FIT5094 IT for Management Decision Making
Semester 1, 2023
Assignment 1 – Analysis of a Strategic Decision
Format: Individual Report Weight: 25% of the marks available for FIT5094
Indicative Length: 2,500 – 3,000 words Due date: Thursday April 6, 2023 @ 4:30 p.m.
Assignment Objective
The objective of this assignment is to analyse a decision process and to identify aspects of the process
that can be improved. Mastery of this task is essential for systems analysts working in a decision
support role.
NOTE: This is an individual assignment; it is NOT a group assignment.
The Decision
For FIT5094 Assignment 1, students need to select and analyse a strategic decision made by other
people. The candidate decisions are:
1. Choosing which graduate degree to study is one of the most important strategic decisions
that a person can make. For most students it will form the foundation of their career and is
one of a person’s largest investments. It also represents at least a one and a half year full-
time commitment at an important, normally an early, stage of life.
2. Choosing leaving one’s home country to pursue further study or career overseas, or migrate
to a foreign country is an important strategic decision for an individual or a family. It often
has significant financial, social, and cultural implications.
3. Buying a property (a house, a townhouse, an apartment, a unit, or a flat) is a strategic decision
for an individual or a family. It often involves borrowing significant amount of money from a
bank. It has a number of sub-decisions including location, type, size, and cost.
4. For most people purchasing a new car is a major financial decision and can be considered a
strategic decision. It normally involves borrowing funds. It can be an expression of the
decision maker’s personality, and it can involve deferring other consumer spending.
5. Students may negotiate a strategic decision to analyse with their tutor. This is a possible
option if a student is working in industry and can use a scenario from their professional work
in the assignment.
6. Students can also negotiate with their tutor to analyse a strategic decision that is well
documented in the literature. Examples include the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster in 1986
and the decision by a number of countries to invade Iraq in 2003. This may be an option if a
student has studied a strategic decision in another unit or course.
FIT5094 IT for MGT DM Semester 1, 2023 Assignment 1
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Assignment Tasks
For Assignment 1 students will take the role of a decision support analyst who is trying to understand
a strategic decision made by other people and identify problems with the decision process. The tasks
that will be undertaken are:
1. Choose a strategic decision from the list above. You should have your choice of the strategic
decision approved as suitable for this assignment by your tutor before commencing the
assignment, preferably by the end of Week 4.
Important Note:
(i). If you choose Options 1, 2, 3, and 4 (and possibly Option 5), please make sure that the
decision has been made in the PAST. Choosing a future decision that has not been made
yet is not appropriate for the purpose of this assignment, and as a result, marks will be
deducted significantly.
(ii). Please make sure you analyse ONE decision (that was made in the past) only. The decision
can be made by one individual or by a group of people, as long as the unit of analysis is
ONE decision. Analysing multiple decisions made by different individuals in this
assignment is not appropriate, and will result in a significant reduction of marks.
2. Develop an interview protocol that will guide you in collecting data about the nature of the
decision.
3. Interview suitable people (e.g., your classmate, friend, relative) about their decision-making.
Interview can be conducted face-to-face or online via tools like Zoom, Hangout Meet,
Microsoft Team, and the like.
4. Describe the decision processes used by the people that you interviewed using the MRT model
(Mintzberg, H., Raisinghani, D., & Theoret, A. (1976). The structure of “unstructured” decision
processes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21 (6), 246-275.).
5. Identify the cognitive biases that may have adversely affected the decision-making. As many
biases are likely to affect any decision it is important to focus on the biases that you think have
had the most significant impact on the decision.
6. Suggest how the decision process should be undertaken to minimise the adverse effects of
cognitive biases.
Assignment Structure
The assignment should be submitted in report rather than essay format. You can find general guidance
on assignment report writing at Report - Learn HQ (monash.edu). The Faculty of IT also provides a
style guide for writing reports at Writing a report - Faculty of IT | Monash University.
A suggested structure of the report is:
Executive Summary
ntroduction
The Nature of the Decision (with the MRT diagram)
Cognitive Biases Affecting the Decision
Improvement to the Decision Process
Conclusion
FIT5094 IT for MGT DM Semester 1, 2023 Assignment 1
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References
Appendices
a. Interview Protocol
b. Demographics of Participant(s)
This structure is a suggestion only. Students are free to structure their report differently if it suits their
narrative. The indicative length of the written report is 2,500 to 3,000 words (including the executive
summary, tables, figures, all references and appendices).
NOTE: Any texts exceed the word limit will NOT be assessed.
Standards for Presentation
All assignment work must be word-processed and presented using the APA style. For details see: APA
7th - Citing and referencing - Subject guides at Monash University. You must acknowledge all sources
of information. The use of other people’s work without acknowledgment is termed plagiarism1 and is
a serious offence that will result in failure (see the “Academic Integrity – Plagiarism, Collusion, and
Cheating” section below for more details).
The APA citation style is directly supported by Microsoft Word’s inbuilt citation tool. You may also
wish to install a copy of the EndNote bibliographic tool which integrates directly with Word. You can
obtain a free copy from Home - EndNote - Library guides at Monash University.
Learning Objectives
Successful completion of this assignment will lead to knowledge and skills in the design of decision
support systems, including:
analysis of a strategic decision task;
understanding the mixture of factual and social factors relevant to a strategic decision;
identification of cognitive biases that may be present in a decision situation; and
suggestion and justification of how the decision process should be undertaken to minimise
the adverse effects of cognitive biases.
The assignment assesses your understanding of materials covered in Weeks 4 and 5 of the syllabus.
Assessment Criteria
1. Quality of executive summary and introduction (10 marks)
2. Quality of interview conducted, decision process description and MRT model (30 marks)
3. Identification of major cognitive biases as well as critical analysis/discussion (25 marks)
4. Quality of debiasing and conclusions (20 marks)
5. Literature used (range, relevance and number) & Acknowledgement of the
work of others, and referencing/citation technique
(5 marks)
6. Logical structure & Quality of writing (10 marks)
1 See FIT assessment cover sheet (Template (monash.edu)) for definitions for “plagiarism” and “collusion”.
FIT5094 IT for MGT DM Semester 1, 2023 Assignment 1
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Use of Generative AI Tools
The nature of this assignment is decision analysis and diagnosis of a real (past) decision by applying
the theories learnt from the unit; thus, in this assessment, you must not use generative artificial
intelligence (AI) to generate any materials or content in relation to this assessment task.
Submission of the Assignments
The assignment must be submitted electronically. The file for the assignment is to be submitted for
assessment via the assignment submission tool2 on Moodle. The tool will be available from the
FIT5094 Moodle site close to the submission date.
First, your assignment file must be in Word document format, and named without spaces, brackets
etc. The filename should contain the unit code, assignment number, your tutorial activity number, and
your student ID number, similar to the following example:
FIT5094_Assignment1_ Tutorial1_12345678.doc(x)
Second, submit your assignment in Word document format to Moodle (after accepting the submission
statement) for your tutor to assess. [Note: Please do not leave your assignment in the “Draft (not
submitted)” mode, as it will attract late submission penalties as detailed in the next section below.]
Please note, late submission will result in the reduction of marks according to the section “Extensions
/ Special Considerations” below.
Extensions / Special Considerations
If you believe that your assignment will be delayed because of exceptional circumstances beyond your
control such as illness, you should apply for an extension or a special consideration of this assignment.
You must read the associated Special Consideration policy outlining the grounds for granting special
consideration, and attach the appropriate supporting documentation to your application.
More information about the special consideration policy and procedures is available here: Special
consideration - Current students (monash.edu)
Do not assume that submission of a Special Consideration application guarantees that it will be
granted – you must receive confirmation that it has been granted.
Late assignments submitted without an approved extension may be accepted (up to a maximum of
seven days) at the discretion of the lecturer, but will be penalised at the rate of 10% of the available
total assignment marks per day (including weekends)3. Assignments submitted more than seven days
after the due date will receive a mark of zero for that assignment and may not receive feedback.
2 Please note, Turnitin, a text-matching software, has been integrated with the Moodle assignment submission
tool. Submitting an assignment to Turnitin happens automatically once the assignment is submitted to Moodle.
For more information, please refer to the following webpages:
Turnitin - Learn HQ (monash.edu)
Turnitin - Virtual Learning Environment (intranet.monash)
3 For example, this assignment will be marked out of 100 marks and due by 4:30 p.m. Thursday the 6th of April,
2023; if the student submits the assignment by 4:30 p.m. Monday the 10th of April, 2023, a 40% (4 days late)
FIT5094 IT for MGT DM Semester 1, 2023 Assignment 1
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Please Note:
1. Your inability to manage your time or computing resources will not be accepted as a valid
excuse. (Several assignments falling due at the same time are a fact of university life.)
2. Hardware failures, whether of personal or University equipment, are not normally recognised
as valid excuses. Failure to back-up assignment files is also not recognised as a valid excuse.
Monash University has a range of support services for students including Counselling and Language &
Learning. If you are experiencing difficulties in your studies these services may be of great assistance.
Academic Integrity – Plagiarism, Collusion, and Cheating
We assume that you have completed Monash’s Academic Integrity training before starting this unit.
If you have not completed it successfully, you need to do so before starting this assignment.
Students should be aware that the academic integrity policies at Monash University have recently
changed. Please ensure you are familiar with the updated Academic integrity and what plagiarism,
collusion and cheating mean - Current students (monash.edu)
Note that this is an individual assignment. While general collaboration between students in terms of
understanding of theoretical concepts is acceptable, the assignment and the content contained in it
must be entirely your own work.
You must not:
Use another student’s work as the basis for your own.
Use another student’s work to help ‘give you ideas’.
Steal, appropriate or make use of the work of another student without their knowledge.
Lend your work (including drafts) to another student for any reason.
Get someone to do the work for you.
Use the ideas, words or other intellectual property of anyone without proper attribution.
Leave your work unattended on the student laboratory computers, or give your authcate
details to anyone.
Penalties for plagiarism, collusion, and/or cheating can include formal reprimands, notes being
attached to your student file, failure in the assignment, failure in the unit or even suspension or
exclusion from the university.
See the Unit Moodle (under “Assessment” tab) for more information on academic integrity, and for
links to Faculty and University policies on this topic.
Good Luck!
13 March 2023
penalty of 100 marks will be applied (that is, 40 marks will be deducted from the marks that the student
deserves).