CA441 Continuous Assessment (Total 50% of the overall Module Marks)

The Continuous Assessment will consist of two parts:

  1. A presentation (probably in Week 11/12) of aspects of the essay (in part 2) worth 15% of the overall CA441 Module Marks
  2. An essay (see below) worth 35% of the overall CA441 Module Marks
The Presentation Component
The individual student will give the presentation on aspects of the essay in front of the whole class at a CA441 slot in Week 11 or 12.  The presentation will last for five minutes with two minutes for questions.  It is not recommended that the presentation be more than two or three slides long, nor that it should be too crowded with bullet points.

Marks will be awarded for the following: Statement of the Problem from the essay chosen (5%), A Summary of the Essay Literature Review (5%) and Presentation Style (5%).


The Essay Component

Write an essay on a topic of your own choosing, or on one of the topics given here. The essay should be based on research in the literature on Business Process Management and related topics. Some initial sources of ideas are listed against each topic, but you should also consult the general references for the course, and follow up references given in other articles.

The essay should be typed, and laid out according to accepted academic standards. A short on-line tutorial on report writing can be found on the School of Mechanical Engineering web site at http://www.mecheng.dcu.ie/reports/.  Although it is geared towards reporting on experimental results, you should read at least Area 2: Referencing and Layout Guide.  An extensive guide is available on the DCU Library web site here.  It is extremely important that you understand and implement the guidelines with regard to citing and referencing. All material used from the sources you have consulted should be acknowledged and adequately referenced at the end of the essay.

NB. This project should be your own work. While you will receive support and assistance from staff, and you are encouraged to discuss problems and share ideas with your colleagues, the assignment as submitted by you must have been developed by you. Where you have received assistance in developing the project, or worked with other students, or taken ideas from somebody else, this must be acknowledged. This is intended to be an individual project, so collaborative work will not be accepted.

The essay should be no more than 3,000 words long.

Marks will be given for the Understanding of BPM shown (30%), for Original Research (20%), for Critical Analysis (30%), for Structure (10%) and for Referencing (10%).

Use the project submission form available on the school web page to submit your project. Save the completed form as an html document and attach it to the e-mail containing your essay. The completed project, including project submission form, should be sent to me by e-mail to me at mcrane@computing.dcu.ie by 16th December 2011 at 5pm.  Late submissions will lose marks.

You should pay attention to all the above comments about the essay. 

Additional comments on the Module:

    1. A resit is available for all components of the module.
    2. Students who fail the module on the first sitting must resit each component (CA or exam) that they failed. In particular, students who fail the CA must resit the CA.
    3. A student may not resit a component that has been passed and their marks for the component are carried forward
    4. Marks for failed components will be set to zero in ITS before the resit.