PROJECT 3: EVALUATION

Dear Evaluator:
Thank you for working with a student from IS215: Information Services at the School of Information Management and Systems, University of California, Berkeley.

The Assignment: For this assignment students have been asked to design and plan the introduction of a new information service or product for your organization. At the completion of the project each student will submit a report to the organization and to the instructor defining the new service/product, comparing its value to other similar products or services and propose a means for evaluation of the new service once it is implemented.

Evaluation: I would appreciate your writing for the student and myself a brief evaluation so that we can better understand the impact and possible value of this proposal to your operation. The evaluation should serve as constructive feedback to the student on his/her proposal and conclusions.

Evaluation Criteria: Listed below are criteria to be used in judging the report submitted by the student:

• Comment on the soundness of the arguments employed to justify acquisition or inclusion of this service/product at your organization
• Has the student made reasonable estimates of the costs (financial and human) of initiating and maintaining this service through the first year?
• Is the proposal realistic in terms of organizational structure, staffing and current operations in your organization?
• What suggestions for improvement can you make to the student regarding the content of his/her report? More convincing arguments, more or different background information on the product or its value, more complete or realistic costing data, improved or different format for presentation?

DUE DATES:

• Thurs. 14 May: Written report due to instructor and evaluator
• Wed. 20 May: Evaluation due
  • written copy to student for delivery or
  • fax to instructor Charlotte Nolan (510-642-5814) or
  • email to student and to instructor (cnolan@sims.berkeley.edu)

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The Assignment Instructions given to students include the following points:

Purpose: To become familiar with the steps in designing and developing an evaluation mechanism for a new information service (acquisition of a new resource; development of resources for a new client base; incorporating products from a new service provider).

Your job will be to propose, plan for, and rationalize the introduction of a new service or information resource for the chosen setting in the form of a project report to the director, supervisor of the service operation, information manager or whomever will be responsible for initiation and management of the service.

The submitted report should:

• Define and describe exact nature and parameters of the new service
• Describe how it will be integrated into the existing organizational structure and services
• Provide well reasoned arguments for initiation, inclusion of this service
• Include comparative information on its value over competing services
• Determine the financial impact with costing of all aspects of the service
• Propose a mechanism for evaluating the effectiveness of the new service

Complete assignment instructions