This assignment is based on "Projects and Research" problem 3 on page 238 in your textbook.

Assignment 1: Part 1 of 2 (Due Friday at midnight)

You are a systems analyst working on a project to develop an intranet for a large organization with several thousand employees working in offices throughout the United States. This will be the organizations's first intranet, and executive management want is to help increase employee efficiency and commitment to the organization. As part of fact-finding, information needs to be gathered from employees of the organization regarding intranet content and functionality. Due to the size and geographic distribution of the organization, as well as project time constraints, there is insufficient time and resources for personal interviews, so you have decided that a questionnaire is needed.

Answer the following questions is writing using Microsoft Word or software that produces an RTF file or a plain text editor such as Notepad to produce a document with written answers to the following questions. Submit the document using the Digital Drop box Tool.

1. What facts and opinions do you need to collect?
2. Should all employees in the organization be surveyed? Why or why not? If not all employees should be surveyed, how would you select the employees to be surveyed?
3. What format do you think would work best for this survey questionnaire? If fixed format, what type(s) of fixed-format questions should be used/
4. How long should the survey questionnaire be in order to get the necessary information without discouraging employees from filling it out?
5. Create the survey questionnaire, using the question-writing guidelines given in Chapter Six in the text.

Assignment 1: Part 2 of 2.(Due Wednesday at midnight and Friday at midnight)

Post answers to these two questions in the discussion forums on Blackboard by Wednesday at midnight. Then, comment on at least one of your fellow-student's postings between Wednesday midnight and Friday midnight.

QUESTION 1: You have decided that employee commitment to the organization could be enhanced if you used more than basic technology on the intranet that you are going to build for the company. Research some of the more recent technologies being used on web sites and state which technology or "Web 2.0" features you would consider using and give a reference to a web site where you found information about that technology so that others in the class can read about it. Describe the technology or approach and why you think it could be useful in the intranet you are building for the large company.

In case you have trouble getting started here are some possibilities: blogs, AJAX, Social Networking, RSS, or Mashups. There is no correct or incorrect answer here. We are only in Chapter 6 doing initial requirements gathering. There is no need to give careful thought to technology issues until the "magic" Decision Analysis phase. However, my experience is that the earlier you begin thinking about and investigating technical and architectural issues, the better decisions you will make in "Decision Analysis" even if the decision turns out to be to build a traditional web site.

QUESTION 2: You are worried that the employees are not going to answer your questionnaire. What steps might you take to increase the response rate? (This can be a short answer of two or three sentences).