week3

ASSIGNMENT 1 SUBMISSION

Assignment 1: Business Continuity Plan Report
Due Week 3 and worth 50 points 
During your first week as a Senior Information Systems Security director, you met with the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Security Officer (CSO). During the meeting, they revealed their deep concerns with the organization’s business continuity plans (BCP). Since you were previously responsible for BCPs for a large enterprise they are requesting that you review the company’s BCP staffing plans and training plans.   
They would like you to provide a report with your findings and recommendations for corrective action.   
Additionally, include why it is important to include legal representatives on the business continuity planning team and provide an example of laws or regulation the company should include to remain compliant.   
While there is not a specific page requirement for this assignment, students are required to fully develop ideas and answer questions to the point that no further questions are left in the mind of the reader. If the instructor can clearly find the answers to their questions, the ideas within the report are fully developed. If there are unanswered or under-answered questions, further development of the report is required.  
Keep the following in mind: 

· More words do not necessarily indicate more meaning. 

· When an employee is tasked with a project in the workplace that requires a report, the report should fully answer all the questions needing to be answered. In this school environment, students are learning how to prepare such documents.  

· Consider your audience. Although instructors are very knowledgeable on the subject matter, they need to verify that the student has absorbed the material through a written report. Students should therefore write to an audience of a co-worker or classmate who does not know the answers to the questions posed. 

· For students who are more comfortable with more specific guidelines, ideas can generally be developed in one to three paragraphs. The goal of writing in this class is to demonstrate what you have learned.  

CIS 500 – Information Systems for Decision-Making

© 2017 Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University Confidential and Proprietary information
and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of
Strayer University.

CIS 500 Page 1 of 3

Assignment 1: The CEO’s Challenge

Due Week 3 and worth 150 points

You’ve just left an all-hands meeting at your company*. The CEO was very upset at the rise of shadow IT
projects – a major indicator that the company’s internal information system has failed to meet its needs.

Because the current information system is inadequate, inefficient, and outdated, the CEO is inviting
everyone in the organization to propose a new operational, decision support, or enterprise information
system to replace it. The executives have allocated $5 million to fund the most promising idea.

This is your chance to make a difference in the company (not to mention your own career). Write your
proposal as a memo that the entire C-suite will review. Include at least these points, in your own words, to
be persuasive:

1. Identify the main functions of your proposed information system and why they are important to the

business.

2. Describe what types of data your information system will hold and how data quality will be

ensured.

3. Explain how the old information system handles the functions you mentioned, the problems that

occur, and why your information system will handle things better.

4. Offer evidence of feasibility: Show that similar information systems have been built successfully

and that they save more money than they cost.

The executives are busy, so keep your memo to 1-4 pages and avoid any extraneous content.

*You may use a current or former employer, but do not disclose anything confidential. Or, you can pick
another organization if you are familiar with their internal (not customer-facing) information systems. You
can disguise the organization and populate it with famous names. Made-up companies are problematic
because of the amount of detail and realism they require.

CIS 500 – Information Systems for Decision-Making

© 2017 Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University Confidential and Proprietary information
and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of
Strayer University.

CIS 500 Page 2 of 3

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and
language and writing skills, using the following rubric.

Points: 150 Assignment 1: The CEO’s Challenge

Criteria
Unacceptable
Below 70% F

Fair
70-79% C

Proficient
80-89% B

Exemplary
90-100% A

1. Identify the main
functions of your
proposed information
system and why they are
important to the
business.

Weight: 20%

(30 points)

Inadequate or no
information system

Limited information
on the system
proposed,
inadequate detail

Main functions and
importance unclear

Proposed an
information system

Somewhat
identified the main
functions

Importance of main
functions are
unclear

Proposed an
original information
system

Identified the main
functions of the
system

Explained the
importance of each
function to the
business

Explained the
stylistic choices for
architecture of
information system

Connected main
functions of system
to business needs
and shadow IT

2. Describe what types of
data your information
system will hold and how
data quality will be
ensured.

Weight: 25%

(37.5 points)

Inadequate
description of data
types

Inadequate
connection of data
storage to the
system

Inadequate
explanation of data
quality measures

Described data
types, somewhat
connected to the
system

Somewhat
explained the data
storage in system

Reasonable
explanation of data
quality measures

Described the data
types in the system

Explained how the
system would hold
each data type

Proposed how data
quality would be
ensured

Explained the
system storage and
interaction with data

Considered the
impacts of cost and
maintenance on
data quality

3. Explain how the
functions you mentioned
are being handled by the
old information system,
the problems that occur,
and why your information
system will handle things
better.

Weight: 25%
(37.5 points)

Limited description
of old system, no
explanation of
functions

Inadequate problem
identification with
old system

Limited justification
for selecting new
system over the old
one

Somewhat
explained functions
handled by the old
information system

Reasonable
description of
problems of the old
system

Reasonable
justification for how
the new system is
better than the old

Explained how the
main functions are
being handled by
the old information
system

Described the
problems of the old
system

Justified why the
new system can
handle things better
than the old system

Described why
inefficiencies of
maintenance in the
old system persist

Provided options for
keeping the system
separate,
integrating with old,
or scaling up/down
based on business
needs

CIS 500 – Information Systems for Decision-Making

© 2017 Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University Confidential and Proprietary information
and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of
Strayer University.

CIS 500 Page 3 of 3

4. Offer evidence of
feasibility: Show that
similar information
systems have been built
successfully and that
they save more money
than they cost.

Weight: 20%

(30 points)

Inadequate or
unsuccessful
system selected

Limited
demonstration of
cost savings

Inadequate defense
of the new system
to others

Identified one
similar, successful
information system

Somewhat
demonstrated cost
savings comparison

Reasonable
comparison of the
new system to other
systems

Identified similar,
successful
information systems

Demonstrated cost
savings comparison

Defended how the
new system could
operate similarly to
successful systems

Explained what
makes the
information system
identified similar to
yours

Demonstrate how
the new system
outperforms similar
systems

5. Clarity, persuasion,
proper communication,
writing mechanics, and
formatting requirements

Weight: 10%

(15 points)

Unclear structure,
not persuasive,
major grammatical
errors

Somewhat clear
structure, limited
persuasion,
grammatical errors,
language too simple
or too wordy

Clear structure,
persuasive writing,
minor or no
grammatical errors,
length and format
within requirements,
plain language

No grammatical
errors, plain
language,
organized by topic,
references business
needs, connects to
technical specs,
persuasive