organization or project.
• Catastrophic: Risks with extreme negative consequences that could cause the entire project to fail or severely impact daily operations of the organization. These are the highest-priority risks to address.

Likelihood:

• Unlikely: Extremely rare risks, with almost no probability of occurring.
• Seldom: Risks that are relatively uncommon, but have a small chance of manifesting. 
• Occasional: Risks that are more typical, with about a 50/50 chance of taking place.
• Likely: Risks that are highly likely to occur.
• Definite: Risks that are almost certain to manifest. Address these risks first. 

Risk Classification

• Low: The consequences of the risk are minor, and it is unlikely to occur. These types of risks are generally ignored, and often color-coded green.
• Medium: Somewhat likely to occur, these risks come with slightly more serious consequences. If possible, take steps to prevent medium risks from occurring, but remember that they are not high-priority and should not significantly affect organization or project success. These risks are often color-coded yellow.
• High: These are serious risks that both have significant consequences, and are likely to occur. Prioritize and respond to these risks in the near term. They are often color-coded orange.
• Extreme: Catastrophic risks that have severe consequences and are highly likely to occur. Extreme risks are the highest priority. You should respond to them immediately, as they can threaten the success of the organization or project. They are often color-coded red.