“Business Technology Briefing Report for Managers”

What is the Task for this Assessment?

“Business Technology Briefing Report for Managers”

Your task is to prepare a briefing report for non-technical managers that assesses digital

technologies impact the future of industry. The target readers are managers who may not

have a technical background but are keen to know how recent and emerging technologies may

impact the industry and therefore their business.

Put yourself in the position of the reader – what would a nontechnical manager want to know, and in what level of detail?

• Write for the non-technical manager, not for your lecturer
• Choose the industry sector that you are interested in or familiar

with; choose the technology that you are interested in exploring –

by the time of completing your work you should have learned

more about it than you initially knew about it

• Use examples and/or case studies to support your argument

You must first:

• Select an industry sector of your choice;
• Select a technology or a family of technologies of your choice.

The title of your report will then be: “[Technology] and the Future of [Industry]”, for example,

“AI and the Future of Accountancy”.

You should:

• Focus on one technology (such as “data analytics” and “cloud computing”), a family of

technologies (such as “artificial intelligence”) or technology-enabled concepts (such as

“Industry 4.0” and “additive manufacturing”), rather than a collection of multiple

unrelated technologies (such as “autonomous vehicles and 3D printing”);

• Consider technologies that depend on IT and digital technologies in a broad sense,

which may include, for example, bioinformatics but would exclude gene technology;

• Demonstrate a critical appreciation of a wide range of sources that should include

academic sources, and not rely on a single source.

Your report must start with a one-page Executive Summary (not included in the word count)

followed by a well-structured report not exceeding 2500 words excluding the references.

Executive Summary – The Executive Summary should be a self-contained one-page document

that can be read on its own without referring to the main part of the report. It may contain,

but not limited to, the purpose and targeted readers of the report, summary of findings, list of

recommendations, etc., that effectively communicates to the readers the key messages of the

report. It may contain tables and diagrams, where appropriate, but does not normally include

references.

Structure:

The report should be structured as follows with appropriate section numbers and headings.

Each section may have subsections as appropriate to clarify the structure and flow of the

report.

1. Introduction – This section should include the purpose of the report, motivation for

selecting the topic, how the topic was approached, and how the rest of the report is

structured.

2. Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Industry – This section should analyse the

challenges and opportunities the industry sector you chose is facing at the moment and/or

will be facing in the near future; here, it is encouraged that a framework or theory is applied to guide your analysis which should support a systematic approach to the analysis and provide a focus.

3. The Technology – This section should succinctly describe the technology that you chose

and recent as well as future developments expected of the technology. Here, be reminded

that the due to the word limit, this section should be focused and unnecessarily lengthy –

the target audience are non-technical managers which should determine the appropriate

level and amount of technical detail.

4. The Impact of the Technology on the Industry Sector – This section should critically assess

the impact of the chosen technology in the chosen industry sector in the near and longer

term future; the analysis is expected to reveal both positive changes and potential issues

that might arise; again, the use of framework or theory to guide the analysis is

encouraged.

5. Recommendations – In the light of the analyses above, this section should provide a list of

recommendations as to what managers should do, consider, assess, etc., to address the

challenges and opportunities the industry sector is facing through the use of technology.

6. Conclusion – This section should conclude the report, which revisits the purpose of the

report and highlights the key findings and key recommendations; it should also identify the

limitations of the report by critically and objectively reflecting on the report; a word count

of the report (excluding the Executive Summary) should be provided at the end of this

section.

References – Provide a list of references cited in the report; the citation style should be

“author-year” (Harvard); references are not included in the word limit.

What Resources Might I Use to Prepare My Work?

• University library – online databases and libraries, e.g., Gartner, Ebsco, ACM, IEEE, AIS, etc.
• News sites, technology review sites, industry sites, government sites, etc.
• Frameworks and models covered in classes

The work will be assessed using the following criteria:

• Evidence of Knowledge

1. Detail and depth of subject knowledge
2. Relevance of the knowledge to the topic
3. Level of understanding of the knowledge

• Evidence of Scholarship

1. Critical scrutiny of the evidence/literature
2. Ability to integrate theory and practice
3. Ability to make logical and coherent arguments
4. Ability to use examples to illustrate arguments
5. Reasoning and balance in reaching judgement

• Originality & Independence

1. Evidence of original, creative approach and independence
2. Ability to challenge and question existing approaches

• Evidence of Presentation, Structure and Style

1. Clarity of organisation & structure
2. Fluency, grammar and spelling
3. References – Must follow the author-year style (Harvard)