2024 Semester One (Sample)
Final Assessment Period
Faculty of Information Technology
EXAM CODES: FIT3174
TITLE OF PAPER: IT Strategy and Governance
EXAM DURATION: 2 hours 10 minutes
Rules
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Closed Book
This is a closed book assessment. You’re not permitted to use any notes, texts, websites or other reference material to assist you in answering the questions.
If your assessment contains file download/upload questions, you are permitted to use the application required to execute the downloaded file.
Instructions
. This is a closed book exam.
. Please answer ALL questions.
. This exam is divided into 3 sections:
Section A consists of 5 multiple choice questions and is worth 5 marks.
Section B consists of 5 short answer questions and is worth 15 marks.
Section C consists of 2 case studies with multiple questions and is worth 30 marks.
. In this assessment, you must not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to generate any materials or content in relation to the assessment task.
. Once the exam duration is finished, your exam will automatically submit. Please ensure you finalise your answers before the end of the allocated exam time.
Section A
See sample questions in Sample Quiz.
Section B
1) Identify three modern technologies e.g., smart mobile devices, IoT, Advanced Robotics, 3D printing,
wearables, etc. to discuss how they impact on individuals and organisation. (3 marks)
2) Discuss how Big Data is used by organizations as a portfolio of modern technology to derive strategies. (3 marks)
3) COBIT 2019 suggests that a governance system should clearly distinguish between governance and management activities and structures. Discuss the differences between Governance and Management. (3 marks)
4) List three different methods of budgeting and discuss the advantages and disadvantages for each of them. (3 marks)
5) Describe the differences between the traditional ‘waterfall’ development method and the agile development method. (3 marks)
Section C Mini Case 1
Australia Post
Technological change in the 1980s provided new electronic services for customers: intelpost, e-post and the lettergram. By the late 1980s, Australia Post had a number of competitors in parcels, retail products and courier services. In 1989 the passage of the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 meant that Australia Post became entirely self-funding. One thing that did not change was Australia Post's community service obligation to provide an accessible and affordable letter delivery service throughout the country. Australia Post had the exclusive right to carry domestic letters up to 500 grams (now it is 250 grams). Every other part of the business was subject to competition.
The traditional high street post offices were replaced with modern shopfronts in places where people worked and shopped. Electronic point of sale (EPOS) technology provided additional services for customers. Retail for the first time in years started making a profit. The Australia Post network is now the country’s largest retail network. In 1999, barcoding technology was introduced to read the address and stamp on a barcode for accurate letter sorting. In 2003, Australia Post introduced letter sorting machines.
The letter business
The letter business continues to decline. In the year 2010-11, the letter business declined 3.7 per cent. During the past three years, the letter business declined 12 per cent. At the same time, the delivery network has been expanding as the population expands. Under their community service obligations, Australia Post is obligated to deliver letters five days a week to 98 per cent of the population. Australia Post's response to this challenge has been to develop their multi-channel service offerings to customers. There are a number of initiatives including Send me, Community Update Mail, Sample Post, Decipha, First Direct and eLetter.
Sendme is a service that allows customers to request samples, brochures and other advertiser material via mobile phone. Community Update Mail is a service for councils to be able to efficiently communicate with constituents. SamplePost is a service that allows organisations such as Procter & Gamble and Nestle to send samples to addressed customers. Decipha is a provider of inbound information management services such as document imaging, data capture, online forms and workflow for major customers. First Direct helps businesses attract and retain customers by giving them access to accurate address and profiling data. The eLetter business provides access to direct marketing products and services.
These technologies and services ensure that Australia Post can sustain a profitable letter business by utilising technology to stay relevant. Customers of Australia Post can lodge mail electronically from their desktops. Australia Post can manage the printing and posting of customised mail items for organisations. Australia Post has also invested heavily in logistics – from order processing and warehousing to freight forwarding and customs management.
e-commerce opportunities
As the letter business has declined, the parcel business has increased its revenue by 5.3 per cent. This increase is largely due to e-commerce, where Australia Post has been able to utilise its expertise in logistics and the parcel business by delivering the products that customers buy online. Australia Post strengthened its relationship with eBay, acquired the payment gateway SecurePay and partnered with PayPal. Major customers in this space include eBay, JB Hi-Fi, DealsDirect, GraysOnline and CatchOfTheDay.
In July 2010, Click and Send was integrated into the eBay website and, in December 2010, the co-branded satchel became available. When the online store within eBay was launched in May 2011, 85000 were sold in the first 24 hours.
Revenue from e-commerce is expected to grow substantially in the coming years.
A major challenge has been how to get the goods to the customer if they are unable to be delivered to the customer's home or office. Australia Post has been trialling options, which include:
● 2417 retail zones with parcel lockers for post office box customers and self-service terminals for weighing and lodging parcels
● a 24-hour parcel collection facility at the St Leonards delivery facility in Sydney.
Australia Post also launched an iPhone and smartphone app that allows customers to track parcels, calculate postage, search for a postcode or retail outlet and pay bills using Postbillpay.
Questions:
1.1) Australia Post has had to change the way it operates over the 200 years it has been in business. Identify two modern technologies that challenged their ‘Letter Business’ . Discuss how these technologies challenged Australia Post’s business. (3 marks)
1.2) Identify four services Australia Post offered, where they used the technologies and/or IT to overcome the issues or challenges mentioned in the previous question. (2 marks)
1.3) Identify any two ways Australia Post assisted online retailers in their business model. Discuss the advantages of using these approaches. (3 marks)
1.4) When designing IT strategies, one of the considerations that a business should take is understanding customers' pain points. Discuss two pain points of the Australia Post customers. (3 marks)
1.5) Describe two other services Australia Post could offer to its customers (business & consumer). Discuss how the modern technologies and/or IT assist in providing the services you proposed to achieve business objectives. (4 marks)
Section C Mini Case 2
Myki – an integrated travel card for Victoria
Kamco (Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium) won $494 million contract to build and operate the Myki system in 2005 and have it operating by 2007. The parent corporation of Kamco, Keane International Inc., is a software engineering application maintenance, program management and consulting services company that had extensive experience in overseeing and project managing transport and technology companies to produce integrated system, and had implemented similar systems in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, the Netherlands and the US.
Kamco supervised 4 technology and infrastructure companies and their sub contractors, and provided back- end financial system. The Kamco companies provided the terminal management system and fare collection equipment; communication systems installation and maintenance; automated fare collection systems; and smart cards and related card fulfilment systems.
Kamco’s project management of the myki system required oversight of 4 companies and attention to a range of different problems and unique challenges. Some of these problems were described as ‘technical gremlins’, while other problems involved inadequate resources and slow resolution of software problems. The Victorian government identified governance, project management and effective financial controls as areas causing delays in the development and implementation of the system.
The myki system is required to function over long distances, far from centralised support services and in sometimes rough and dusty environments, while communicating user information to centralised servers. It has been designed from the ground up, and its specifications make it one of the most sophisticated smart card systems planned. Other problems related to the unique Melbourne trams. Trams are essentially large heavy steel boxes powered by electricity and operating in urban canyons of tall buildings. Any of these factors
can cause the myki wireless signals to drop out of connection with central servers during operation.
In comparison, Hong Kong, which has a widely admired smart card system for public transport users, and the highest rate of public transport use in the world, has public transport travellers using the Octopus smart electronic money card in place of conventional tickets. Hong Kong is 1,095 square km in size with 2,050 km of public roads and 83 railway stations. In contrast Victoria covers 227,600 sq. km, has 151,000 km of roads and 271 railway stations. In order to operate successfully, myki must have a reliable GPS system to track and record the correct fares and zones, and the ability to supply real-time data feed to the servers that run myki. Complaints about the myki online services included the fact that they didn’t work with some of the most popular browsers, used confusing jargon, rejected names and addresses, and failed to recharge cards correctly (or at all) sometimes.
The ticketing systems caused delays at station gates and charged incorrectly, the touching on and off in buses caused delays, setting buses behind schedule, and some stations lacked machines to allow users to top up their cards. The ticket machines are not designed for use by some disabled travellers, and had to be upgraded to accept notes as well as coins. Because of the delays, the government had to operate the existing Metcard ticketing system in parallel with the myki rollout, adding to the costs.
The system went live in 2009 and by 2011 the cost of the system had blown out to $1.35 billion, including additional start-up costs and an extra $216 million to keep the old system running. Approximately $50-55 million is being spent on the running of the myki system, as well as $350 million to buy extra equipment for the trains, buses and trams.
The State Government of Victoria announced the following changes to the myki contract in June 2011:
● Improvements in project management, governance and key performance measures
● The appointment of a third party certifier to monitor the remaining development and ensure the system fully meets the state’s and public’s requirements
● A rigorous testing and project oversight regime to be introduced to inform the third party certifier at critical evaluation points up to the end of the delivery phase
● Complexity of the project to be reduced (where possible) to provide a reliable ticketing system and reduce the risk of further cost increases.
Questions:
2.1) Read the descriptions of the case study and discuss the objectives of business strategies and/or IT strategies implemented. (3 marks)
2.2) Using the case study, discuss how lack of governance leads to IT project issues. (4 marks)
2.3) Discuss the factors that contributed to the blow out in cost of the system. (3 marks)
2.4) Consider the characteristics of good governance, taking three of the characteristics to discuss the ways to improve IT governance issues in the case study. (5 marks)