Identifying Issues In The Human Activity System For Learning Management At Griffith University

The topic focuses on the identification of issues faced within the Griffith University related to the Human activity system for the management of learning procedures. The general business issue that has been addressed by the assignment is the Human Activity system issue related to the learning management at Griffith University. The particular information system that has been adopted for the assignment is Human activity system. The Human activity system acts as a notional system that addresses the different activities of human beings. These activities present in the system are notional because of the intellectual constructs and not providing any proper description of the real world activities of human beings (Aasheim & Zhao, 2017).

As the human activity system is concerned with the addressing of various activities by human beings, the systems are notional based on its intellectual constructs and lack of description of the real world activities. This also leads to other issues like lack of ability to gain accessibility to data and information within the Griffith University for ensuring proper management of learning. Due to this issue, it has become difficult to access relevant data and information, learn the various new concepts that are needed to progress in academic career properly (Griffith.edu.au, 2017).

The issue or problem faced in business by Griffith University is the issue with the Human Activity System for learning management. This major issue has created complexities for accessing relevant data and information and make progress in managing further studies, furthermore gain good skills and expertise level in the academic and professional field with ease and effectiveness. There has also been lack of accessibility to important data and information that has further deteriorated the efficiency of the Human Activity system within the Griffith University. The SWOT analysis has been utilised for analysing the different types of aspects of the present targeted business and identify the processes and operations that have resulted in making changes and improvements to the Human Activity system for management of learning within the University (Aven, 2015). The five whys on the other hand is needed as well for determining the causes of such issues in business and ensure that these are monitored and reviewed prior to the deriving of outcomes. 

Because of the issue of Human activity system for the learning management within Griffith University, it is important to reduce the issues as soon as possible for bringing out positive outcomes and prevent issues like lack of accessibility to proper data and information efficiently. The business goals and objectives can be achieved with the identification of the SMART objectives, including the specifiable, measurable, agreed, realistic and objectives that are needed to be accomplished within time. Few business objectives that are needed to be achieved have been enabling a proper system for learning management, creating ease of providing various degree programs and courses to the students within the University, implement online degree courses managed by few open universities present all over Australia (Bayat, Pomplun & Tran, 2014).

SWOT Analysis

To identify the most important goals and objectives in business, it is important to make a valuable addition by offering more flexibility to the students and allow them to gain better scopes to grow and develop in their personal and professional career. From the business perspective, the organisation wants to maintain an appropriate and flexible Human activity system to ensure that the management of learning approaches is done properly. In any case, the students are not satisfied with the kinds of learning within the University, the organisation can take necessary steps to resolve those issues and improve the learning management procedures for the system in an effective way (Bourne, 2016).

The SWOT analysis is useful for assessing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats found in the Human activity system for learning management at Griffith University.  One of the major strengths is that the Human Activity system allows for identifying the different behaviours of individuals studying within the University. The Human activity system for learning management also helps in managing the computer systems properly, maintain work ethics within the University, manage the work groups, financial budget, human resource management processes for the recruitment and selection of individuals along with development of proper corporate plans for successful decision making. The HAS for learning management has allowed Griffith University to become one of the market leaders with strong research and development activities (Bratton & Gold, 2012). This has resulted in delivering good quality services to the students for learning along with better cost advantages and good patents.

Few weaknesses include large inventories, excessive capacity of market, turnover management, poor brand image in the market and lack of depth of management which often hinders the successful completion of a learning project. The opportunities of the organisation include reaching new and overseas markets, reduction of trade related barriers and limitations, diversification of learning management approaches, competitive edge due to cost advantages and good quality services offered. The various threats include saturation of market, low cost foreign competition while managing international business, reduced growth of market and implementation of new rules and regulations by the Government of Australia (Buckley, Wheeler & Halbesleben, 2017). The issues of Human activity system for learning management can also lead to various threats such as competition from open source products and dissatisfaction of consumers regarding the design, which can create other complexities too.

The PEST analysis is done to uncover the impact of political, economic, social and technological factors that create impacts on the Human Activity System for learning management. The political factors include Government intervention, rules and regulations implemented for management of business functioning (Bull et al., 2016). The economic factors include growth in economy of the country, effectiveness of the HAS for enhancing the ways of delivering learning materials to the students, manage proper process of recruitment of selection and manage comprehensive growth and quality of online education too. This would not only enhance the workforce efficiency but would led to better contribution to the country’ economy a well (Conde et al., 2016).

Five Whys

The outcomes that are needed to be achieved by Griffith University include overcoming the issue with the Human Activity system for Learning Management, gain the satisfaction of students regarding the learning approaches provided to them and allowing for the accessibility to relevant data and information for students within the University. These outcomes could be achieved by enhancing the flexibility of the degree courses and by engaging the target segments comprising of the students   with their chosen degree programs, which would not only result in gaining access to important data and information with ease but might also help in managing the resources of the organisation properly (Covello & Merkhoher, 2013).

The Human Activity System would also allow the organisation to monitor the learning approaches that the students had found suitable and check out for any discrepancies that might have created lack of ability to access information and other issues. After identifying the Human Activity System issues for learning management, probable measures should be taken for resolving those and check whether the management learning approaches had brought good results or not. By fulfilling the needs and requirements of students, the business outcomes would tend to be more positive and flexible such as ease and convenience of attracting more students and even provide flexible time shifts for the learning of their degree courses within the University (Department of Education and Training, 2011). The business would be able to focus more on the outcomes of generating more sales, revenue and enhanced profit level in business as well. 

Table 1. Stakeholder List

Stakeholder list
·        Faculties ·        Lecturers ·        Administrator of students ·        Career management advisors ·        Academician ·        Chancellor ·        Alumni	·        Government of Australia ·        Director of planning ·        Vice chancellor ·        Students ·        Executive officer ·        Manager

As the organisation selected here is the Griffith University, so the stakeholders are the individuals who are involved with the various activities within the University. The roles of faculties are to manage the students properly by providing them education and allow them to make progress in their career. The lecturers conduct meetings and conversations with the students and other individuals within the University to talk about the various requirements of the career that the students have been involved with and furthermore make them understand about their career growth and opportunities (Engeström, 2014). The Government of Australia manages the entire education system within the Griffith University and ensures that the Human activity system for learning management is maintained properly. The Chancellor perform various duties by listening to the opinions of vice chancellor to prepare documentation report that contain matters related to the implementation of the Human activity system and issues concerned with that for the learning management (Fraser, 2012). The roles and responsibilities of students are the easiest, as they just need to learn the study materials for gaining enough skills and knowledge and furthermore proceed in their academic career to become successful in their professional life in the future (Griffith.edu.au, 2017).

The attitudes and influences of the various business stakeholders are dependent upon their expectations, needs and requirements based on the implementation of Human activity system for learning management within Griffith University. The stakeholders must be influenced for making sure that the issues like lack of accessibility to data and information are reduced and the Human activity system is implemented in an appropriate way to ensure that the learning practices bear fruitful results for the students. The Government of Australia has the highest influence because they manage the entire education system to develop learning approaches of the students (Hu & Li, 2013). The other major stakeholders who have highest influences on the University are Chancellor, faculties, managers and even the students whose needs and preferences are needed to be fulfilled for ensuring successful business functioning and derive positive outcomes through better sales, more customers attraction and enhanced level of profit in business (IIBA, 2015).

SMART Objectives

The identification of the major stakeholders in Griffith University has already been identified in the previous section with their roles and responsibility. For gaining the gaining in-depth knowledge of the relationship between them various techniques have been used in the following (Jalal, Uddin & Kim, 2012). 

Onion Diagram

Onion diagram is helpful in categorising the stakeholders in the respective categories based on their relationship and interaction with the Human Activity System (Jick, 1979).

RACI Matrix

RACI matrix stands for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed. It is used to map the roles and responsibility of every stakeholder in the institution. It facilitates in determining the level of authority of different stakeholder in the organization (Kenneth & Kilmann, 2002). 

The life cycle management is the all total process of development of a project from its initial phase to its competition. It involves the process of managing the entire cycle, planning, designing and manufacturing, finally implementing the end product in the market. It completes the above mentioned process keeping the requirements of the major stakeholders in mind. It involves the management of the requirement in various stages of the process. There are three main analysis approach present that are waterfall, Agile and hybrid model (Kolb & Kolb, 2012). The waterfall model is based on plan driven where as agile model choose a more interactive approach. On the other hand, hybrid model is some of both where the runs the process using the waterfall model and changes it into agile model on some particular point of time. As the organization under study is an educational institution, it is best to take up the hybrid model for the particular case of human activity system model (Kolios & Read, 2013). The human activity management should start with a proper plan and structured model to minimise the uncertainty in the project. Hence, a plan driven or waterfall approach is necessary at the starting stage where a plan needs to be formulated. The project should start with formulated plan for ensuring its success. After the implementation of the plan, the project should transform in the interactive or agile approach. The requirement for the change in approach is necessary as it involves the satisfaction of different level of stakeholders. hence, to minimise the problems faced by the stakeholders in the process, and to fulfil the requirements, hybrid model proves beneficial to meet the demands (Lara & Labrador, 2013). The process should target the intensity of the required changes that are demanded by the stakeholders. The major stakeholders who should be given priority are the students, lecturers, government and the administrative as they are the major stakeholders in an educational institution (Laudon & Laudon, 2016).

PEST Analysis

Meeting the requirements of the stakeholders according to their intensity is necessary to manage the possible conflict in the institution. The productivity should be given the utmost importance in the process to maintain the healthy environment of the organization. There are various possible reason for conflict which involves the dissatisfaction of the stakeholders which can never be meet as these are interrelated with one another. Fulfilment of some requirements will give birth to some other conflict (Li, 2014). There are five conflict handling model that are considered as the key models of conflict management. They are competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodation model. These models are based on the degree assertiveness and cooperativeness (Madsbjerg & Rasmussen, 2014).

The scope of solution is actually the statement of work that defines the issues of Human Activity system for learning management in Griffith University. The scope of solution is defined for determining the outcomes that the project may deliver and even analyse the various roles and requirements of the stakeholders. The major stakeholders here are the students, organisational staffs, academicians and Government. The students need to enrol for their degree or course, that they want to study. They must also communicate with the teachers, lecturers and professors to ensure that clarification is done properly. The organisational staffs hold the responsibilities of handling accounting system, Human activity system, information system, etc. to ensure that the organisation functions properly (McNeil, Frey & Embrechts, 2015). The requirements for academicians should be proper skills, knowledge and expertise level possessed by them to teach the students and allow them to progress in their career with ease and efficiency. The Government of Australia manages sets various rules, regulations and laws for keeping track records of the business functions, thereby ensuring successful management of education system for improving the efficiency of education facilities and services provided to the students of Griffith University (Montenegro, Nuñez & Larco, 2017). The solution scope includes revising the existing Human activity system for learning management, improvement of IT system infrastructure and improvement of the course programs and create a timetable for allowing the academicians teach the students on the allotted time schedule (Niederwieser et al., 2016).

The implementation of IT system not only enhances the effectiveness of the Human Activity system for learning management but also provides better employee benefits along with proper management of human resources too. There would also be administration benefits along with better accessibility of data and information that may be lost. A huge amount of cost would be saved, thereby allow for management of financial processes effectively too.  The objectives were to reduce the issues related to the Human Activity system for learning management and ensure proper accessibility to the data and information during the process of learning (Patino et al., 2016). The “do nothing” is not a viable option, because decision tree provides an appropriate structure for investigating the various options available to derive the best possible outcomes and present the risks and rewards associated with it. The value chain analysis is used as a strategic tool for analysing the internal business activities and determines the most suitable activity that can help the organisation ain more profit and competitive advantage in business. The Force field analysis is a tool used in social science for identifying the factors that can create influence on a particular social situation (Reed & Curzon, 2015). 

Solutions to the Issues

The topic focuses on the issues associated with the Human Activity system for learning management and thus it is essential for the organisation to manage the risk assessment procedure for evaluating the issues that are causing the risks. The risk assessment can also help in determining the probable risks incurred during the business operations and develop mitigation strategies to reduce the chances of risks efficiently (Satzinger, Jackson & Burd, 2012). 

This section of the assignment comrpises of the detailed description of the business requirement, stakeholder requirements, functional requirements and non-functional requirements. The necessary techniques and diagrams are used in the process of analysis (Song, 2017).

Business requirements focus on the required aspect rather than the process of achievement. These are the goals and objectives of the organization under study. Elicitation techniques were implemented in this particular case for developing the idea. The resources such as, Griffith University’s strategic plan, model report, supporting articles, reports and industry trends are cultivated in the process of using elicitation technique (Stark, 2015).

Requirements are then categorised on the basis of their importance. For this particular purpose of prioritizing, MoSCoW analysis was done with the data gathered from the Decision analysis. The essential business requirements are identified and described in the Appendix Q with proper justification of the process of identification. These priorities were standardized on the basis of business need.

These are the requirements of the major stakeholders in the organization. Importance is given on the interaction between the stakeholder and the organization. It shows importance in bridging the gap between business requirements and the functional as well as non-functional requirements (Summers, Joshi & Morkos, 2014). Data recovered from the MoSCoW analysis points the major stakeholder in the organization is the student group and their requirements are prioritised.

The functional requirements of the system are data manipulation and processing, technical details, calculation and some other functionalities by which the requirements of a system for achieving its goals. In the case, the identified functional requirements are the stakeholder groups’ requirement that is the students’ requirements in the system (van Wijngaarden et al., 2012). These functional requirements are separate from the stakeholders’ requirement where the functional requirements are generated by the stakeholders’ requirements.

The non-function requirements help in understanding how the system is supposed to be. It takes part in describing the environmental conditions of the system instead of the functional components of the system. These requirements of the human Activity system were obtained using the observation method of the present environment of the Griffith University and the requirements are managed and fulfilled (Venkatesh & Balani, 2016).

Stakeholder Analysis

Conclusion           

The above description has been based on the human activity system management of Griffith University where business problems have been identified along with the identification of the major stakeholder of the university. Various tools have been used for the identification of the stakeholders and their relationships, role and responsibilities. Onion diagram and RACI has been highlighted in the appendix. Definition and solution scope has been stated in the report. Idea of requirement management is provided in-depth mentioning the four fundamental requirements that are business requirement, stakeholder requirement, functional and non- functional requirements.

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