MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
BUS 6103 ASSESSMENT GUIDE
Agile Methodology S2-2024
BUS 6103 Assessment Guide Agile Methodology
Assessment Guide
For the assessment of MBA unit 6103, there are three assessment tasks you have to complete in order to satisfy the unit requirements. Details are given in the unit descriptor and on “Studyboard@VIT”.
Assessment timetable
No
Assessment Name
Date open
Date of submission
1
Assessment 1 – Discussion
Week 2
Week 4,6,8,10 forum
20% weightage
2
Assessment 2 – Group case study Report
Week 4
Week 7
30% weightage
3
Assessment 3 - Research report (Individual Assignment)
Week 5
Week 11
50% weightage
Each week, you will be guided by our LMS on all the course requirements of our MBA unit including what to do in that particular week, and how to fulfil task requirements. For each assessment, the “Studyboard@VIT” will provide details on the assessment task and guidelines including how you will be assessed on each assessment task, marking criteria and so on.
Some clarification on each assessment:
- Assessment 1 – Discussion Forum: The purpose of this assignment is for the student discussion groups: You will be assessed based on your accessible login on LMS, your use of the CHAT and your ability in discussion. Your facilitator will make the assessment.
- Assessment 2 – Case study Report (Group Assignment 30% weightage): This assignment is to be completed in teams of 3 or 4 members. This assessment is designed to improve student collaborative skills and to give students experience in developing the required documents and plans necessary in moving through several iterations of an Agile project.
- Assessment 3 – Research report (Individual Assignment 50% weightage): This assessment is designed to improve student writing skills and to give students experience in researching a topic and writing a critique report relevant to the Unit of Study subject matter.
The following instructions are strictly applied throughout our MBA program:
- The assessments are an important part of unit progression and are to be attended to diligently. Hence, no attempt at an assessment task means no marks.
- Assessment tasks must be submitted within the timeframe given. Late submission will attract a 10% deduction in the mark for each day the submission is late.
- Assessment guidelines must be followed, for example, if the assessment involves a written report of 2,000 words, the word count is important. If the word count is more than ±10% outside the guideline, there will be a deduction of 5% off the final mark.
- All assessments must be submitted to VIT, Australia. The primary place of submission is LMS (refer to the LMS User Guide). In case of unavailability of LMS, assessments need to be submitted by email, [email protected].
- To pass the unit students are expected to achieve an overall mark of 50% or above. In addition, where an assessment component is marked as “hurdle”, students are required to achieve at least 50% in those hurdle components in addition to an overall mark of 50% to achieve a pass grade in the unit.
- The authorised agent/local facilitator can help students understand the various parts of the assessment and also, will be appointed as “Invigilator” (supervision only) for the assessment.
*NOTE: For all assignments, the preferred layout is in 12-point Calibri, with 1.5 line spacing, 5 centimetres left-hand margins and bold headings. Whenever you use the ideas and arguments of other writers, you must refer to the writers and their work. By acknowledging the work of others, you avoid plagiarism. The APA style requires a reference list at the end of your assignment.*
For further clarification you can contact the coordinator via email.
Further details on each assessment for MBA 6202 can be found on the following pages.
Student Guidelines
Assessment 1 – Discussion Forum– 20%
Students engage in groups or individually, to solve business problems, create Agile solutions or solve relevant business dilemmas. This encourages growth in decision-making, problem-solving abilities, collaborative approaches and critical thinking skills. Provides peer review on other discussions. You are expected to participate in at least three (3) different ‘Discussion Participation’ forums. You should interact. Avoid summarizing. Begin at least one thread and provide at least three posts in response to other participants’ threads. Posting should be a minimum of one short paragraph and a maximum of two paragraphs. Word totals for each post should be in the range of 100 to 200 words. During the discussion, contribute to the learning community by being creative in your approaches to topics, being relevant in the presented viewpoints, and attempting to motivate the discussion. During the discussion, be aware of grammar and sentence mechanics.
Remember that being respectful is always critical in the classroom, online and during forum chat discussions. applications and how they engage in the discussion. During the discussion, be organized in your thoughts and ideas.
Participation Requirements:
- Active Engagement: You are expected to participate in at least three different ‘Discussion Participation’ forums. Ensure that your interactions are meaningful and constructive.
- Thread Initiation: Begin at least one discussion thread yourself.
- Response Posts: Provide at least three posts in response to other participants' threads. Each post should be a minimum of one short paragraph and a maximum of two paragraphs. Aim for a word count of 100 to 200 words per post.
- Contribution Quality: Contribute creatively and relevantly to the topics. Motivate the discussion with thoughtful viewpoints and insights. Avoid summarizing and focus on adding new perspectives or depth to the conversation.
- Respect and Clarity: Always be respectful in your interactions. Ensure your posts are organized, grammatically correct, and well-structured.
Assessment 2: Case study Report (Group Assignment) 30%
*NOTE: This Document is used in conjunction with MBA6103 Case Study document [MBA6103-CaseStudy.doc]*
Objective(s)
This assessment item relates to the unit learning outcomes as in the unit descriptor and to give students experience in developing the required documents and plans necessary in moving through several iterations of an Agile project. This assignment is to be completed in teams of 3 or 4 members. You should begin by submitting the signed Team participation form at the end of this document in Session 1 or 2. This form needs to be completed and signed by all group members. Once submitted, the teams will remain fixed, and no member additions or deletions will be allowed unless by approval of your subject coordinator.
Instructions
In this assignment students will work in small teams to develop components of the Software Specification and develop various models for different iterations of the Agile methodology as discussed lectures. Student teams should be formed by Session two. Each team needs to complete the team participation form attached to the end of this document. Assignments will not be graded unless a team participation form is completed. Carefully read the associated CASE STUDY for this assignment contained in the document MBA6103-CaseStudy.doc.
For this case study you will utilize the SCRUM development methodology. However, you will not be actually developing the software as part of each of the sprint cycles, but instead you will be developing UML models of the various software components that would normally be developed in the sprints, as well as produce any required documentation. Your team will begin by developing a set of requirements from the Case Study Description. Then it will develop the product backlog from the requirements taking into account features required, priorities and budget estimates.
You are then to plan and execute 3 sprints. For each sprint you should hold a sprint planning meeting and document the outcome. Within this meeting you should choose the feature with the top priority from the Product Backlog list. You should justify this choice. You team should then break this feature down into smaller tasks of equal size and plan the sequence within the Sprint. You should then conduct the sprint. While you are not coding the software tasks, you are to provide behavioral UML models such as Use Case Diagrams, Activity Diagrams and Sequence diagrams for each of the tasks. Each sprint may also cause a re-factoring of the Database class diagram, in which case this need to be provided.
At the end of the Sprint, your team should conduct the sprint review. You should document this and also provide notes on any testing requirements (or test cases) and report on any re-factoring necessary to the product backlog due to issues arising from the conduct of the sprint. This could arise from a number of sources. For example, use cases leading to the discovery of more requirements which cause new features to be developed or re-factoring of existing product backlog features, or from un-resolved issues associated with the current sprint.
Assessment 2 – Case study Report MARKING SHEET
*** FOR FACULTY MEMBER ONLY ***
ASSESSMENT TASK
Case study report
WEIGHTAGE
30%
NAME OF THE STUDENT
STUDENT NO.
Criteria
Mark
DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE
Disciplinary knowledge of SCRUM methodology and authoritative use of disciplinary knowledge
/5
Critical understanding of the tasks to be taken up for the three sprints
/5
Creative application – preparation of behavioral UML models, activity diagram and sequence diagrams
/5
Showcase in-depth understanding by answering all the requirements – feature breakdown, sprint plan and test requirements
/5
STRUCTURE
Well-structured presentation and report
/3
Systematic presentation of argument, detailed critical analysis carried out
/3
STYLE AND COMMUNICATION
Informative presentation that focuses on supporting its central argument in a convincing and compelling manner
/3
Accurate spelling, grammatical sentences, correct punctuation, concise and precise writing in the presentation and the report
/3
Uses clear, powerful and appropriate language
/3
PARTICIPATION AND COLLABORATION
An integrated contribution to the task, which reflects critical assimilation of other group perspectives
/5
General Comments/Strengths:
TOTAL MARK/GRADE
/40
Overall student’s assessment score
Lecturer’s Signature:
Date:
/
/
Name:
Assignment 3: Research report (Individual Assignment) 50%
*NOTE: This Document is used in conjunction with MBA6103 Case Study document [MBA6103-CaseStudy.doc]*
Objective(s)
This assessment is designed to improve student writing skills and to give students experience in researching a topic and writing a critique report relevant to the Unit of Study subject matter.
Instructions
For this assessment you will prepare a report or critique on an academic paper related directly to one or more of the following topics:
- Agile Practices
- Implementation of Agile Practices
- Emerging Agile methodologies and Modeling approaches
- Test-Driven development in an Agile Environment
- Requirements Engineering from User Stories
- Requirements Engineering in an Agile Environment
- Project Management in an Agile environment
- Refactoring within Agile Methodologies
The paper you select must be directly relevant to at least one of these major topics. The paper can be from any academic conference or other relevant Journal or online sources such as Google Scholar, Academic department repositories etc... All students must select a different paper; thus, the paper must be approved by your instructor or tutor before proceeding. In case two students are wanting to report on the same paper, the first who emails the instructor with their choice will be allocated that paper (provided it is acceptable). Note: popular magazine articles, web sites and blogs are not academic sources.
Your report should be limited to approx. 2000 words (not including references). Use 1.5 spacing with a 12 point Calibri font. Though your paper is based on the chosen article, you can use other sources to support your discussion. Citation of sources is mandatory and must be in the APA style.
Assignment 3 – Research report (Individual Assignment) MARKING SHEET
*** FOR FACULTY MEMBER ONLY ***
ASSESSMENT TASK
Research report (Individual Assignment)
WEIGHTAGE
50%
NAME OF THE STUDENT
STUDENT NO.
Criteria
Mark
CRITICAL THINKING
Identification and analysis of key issues related to agile methodologies
/5
A demonstration of thorough knowledge and application of relevant agile principles, concepts and theories
/5
A critical review and integration of relevant academic and professional literature
/5
APPLICATION
Disciplinary knowledge is clearly presented and uses disciplinary language authoritatively
/5
Analysis of current application of the agile methods in the context of research paper
/5
STRUCTURE, ARGUMENT AND CONTEXT
The paper contains an introduction and conclusion, paragraphs well-formed and linked
/3
Systematic presentation of argument, detailed critical analysis carried out
/3
STYLE AND COMMUNICATION
Balanced, objective academic style
/3
Accurate spelling, grammatical sentences, correct punctuation, concise and precise writing
/3
Correct use of APA style in terms of in-text citation and referencing/bibliography
/3
General Comments/Strengths:
Suggestion for Improvement:
TOTAL MARK/GRADE
/40
Overall student’s assessment score
Lecturer’s Signature:
Date: