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FUTURE TECHNOLOGY-CASE 3

2011-01-05T23:17:00.000-08:00

WALL-E

WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is being directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future. He eventually falls in love with another robot named EVE, and follows her into outer space on an adventure that changes the destiny of both his kind and humanity.

WALL-E is the very last little robot on Earth. His job was to help clean up the planet Earth. In year 2805, the world is filled with garbage and empty of plant and animal life, so that everyone had to leave the planet Earth and for the moment the humans will live in outer space on spaceship Axiom temporarily while the robots called "WALL-E" to clean up the trash and make planet Earth livable. The cleanup program failed but only one WALL-E unit remains active and shown collecting various keepsakes and knickknacks from the trash and doing his duty all alone. One day, WALL-E discovers a seedling growing among the garbage and brings it home. But the story is not a story about a science fiction but also it’s a love story, because WALL-E falls in love with EVE, an advanced robot sent from the BnL starliner Axiom with a directive to search for signs of life on Earth and she’s left there to check on and see how things are going and WALL-E absolutely falls in love with her.

On the Axiom, the ship's human passengers have suffered from severe bone loss and become morbidly obese after centuries of living in microgravity and relying on the ship's automated systems. WALL-E follows EVE to the bridge of the ship where the captain learns that by scanning EVE's plant sample with the ship's holo-detector as a sign of Earth being habitable again, the ship will make a hyperjump to Earth and allow its passengers to recolonize. However, Auto has the plant stolen as part of a classified final directive given to keep humanity away from Earth as it was wrongly deemed unsustainable 700 years ago. But WALL-E and EVE successfully found the plant from AUTO and EVE places the plant in the holo-detector, releasing WALL-E and sending the ship back to Earth. Although, WALL-E was critically crushed in keeping AUTO from collapsing the platform. When they reach Earth, EVE rushes WALL-E back to his garage and repairs him. Unfortunately, WALL-E's memory is erased and EVE gives WALL-E a farewell "kiss" which causes an electric spark that reboots WALL-E's memory and restores him to his usual self. WALL-E and EVE happily reunite and join the humans and robots in restoring Earth's environment.

9 is a 2005 computer animated short film by Shane Acker as a student project at the UCLA Animation Workshop. The movie starts off with The Scientist (Alan Oppenheimer) making a sapient ragdoll, on whose back he writes "9". After an apocalyptic war between human and machines, the world is completely destroyed and without human life.

In a world destroyed in a war between man and machine, a hand-stitched doll with the number 9 written on its back comes to life. The world he has awakened in is frightening, but he quickly learns that he is not alone and that there are others like him, also with a single digit written on their back. The first one he encounters is 2 who tells him something of what happened to the world. 2 is also thrilled with the disk 9 is carrying, one with three unique symbols on the front. 9 soon learns that the disk and some of the other dolls who are prepared to die for the good of humankind may be the last hope for man's salvation.

Comparisons

Both Wall-e and 9 are computer-animated science fiction film, the two movies are futuristic movies and although both have special fiction but still the major events talking about the high technology and obtained same robotics features. Though, Wall-e is a lovable robot and 9 is a ragdoll, but still both characters are prepared to die for the good of humankind.

FUTURE TECHNOLOY-CASE 2

2011-01-05T00:08:00.000-08:00

As a future IT professional, possibly I could contribute for the development of technology based on what I’ve learned from college:

Time Management

In developing a technology the time management is very important, you’ll be able to use your time in a much more balanced and effective way, the important point is that time management is not necessarily about getting lots of stuff done, because much more important than that is making sure that you are working on the right things, the things that truly need to be done your activities in right time. Improving your time management skills can even help you get better results by doing less work and having a successful opportunity.

Technological Skills

In developing a technology, as an IT professional should be familiar with degree of technological knowledge to complete the project. Nowadays, new technologies develop and build up, as an IT professional should be able to adopt various styles of applications in identifying alternative solutions to the problem. Provide a best explanation and solution so that you can develop a technique in developing a successful technology.

Team Building

In developing team project, as an IT professional should be expert in facilitating team meetings, conflict resolution and handling diverse team. Should ensure motivation and empowerment of team members by encouraging the suggestion and recommendations of the team and allowing the team share their opinions.

FUTURE TECHNOLOGY-CASE 1

2010-12-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

Enumerate reasons why we use technology today

These are some reasons why we use technology today:

For communication

For transportation

For education

For business

For job creation

For entertainment

What are some points that have influenced us?

Nowadays, modern technology plays an important role in our society and in the development of many countries. Modern technology has solved many problems that people face. Technology today has made life better and quicker in our modern society. Modern Technology makes our lives more convenient and safe, with the help of these modern technologies we can live easy and comfortable.

What are the factors involved in technology change?

The factor involed in technolgy change is the people's demand. People use technology to imrove their ability to do work. Through technology, people communicate better. Technology allows them to make more and better products.

SAD2-Assignment 3

2010-08-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

Interview your university network specialist. Ask how various parts of the system communicates with each other throughout the university. (Q) Given the chance to redesign the existing setup, enumerate and discuss your keypoints for an effective and efficient network environment ideal for the university.

In assignment #3, we are task to interview a network specialist in our university. Our university network administrator is Engr. Ariel Roy Reyes. Last Friday, we supposed to have a class discussion regarding the assignment, but sir Reyes was very busy on that day, so we decided to gave him a questionnaire.
The first question was all about in system development, how various parts of the system communicate with each other throughout the university? In what way?...According to sir Reyes, regarding System Development, the best person to ask is our University Programmers, Mr. Fortich and Dr. Mercado.

The next question was all about the components involved in the system(s) in the university? (hardware, software, technology, etc.)..According to sir Reyes, he is not in the right position to discuss the details of the software components used as there are other assigned personnel for such job. However, talking about hardware component and technology used, basically I, assigned as the network administrator, is entrusted to maintain our different servers to run 24/7. Currently, we have our Web Server hosted here in our University in our HP ProLiant ML350 Server. Its an old but stable server set-up here in our Networks Office and has been active since Engr. Val A. Quimno , not yet a dean, was appointed as the Network Administrator. The said server has the following specification:

• Intel Xeon 3.0 GHz, 3.2 GHz, or 3.4 GHz processors (dual processor capability) with 1MB level 2 cache standard. Processors include support for Hyper-Threading and Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T)
• Intel® E7520 chipset
• 800-MHz Front Side Bus
• Integrated Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Adapter
• Smart Array 641 Controller (standard in Array Models only)
• NC7761 PCI Gigabit NIC (embedded)
• Up to 1 GB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM with Advanced ECC capabilities (Expandable to 8 GB)
• Six expansion slots: one 64-bit/133-MHz PCI-X, two 64-bit/100-MHz PCI-X, one 64-bit/66-MHz PCI-X, one x4 PCI-Express, and one x8 PCI-Express
• New HP Power Regulator for ProLiant delivering server level, policy based power management with industry leading energy efficiency and savings on system power and cooling costs
• Three USB ports: 1 front, 1 internal, 1 rear
• Support for Ultra320 SCSI hard drives (six hot plug or four non-hot plug drives supported standard, model dependent)
• Internalstorage capacity of up to 1.8TB; 2.4TB with optional 2-bay hot plug SCSI drive
• 725W Hot-Plug Power Supply (standard, most models); optional 725W Hot-Pluggable Redundant Power Supply (1 1) available. Non hot plug SCSI models include a 460W non-hot plug power supply.
• Tool-free chassis entry and component access
• Support for ROM based setup utility (RBSU) and redundant ROM
• Systems Insight Manager, SmartStart, and Automatic Server Recovery 2 (ASR-2) included

• Protected by HP Services and a worldwide network of resellers and service providers. Three-year Next Business Day, on-site limited global warranty. Certain restrictions and exclusions apply. Pre-Failure Notification on processors, memory, and SCSI hard drives.
Aside from it, our mail server running under Compaq Proliant ML330 Server, our oldest server, is also hosted here in our Networks Office. Together with other Servers, such as Proxy and Enrollment Servers, both proxy and our enrollment servers are running in a microcomputer/personal computers but with higher specifications to act as servers.
How do these communicate with one another? (topology, network connectivity, protocols, etc.) – may include data flow/ UML diagrams to better explain. According to him, all Servers are connected in a shared medium grouped as one subnetwork. In general, our network follows the extended star topology which is connected to a DUAL WAN Router that serves as the load balancer between our two Internet Service Providers. All other workstations are grouped into different subnetworks as in star topology branching out from our servers subnetwork as in extended star topology. At present, we are making use of class C IP Address for private IP address assignments. Other workstations IP assignments are configured statically (example: laboratories) while others are Dynamic (example: offices). All workstations are connected via our proxy servers that do some basic filtering/firewall to control users access to the internet aside from router filtering/firewall management. So, whenever any workstation has to connect to the internet, it has to pass through software and hardware based firewall.

What are the processes involved in the communication (each system to other systems)?...According to sir Reyes, all workstations are connected via a proxy server. It means that whenever a workstation is turned on, it requests for an IP address from the proxy server (for dynamically configured IP address) and connect to the network after IP address is acquired. As connection is established, each system can now communicate and share resources within the same subnetwork and to server following the concepts discuss in your Computer Network Class.
How do you go along with the maintenance of the system?...Basically, our servers are expected to be in good condition since it is required to be up 24/7. Daily, during my vacant period, monitoring on the servers are observed that includes checking logs, checking hardware performance such as CPU health, etc. If problems are observed, remedies are then and then applied. Once in a week, regular overall checkup is observed as preventive maintenance to ensure not to experience longer downtime if possible.

Does the system follow a specific standard? Explain Please.

• As I was appointed as the Network Administrator, everything was already in place except for some minor changes. Basically, different networking standards was already observed such as cabling standards, TIA/EIA 568A-B, different IEEE standards as discussed in your Computer Networks Subject, etc.

How is the security of the system? Are there any vulnerabilities? Risks? Corresponding mitigation techniques? Access control?
• As I have mentioned, we have implemented both software and hardware based filtering/firewall. Basically, Risks or vulnerabilities and different mitigation techniques were considered to increase security in our network. Aside from filtering/firewall, constant monitoring on networks activity also increases the security of the system.

The last question was, are there any interference? During what (most) times do these occur? Explain their effects especially with regards to the business of the university?..He explained, that the Major Interferences are normally encountered as an effect of unforeseen and beyond our control events such as black outs, and the like. The said interference would of course affect University’s day-to-day businesses for obviously this will paralyze all our activities that rely on electricity and further this might cause damage on our network devices, etc. that may later be the reason for longer downtime. Problems encountered by our providers such as connection to the National/International Gateway also affect University’s business such as correlating to University’s Business Partners outside and within the country.

Given the chance to redesign the existing setup, enumerate and discuss your key points for an effective and efficient network environment ideal for the university.

For me, I would better improve the design and enhance it by using a best method to get better quality network environment instead redesigning the setup it will consume long time and wasting money and some factors that are possibly cause failure. By improving and maintaining the design, the university can save and assure a quality setup.

SAD2- Assignment 2

2010-07-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

Relative to your answer in Assignment 1 .... what's your take on the design of the enrollment system?

In relative to my assignment 1, I have mentioned that the new enrollment system implemented in the university is fairly clear and understandable compared to the last system and you can see more improvements, the steps are easily to understand. The university should provide a system that easily to use, so that the student be able to enroll and validate without problems, short time of period and hassle free procedure during enrollment time. The student should direct in step only, so that the process could easy and it could save time.

I would suggest that the university should provide an easier procedure enrollment system, because there are some facts and processes that the university should improve. The university should plan well in terms of generating new enrollment system and considered new details and information in the system.

SAD2-Assignment 1

2010-07-08T04:04:00.000-07:00

The diagram shows the new enrollment system implemented this semester

The first step, the student will check and submit the following documents required and pay all the amounts needed coming from different organization (Local Council fee, Obrero Campus Student Council fee, collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
The second step (for scholars only), the student will require to validate their scholarship in OSS.
The third step (if to be taken), the student will require to register the CWTS or ROTC.
The fourth step, after gather all the requirements, the student will proceed to the colleges belong and ready for advising, present enrollment requirements like receipts from different organization, fill up the PRF and return to the adviser to sign, and then the student will submit the PRF to the encoder and secure the temporary COR printing.
The fifth step (for scholars only), the student will submit the temporary COR to the bookkeeper and for those students that are not scholar, they need to pay and submit temporary COR and will receive officially receipt printing.
The sixth step, the student will proceed to the registrar and submit necessary requirements, the student are now officially enrolled.

For me, the new enrollment system implemented in the university is fairly clear and understandable compared to the last system and you can see more improvements, the steps are easily to understand, but for me, I believe that the university could provide easier procedure enrollment system. But there’s some fact that the university needs to improve.
The university should provide an easier procedure during enrollment period. Some cases, the student usually experience hard and long process for the period of enrollment, many students observed difficult steps especially on registrar procedure, and it takes long time waiting during validation.
The university should provide a system that easily to use, so that the student be able to enroll and validate without problems, short time of period and hassle free procedure during enrollment time. The student should direct in step only, so that the process could easy and it could save time. By improving some steps or processes in the enrollment system, lots of students and personnel could save time and experience comfortable life. Using improving procedure, the university could practice a new system and helping them to use a easy steps and for the progress university, the school should apply this new system, by helping and gaining more knowledge and information many students could benefits.

SAD1-Assignment 11

2010-05-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

You were tasked by the IC-dean to evaluate the enrollment system of the university, list and briefly describe the characteristics that an anlayst(you) examines when choosing or defining deployment environment.

The characteristics that an analyst examines when defining deployment environment:

Security Configuration

The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to remain accessible and productive to its intended users. The term computer system security means the collective processes and mechanisms by which sensitive and valuable information and services are protected from publication, tampering or collapse by unauthorized activities or untrustworthy individuals and unplanned events respectively. The strategies and methodologies of computer security often differ from most other computer technologies because of its somewhat eluding objective of preventing unwanted computer behavior instead of enabling wanted computer behavior.

Security has to be compared to related concepts: Safety, continuity, reliability. The key difference between security and reliability is that security must take into account the actions of people attempting to cause destruction.

Usability Planning

Usability planning provides an important means of managing individual usability activities as well as the overall role played by usability input within a software engineering programme. It defines the scope of usability work required to produce a user- interface design that is efficient, effective and satisfying in use.
Usability planning involves defining and managing user-centred design activities that will take place during the development of a product. A usability plan report is created, which details the scope of selected usability activities and defines actions and time-scales required to implement them. Usability planning should be carried out for all development projects, but in particular development projects purporting a high degree of user-centred design.
Cost benefit analyses of user-centred design activities may be carried out and its results summarised in the first part of the usability plan. Wherever an investment in user-centred design activities is made during development, one or more tasks will be identified. A task manager is appointed for each task, an appropriate activity is selected and a schedule specified. The usability plan is a living document, and undergoes regular reviews as the project progresses.

Benefits
• Ensures that usability work is co-ordinated and not performed in a piecemeal fashion.
• Provides clear visibility of what usability work is going on and what its overall aims are.
• Enables priorities to be assessed, and facilitates the efficient allocation of resources.

However, it is important to remember that usability plans may not be stable because of continually changing project plans. Also, usability plans are constrained by the need to schedule the delivery of results in sufficient time for them to be acted upon by designers and implementers.

Cost and schedule

Identify the deployment pattern or strategy used.
The target deployment environment for an application may already be rigidly defined, and so the application design must reflect the restrictions. Sometimes design tradeoffs are required; for example, because of protocol or port restrictions, or specific deployment topologies. Identify constraints early in the design phase to avoid surprises later, and involve members of the network and infrastructure teams to help with this process.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security
http://www.usabilitynet.org/tools/planning.htm

SAD1-Assignment 10

2010-05-28T04:42:00.000-07:00

With reference to assignments 8 and 9, what characteristics does an analyst(you) examine when evalauating DFD quality?

According to my research, Data-flow diagram (DFD) is a graphical representation of the "flow" of data through an information system. DFDs can also be used for the visualization of data processing (structured design). On a DFD, data items flow from an external data source or an internal data store to an internal data store or an external data sink, via an internal process.
A DFD provides no information about the timing of processes, or about whether processes will operate in sequence or in parallel. It is therefore quite different from a flowchart, which shows the flow of control through an algorithm, allowing a reader to determine what operations will be performed, in what order, and under what circumstances, but not what kinds of data will be input to and output from the system, nor where the data will come from and go to, nor where the data will be stored (all of which are shown on a DFD).

Characteristics Examined in Evaluating Data Flow Diagram:

Balancing of data flows

The concept of balancing states that all the incoming flows to a process and all the outgoing flows from a process in the parent diagram should be preserved at the next level of decomposition. Process decomposition lets you organize your overall DFD in a series of levels so that each level provides successively more detail about a portion of the level above it. The goal of the balancing feature is to check your system internal consistency, which is particularly useful as different levels of expertise are generally involved in a project. When you decompose a process, PowerDesigner helps you initialize, in the sub diagram, the objects from the upper-level to link to the sub-process. PowerDesigner automatically retrieves global objects, such as external entities or data stores and creates object shortcuts, if need be. A data flow diagram illustrates the processes, data stores, and external entities in a business or other system and the data flows between these things. Four diagramatical components are used to develop a DFD.

Leveling of Data Flow Diagram

All data flows entering and leaving a process must appear on the corresponding diagram which decomposes that process.
The access to data stores across levels of diagrams must be consistent:
• the direction of accesses must match and all accesses on higher level diagrams must appear on corresponding lower level diagrams
• a data store is first shown on the highest level diagram where it is accessed by more than one process
• it can then appear on all lower level diagrams where it is accessed

Develop a Physical Data Flow Diagram

Most logical design level TPS structured design is data flow diagram (DFD) based, since typically the data is simple in structure and independent from the procedural modules because of the need for sharing of data between applications. Complex entity relationship diagrams (ERD) based design methods are therefore seldom required for TPS systems. At the physical design level however, no predominate structured design approach has appeared.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_flow_diagram
http://www.experiencefestival.com/data_flow_diagram_-_balancing_a_dfd

SAD1-Assignment 9

2010-05-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

Exploded Diagram of Pre-Enrollment System for New Students

CONTEXT DIAGRAM of Pre-Enrollment Process in USEP

Current logical Data Flow Diagram of Pre-Enrollment Process in USEP

SAD1-Assignment 8

2010-05-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Using the same narrative as refelcted in your assignment 4, develop an activity diagram and a fully developed description for a use case.

Description:

The student will submit the following documents require to the UGTO Personnel, the UGTO Personnel will provide an application form to the student. The student will write down the require data on the form, he/she will proceed to the cashier office to pay the examination fee and the cashier will issue a receipt. The UGTO Personnel will give schedule to the student. The student will take an USEPAT and English Plus examination. After the examination the UGTO Personnel will post the qualified student who passed the entrance examination, if the student will be failed in English Plus, she/he will take English Bridge Program. The student will require obtaining an interview to the college/department that she/he selects. After the interview, the student will take a medical check-up to the USEP clinic. The college/department will post qualified students. If he/she will pass the college interview, the student will submit the require documents to the department.

SAD1-Assignment 7

2010-05-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

USEP Pre-enrollment System Use Case Diagram

ACTORS: STUDENT, UGTO PERSONNEL, CASHIER, INTERVIEWER, CLINIC NURSE, ADVISER DEAN

Use Cases:

Step 1- Submit Necessary Documents- The student will submit the following documents require to the UGTO Personnel.
Step 2-Give the Application Form- The UGTO Personnel will provide an application form to the student.
Step 3-Fill-up the Application Form-The student will write down the require data on the form.
Step 4-Pay the Examination Fee-The student will proceed to the cashier office to pay the examination fee.
Step 5-Give the Examination Schedule-The UGTO Personnel will give schedule to the student.
Step 6-Take USEPAT and English Plus Examination-The student will take an USEPAT and English Plus examination.
Step 7-Give the Examination Result-The UGTO Personnel will provide the qualified student who passed the entrance examination.
Step 8-Take English Bridge Program (if failed in English Plus)-If the student will not pass in the English Plus, she/he will take English Bridge Program.
Step 9-College Interview-The student will require to obtain an interview to the college/department that she/he select.
Step 10-Take Medical Examination-The student should take a medical check-up to the USEP clinic.
Step 11-Post Qualified Applicant-The college/department will post a qualified students.
Step 12-Submission of Documents to the adviser/dean-The student will submit the require documents to the department.

SAD1- Assignment 6

2010-05-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

Consider the following dialogue between a systems professional, John Juan, and a manager of a department targeted for a new information system, Peter Pedro:

Juan: The way to go about the analysis is to first examine the old system, such as reviewing key documents and observing the workers perform their tasks. Then we can determine which aspects are working well and which should be preserved.

Pedro: We have been through these types of projects before and what always ends up happening is that we do not get the new system we are promised; we get a modified version of the old system.

Juan: Well, I can assure you that will not happen this time. We just want a thorough understanding of what is working well and what isn’t.

Pedro: I would feel much more comfortable if we first started with a list of our requirements. We should spend some time up-front determining exactly what we want the system to do for my department. Then you systems people can come in and determine what portions to salvage if you wish. Just don’t constrain us to the old system.

Required:

a.Obviously these two workers have different views on how the systems analysis phase should be conducted. Comment on whose position you sympathize with the most.

In this scenario both side had their own views about the systems analysis phase, in Juan, he wanted to examine first the old system, analyze the system and reviewing the documents, observing the workers performances, so that they can determine what aspects they should be preserved. In this situation, Juan wanted again to apply the previous method that he generated, but suddenly, Pedro differ the process because they have already tried that method but they didn’t succeed because they observed that after the process they cannot provide the system they promise to the client. There’s a problem they encountered and they cannot offered a perfect system that will apply to the client. In other side, Pedro tried a new method to generate a new system that has a perfect quality, he stated that they first started with a list of their requirements determined what were the system should be needed and required to their department, spending a long time to studies the process and give a method that will create a good system.

For me, I sympathized with Juan, although they have been through those types of projects before and at the end they didn’t generated the system required that they promises. But for me, Juan was right as a system analyst they should considered first what are the negative sides they made and after determining the problem, give best solutions and accurate the right, in that way you could be determined the lessons you did and resolve it and generate best solutions that could be created a perfect system. Though they were failed but still there’s chance to exact the bad side and decide a better solution to the system.

b.What method would you propose they take? Why?

For me, I would propose a Waterfall Life Cycle Model because this is the most common and classic of life cycle models, also referred to as a linear-sequential life cycle model. It is very simple to understand and use. In a waterfall model, each phase must be completed in its entirety before the next phase can begin. At the end of each phase, a review takes place to determine if the project is on the right path and whether or not to continue or discard the project. Unlike what I mentioned in the general model, phases do not overlap in a waterfall model.

According to my research, the Waterfall Life Cycle Model is a sequential software development process, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design (validation), Construction, Testing and Maintenance. The waterfall development model has its origins in the manufacturing and construction industries; highly structured physical environments in which after-the-fact changes are prohibitively costly, if not impossible. Since no formal software development methodologies existed at the time, this hardware-oriented model was simply adapted for software development.
The first formal description of the waterfall model is often cited to be an article published in 1970 by Winston W. Royce,[1] although Royce did not use the term "waterfall" in this article. Royce was presenting this model as an example of a flawed, non-working model (Royce 1970). This is in fact the way the term has generally been used in writing about software development—as a way to criticize a commonly used software practice.

Advantages

• Simple and easy to use.
• Each phase has specific deliverables.
• Higher chance of success over the waterfall model due to the development of test plans early on during the life cycle.
• Works well for small projects where requirements are easily understood.
• Testing is inherent to every phase of the waterfall model
• It is an enforced disciplined approach
• It is documentation driven, that is, documentation is produced at every stage

Disadvantages

• Very rigid, like the waterfall model.
• Little flexibility and adjusting scope is difficult and expensive.
• Software is developed during the implementation phase, so no early prototypes of the software are produced.
• Model doesn’t provide a clear path for problems found during testing phases.
• Testing is inherent to every phase of the waterfall model
• It is an enforced disciplined approach
• It is documentation driven, that is, documentation is produced at every stage

Sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model
http://toostep.com/trends/types-of-sdlc-models

SAD1-Assignment 5

2010-05-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Consider your school, how do you know that the life cycle was developed specifically for the university. How do we know it meets our needs?

As a student of University of Southeastern Philippines it is my opportunity to know the life cycle developed of the university, what are the different phases and models them used, how the development life cycle gives procedure to the university.
First, let’s define System Development System Life Cycle. According to my research, Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application. Various SDLC methodologies have been developed to guide the processes involved including the waterfall model (the original SDLC method), rapid application development (RAD), joint application development (JAD), the fountain model and the spiral model. Mostly, several models are combined into some sort of hybrid methodology. Documentation is crucial regardless of the type of model chosen or devised for any application, and is usually done in parallel with the development process. Some methods work better for specific types of projects, but in the final analysis, the most important factor for the success of a project may be how closely particular plan was followed. Processes of creating or altering systems, and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems. In software engineering the SDLC concept underpins many kinds of software development methodologies. These methodologies form the framework for planning and controlling the creation of an information system.

These are the System Development Life Cycle steps:

• Define
Define or classify first the problem, so that you could describe the nature or fundamental qualities of the project. You could easily precise the problem and determine the limitation.

• Design

In designing the project, it is planning or drawing the output that lays the basis for the making of every object or system. Systems design is most effective when more than one solution can be proposed. The plans for the care and feeding of a new system are as important as the problems they solve.

• Demonstrate
Demonstrate the project is very important task, it shows clearly and deliberately illustration with clear explanation and visual presentation showing how something works some main information.

• Develop
To generates the main requirements of the project and allow for the creation, development and running of application programs. Through a series of progressive changes they could provide a outstanding system with a good and high quality.

• Deliver
In this step, the proper place of the project transport into the expected output of the system and it would carry out to user the important thing to do in the using the system.

We could know the phases if the steps you select are compatible to your system or project development, the university would easily generate the steps and create system development life cycle that would compatible. The problem would easily to resolve if you select a phase that accurate and clear to solve the system.

Sources: http://www.startvbdotnet.com/sdlc/sdlc.aspx

SAD1- Assignment 4

2010-05-09T03:21:00.000-07:00

Identify and discuss at least 3 systems development models .. discuss each phases ...

1. Waterfall Software Development Life Cycle Model

The simplest software development life cycle model is the waterfall model, which states that the phases are organized in a linear order. A project begins with feasibility analysis. On the successful demonstration of the feasibility analysis, the requirements analysis and project planning begins.
The design starts after the requirements analysis is done. And coding begins after the design is done. Once the programming is completed, the code is integrated and testing is done. On succeeful completion of testing, the system is installed. After this the regular operation and maintenance of the system takes place. The following figure demonstrates the steps involved in waterfall life cycle model.

2. The Spiral Life Cycle Model

This is a recent model that has been proposed by Boehm. As the name suggests, the activities in this model can be organized like a spiral. The spiral has many cycles. The radial dimension represents the cumulative cost incurred in accomplishing the steps dome so far and the angular dimension represents the progress made in completing each cycle of the spiral. The structure of the spiral model is shown in the figure given below. Each cycle in the spiral begins with the identification of objectives for that cycle and the different alternatives are possible for achieving the objectives and the imposed constraints.
The next step in the spiral life cycle model is to evaluate these different alternatives based on the objectives and constraints. This will also involve identifying uncertainties and risks involved. The next step is to develop strategies that resolve the uncertainties and risks. This step may involve activities such as benchmarking, simulation and prototyping. Next, the software is developed by keeping in mind the risks. Finally the next stage is planned.

3. Prototyping Software Life Cycle Model

The goal of prototyping based development is to counter the first two limitations of the waterfall model discussed earlier. The basic idea here is that instead of freezing the requirements before a design or coding can proceed, a throwaway prototype is built to understand the requirements. This prototype is developed based on the currently known requirements. Development of the prototype obviously undergoes design, coding and testing. But each of these phases is not done very formally or thoroughly. By using this prototype, the client can get an "actual feel" of the system, since the interactions with prototype can enable the client to better understand the requirements of the desired system.
Prototyping is an attractive idea for complicated and large systems for which there is no manual process or existing system to help determining the requirements. In such situations letting the client "plan" with the prototype provides invaluable and intangible inputs which helps in determining the requirements for the system. It is also an effective method to demonstrate the feasibility of a certain approach. This might be needed for novel systems where it is not clear that constraints can be met or that algorithms can be developed to implement the requirements. The process model of the prototyping approach is shown in the figure below.

Sources:
http://www.freetutes.com/systemanalysis/sa2-waterfall-software-life-cycle.html
http://www.freetutes.com/systemanalysis/sa2-spiral-model.html
http://www.freetutes.com/systemanalysis/sa2-prototyping-model.html

SAD1- Assignment 3

2010-05-02T17:01:00.001-07:00

Evidences

Discuss the role of a systems analyst as a project manager. (at least one thousand words) .... you need to interview an analyst/project manager ..show evidences

In assignment 3, we were task to interview a System Analyst. On April 29, 2010, we were having an interviewed in SAMULCO or Sta. Ana Multipurpose Cooperative in Uyanguren, Davao City. Together with my classmates in System Analysis and Design 1, we went to the office of SAMULCO to conduct an interview to their MIS Department. We interviewed Mr. James Bautista, a System Analyst in SAMULCO. First we interviewed him about the skills and characteristics must a system analyst develop in order to be more effective in any design modelling process. In this question, Mr. Bautista answered well and gave more important details about the techniques in how to become a good system analyst. He said that being a system analyst must looks into the over-all system and makes good steps before you develop a project. You do not need think as a programmer but think as a common to others. He us three skills and characteristics must a system analyst develop in order to be more productive in any design modeling process, first characteristic is being a System Analyst must be observant, because if you fail to notice the important details it will be failed to you as analyst. Second skills and characteristics must a system analyst develop in order to be more productive in any design modeling process, must have a basic programming skills, because if you do not have a basic programming skills, maybe you will not familiarize in terms of programming and developing the subject and third one is being a system analyst must be able to communicate well; he said that this is very important in terms of developing. In these three skills, as a system analyst you should have knowledge in terms of developing a project, accurate a project with good quality and good class.After answering the first question we proceeded into the second question which was the role of a systems analyst as a project manager. He answered well the question.
The first question were asking him was what is the role (system analyst) as a project manager?, he said that as a system analyst must manages the entire team or the entire project, be required to the time, you will taking the client, talking to the team and talking to the developer. As a system analyst you should able to manage the team, give a better opinion and recommendation about the project, so that the step in developing the project would be successful and has a high quality.

As a system analyst you should responsible every steps and procedure about the project and give a good opinion to exact the planning and developing the project. Always asking and talking in every parts of the team, accurate the wrong steps and wrong decisions in terms of working, also asked the client if what they wanted in generated their project, what output they wanted, so that you could generate a successful output. Talked to the developer if what is the possible output you wanted and if some are missing or lacking, give them a good recommendation and solutions to resolve the wrong mistakes into the right ways. Get the overall output of the project and specification about the system. That the agreement should be finished on time, because in developing a system you should finish the project on time and has a good quality, so that your client will be happy and satisfied about he project and will give you a high pay about the system. Always remember that in developing a good and effective project to your client could build you a better name and trusted and excellence quality to everyone.

Another example of the role of a system analyst as a project manager, must delegate the task to the team, he said you must give the time line to the team and finish the project earlier. Because in every members has their own task and abilities in developing a system, as a system analyst you should be able to set apart in every team their work, so that you can easily finish the project you were develop and each team can contribute a important ideas and give a main procedure the project, because in the end you could construct a good quality system to your client and submit the project on time and earlier. So that your client will be satisfied you work.
In this explanation, you could think that in every team and every task, you should be responsible in developing the project, and also be patience in every failed, because in creating a project we can’t say that there is no obstacle, but there is, so that we could test us how patience we are and how responsible we are. Because every steps we will encounter the problem but just try and try until we succeed and reach our goal. In certain project you will learn more, especially in developing, give a proper training and also teach the right things to do and avoid the bad things to act. Being a system analyst you should be a model to your team guide them into the right ways and give them a proper guidance to perform a good member in the team, because sometimes if there is problem everyone could depend and easily find a better method to resolve the problem.

Overall the interview was excellent, I learned more about how to become a good system analyst, and I got new knowledge and experienced from the interview. Mr. Baustista shared us the techniques as a good analyst and he gave us important aspect to be a successful system analyst.

SAD1 -Assignment 2

2010-04-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

Evidences

Interview a Systems Analyst and ask what skills and characteristics must a systems analyst develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process [include in your answer evidences (pix, ltrs, etc)]? at least 1000 words exlcuding your evidences.

In assignment 2, we were tasked to interview a System Analyst, yesterday April 29, 2010, we were having an interviewed in SAMULCO or Sta. Ana Multipurpose Cooperative in Uyanguren, Davao City. Together with my classmates in System Analysis and Design 1, we went to the office of SAMULCO to conduct an interview to their MIS Department. We interviewed Mr. James Bautista, a System Analyst in SAMULCO. We gave him a questionnaire to address our questions.

Before Mr. Bautista answered the question, first he introduced his self and asking us what our names. Before he started, he explained us what was System Analyst all about and gave us some important ideas and strategies how to become a successful system analyst for the future. He said that if you were not good in programming you have a chance to be a good system analyst. He said that being system analyst was not easy, because you need to focus your career in terms of developing a project, you should see the problem alone and think a best a solution, so that you could generate a successful project.

He said that being System Analyst must looks into the over-all system and makes good steps before you develop a project. You do not need think as a programmer but think as a common to others. In these explanations, being a system analyst you must think fair whether you are a good analyst but think that you have equal ideas in terms of developing a project to the others and treating them well and fair. As a system analyst you need to treat others equal.

Mr. Bautista gave us three skills and characteristics must a system analyst develop in order to be more productive in any design modeling process, first characteristic is being a System Analyst must be observant, because if you fail to notice the important details it will be failed to you as analyst. You should an observant every time you make important decisions especially doing a project, always ensured the missing part of the task and observed well if what are lacking and set the important feature, to complete the development and also he said that being an observant it will accurate you by designing a models but make sure that you will work as team because if make individual there’s a big possibility that your design and output will different in the end, sometimes you cant meet the expectation output and it will make your project failed. So that it is very important to develop as a team work and discussed important details about the development and how to create a project accurate well and no mistake. you should paying attention in every steps you made and consult every details, so that you could easily understand the concept of the project, if there was a needed you can simply apply what you have learned and fill the incorrect decisions into the accurate ways, so that your development have a successful output. Just make sure that you develop a project with team work. this is very important in developing a project, don’t work alone, team work is very important especially when you develop a project big, and needed a main aspect in development.

Second skills and characteristics must a system analyst develop in order to be more productive in any design modeling process, must have a basic programming skills, because if you do not have a basic programming skills, maybe you will not familiarize in terms of programming and developing the subject, although you understand the flow of the project but still there is a possibility that you project has an error and it will wasting the time, because sometimes there is a risk in terms of programming and as a system analyst you have idea to consult the project and accurate into the exact development, because sometimes if the programmer can’t meet the output as a system analyst you have the right to exact the project and build the project accurate and the client can satisfied the output, give the best solution and try to generate a good services into the client, so that you can make a good output, whatever happens just give the best to resolve the problem.

The third one is being a system analyst must be able to communicate well; he said that this is very important in terms of developing a project, especially when the client is far. He gave example, he showed as a picture of how important communication between the client, the developer and the system analyst. he explained us well how very important to develop a project that must be able to communicate well and cleared. Especially when you can’t realize what the he/she wanted because at the end you can recognize the simple output that he needs. He gave many examples and experiences about the project and how to resolve it.

Sir James shared a lot of his experienced as a system analyst, I learned a lot during the interviewed and I got some important lessons from his experienced and I realized that it takes 2hours before the interview was done. After Sir James answered all the questions, he asked us one by one if what our learning’s. For me, I learned a lot about the interviewed, there are many things that we should learn more before we make a project and I got many ideas how to become a system analyst someday. Overall the interview was good and fun.

SAD1 -Assignment 1

2010-04-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

Based on our learning’s in Chapter 1 report, we are to identify and discuss some of the characteristics we have as a good system analyst.

On April 21, 2010, Wednesday the group one discussed about the characteristics of a System Analyst and they explained well about the significance of being system analyst, they gave some important feature and techniques how to become a good system analyst. As they explained, our facilitator gave some examples about the topic and we got additional ideas and plan in terms of generating a system; it should be step by step before you develop a system.

As a systems analyst, you should be responsible about the plans solutions and plans development before you meet the requirements or the objectives. You would be familiar the problem and give the best solutions. System analyst would be responsible for developing cost analysis, design considerations, and implementation time-lines. In these responsibilities you would be a good analyst in the future and has a successful system implementation. Because we don’t someday, you would be a system analyst, by helping these responsibilities you would be a good analyst.

As a system analyst, knows how to analyze both negative and positive side of the possible outputs for the system. Being a system analyst, you should be able to determined first both sides which are the positive or the supportive ways in creating a system, find out the good side that could help to your requirements and provide a improvement, so that you could generate or produce a high-quality system but after that you should also be able determined the negative side or the bad side of your system, not all implementing or develop a system has a positive part but you should aware the bad side because it would assist you to the exact method or techniques and thinking a way to correct the system. In this way you should be able to determine what is right technique to perform a situation that could help your development and implementation, because before you could perform a system make sure that you examine first both sides or your planning, so that you could be accomplished a system that has good quality and consistent.

As a system analyst, must be a good listener and be able to react to what people say, because being a analyst, you have time to listen the part of the people who willing to correct you and you are willing to accept their observation about your system and give them a right details about the task, though some are bad and some a good but it would help you to make your system has a right perform. You are willing to admit every opinion from different people either positive or negative, it would help you to you’re your system accurate well and also you are willing to accept their opinion , so that you could correct the bad things. Just remember that before you could create a perfect system first is you are prepared to accept and you are good listener, so that you could develop a perfect system.

As a system analyst, should be a responsible, as a system analyst you must be responsible with our overall standing with your system development by making a plan in how to start the development in step by step method, so that you should follow the right way in making a system and you could create a successful system and you could finish on time with hardworking and team work, so that you could easy handle the situation and make on time. Being a responsible system analyst you should always ready for everything what ever happen and also you are always flexible, so that you could easily accept the different situation that you would face during difficulties and just remember the alternative ways, so that you could easily follow the situation.

As a system analyst, must be problem-solver, of course we could not denied that sometimes there are problems that could be face during development and also during planning but as a system analyst you are always ready to resolve the problem, although it is tricky, as a system analyst you should know how to resolve the situation, you should flexible and give the best alternative ways to answer the problem. Whatever the problem come, big or small just give the best solution. But sometimes you could not easily solve the problem but just try to ask good suggestion to your friends. It really requires your point in time and staying power so that any step you make will never be a big regret to you. Some decisions are solve successfully but others were not that lucky enough. For sure, there are answers that we meant to help us but never turned out well. All I can say is that even though we failed at least we try and that will never be a big loss, still we learn something from that experience. And as we all know that experience is a best teacher. So don’t say you still don’t have that key throughout success. As a student, in these characteristics, it will help us to have knowledge how to analyze and create the system, you have already ideas in developing a system in the future and has knowledge in terms of analysis and help us to become a good system analyst.

Assignment 9

2010-02-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

The pace of change seems to increase relentlessly, especially changes involving information technology. Using your crystal ball, identify and discuss three changes likely to have substantial impact on your school services in the next three years.

1. Library Book Borrowing System

In this system, the student of the university could be easily used the library by using a new system, the students would be borrowed the book in easy way, unlike in the manual system it takes a long time. The system to build is an automated library book borrowing system that is to be used in the departmental libraries of a particular university. The goal is to relieve the librarians from processing book loans.

The system does not require users to identify themselves to search for books according to certain criteria and to check the availability of a particular book. However to check-out books, to check their respective book loan status, and to place holds on books that are already on loan, users must first identify themselves to the system.

2. Highly Developed Enrollment System

The online enrolment system was proposed in replacement of the manual enrolment system of the institution for it to have an organized flow of transaction and an ease of work especially to the administrators. Although our enrollment system is improved but there are some cases that the system will also failure, not totally perfect. But using highly developed system more capabilities and more students and users would be satisfied the new system. It could help a lot to the people who used the system.

3. Improved Computer Laboratories and Facilities

As we observed, our facilities and computer laboratories was not improved, though in this generation lots of new technology offered but suddenly our university wasn’t this technology. Also, our facilities are lacking, some students experienced this cases especially in our university. But improving our facilities and laboratories help our students to enhance their talents and capabilities in learning.

Reference:
http://lgl.epfl.ch/research/fondue/case-studies/lbb/problem-description.html

Assignment 8

2010-02-04T20:58:00.000-08:00

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) is the process of aligning an organization's business strategy with effective computer-based information systems to achieve critical business objectives. SISP is a top concern of major executives and considerable resources (time and money) are spent in SISP activities. Many SISP initiatives are not successful due to the difficulty of implementing the recommendations.

These are the list of questions:

• What are the objectives and goals of the company?

Setting objectives and goals is of essential importance for any planning activity and is the center of its success, or failure and also goal is where the business wants to go in the future. Knowing how to set objectives is not exactly shooting up in terms of complexity, but any strategist should know the basic rules of how to formulate and propose the objectives. Objectives give the business a clearly defined target. Plans can then be made to achieve these targets. This can motivate the employees. It also enables the business to measure the progress towards to its stated aims.

• Why the company needs strategic information systems plan?

To determines where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it's going to get there. Typically, the process is organization-wide, or focused on a major function such as a division, department or other major function. Review how your external environmental factors have changed: particularly market segments, supplier markets, competition, regulation and the economy. Review your internal situation: particularly profitability analysis. You will now be able to craft your revised course and direction, goals, objectives and action plans.

• What are the factors associated with the SISP process?

• Increased cost of information systems
• Ability to develop systems across organizational boundaries
• Ensure that critical success factors/problem areas are addressed
• Attempt to control data redundancy and maintentance costs
• Application backlogs necessitate identifying important systems early

What are the benefits, requirements, and drivers in SISP process

adoption?

Clearly define the purpose of the organization and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame within the organization’s capacity for implementation. Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization’s resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities. Produces great satisfaction among planners around a common vision and increases productivity from increased efficiency and effectiveness and also you can solves major problems.

• When Should Strategic Information System Planning Be Done?

In this situation, planning might be carried out once or even twice a year and done in a very comprehensive and detailed fashion (that is, with attention to mission, vision, values, environmental scan, issues, goals, strategies, objectives, responsibilities, time lines, budgets, etc) and if the organization has been around for many years and is in a fairly stable marketplace, then planning might be carried out once a year and only certain parts of the planning process,. Should also be done when an organization is just getting started. (The strategic plan is usually part of an overall business plan, along with a marketing plan, financial plan and operational/management plan.).

References:
http://scm.ncsu.edu/public/facts/facs060329.html
http://managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/basics.htm
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/HICSS.2000.926735

Assignment 7

2010-01-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

Google’s Business Model

Google is a company that started six years ago when its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a new way to do online searching in a Stanford University dorm room. This new idea then spread quickly to many people around the globe seeking information. Googles’ technologies have been able to sort through a large amount of growing information on the web and deliver it to its users for free, a service which returns accurate information in a very short amount of time. They rely on the millions of people who post websites to figure out which other sites have good content. Google uses a technique called PageRank to rank every page. It figures out all of the sites linking to a web page and gives them a value, based in part on the sites which are linked to them. Then Google is able to determine the sites with the most votes meaning they have the best amount of information to those most interested in the information offered. PageRank keeps on improving as the web becomes bigger, since each new website is another set of information which leans to another vote. It is the top search engine in the world, representing eighty percent of all European search page views and forty one percent of all US search page views. Its net income has been increasing, $6,985,000 in 2001, $99,656,000 in 2002, $105,648,000 in 2003, and $399,199,000 in 2004. This company must have done a great job in order to be so successful. When it was first started their web index contained about thirty million documents, and now they index more than eight billion web pages which translates to two hundred and fifty times as much information.However Google isn’t just a popular search engine it also does many other things that come in hand to many people around the world. Some of Googles’ services include Alerts where you receive news and search results by e mail, Blog Search which finds blogs on people’s favorite topics, Book Search to find text of any books, Images where you can find images on the web, Maps where you find maps and directions, and News where you can find many news stories. Some of Google’s tools include Blogger where you can express yourself online, Earth where you can explore the world from your PC, Translate where you can view web pages in other languages, and Talk where you can IM and call friends from your PC. Google is global, besides its main Google.com it includes one hundred and two other international domains such as Google.de, Googdle.fr, and Google.co.uk. One hundred different languages are available.

Who are their competitors?

* Yahoo

Yahoo and Google are battling over the same Web visitors and advertising dollars. There currently is an $8 billion global search advertising business, which is expected to rise to $22 billion in five years, according to Piper Jaffray.

* Microsoft

Microsoft is also competing with Google because Google is now a major threat to their dominance. While Google was launching all of its products for free, Microsoft was trying to catch up in search doing a project which they spent $150 million on but Google and Yahoo keep on getting ahead with new innovations such as complete maps and satellite photos. Bill Gates wishes he could have combined software innovation with a brand new Internet business model like Google did.

How have they used information technology to their advantage?

In coordination with several of the major corporations, including Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson, Google provided financial support in the launch of the .mobi top level domain created specifically for the mobile internet, stating that it is supporting the new domain extension to help set the standards that will define the future of mobile content and improve the experience of Google users. In early 2006, Google launched Google.mobi, a mobile search portal offering several Google mobile products, including stripped-down versions of its applications and services for mobile users. On September 17, 2007, Google launched, "Adsense for Mobile", a service to its publishing partners providing the ability to monetize their mobile websites through the targeted placement of mobile text ads.Also in September, Google acquired the mobile social networking site, Zingku.mobi to "provide people worldwide with direct access to Google applications, and ultimately the information they want and need, right from their mobile devices."

How competitive are they in the market?

Since 2001, Google has acquired several small start-up companies, often consisting of innovative teams and products. One of the earlier companies that Google bought was Pyra Labs. They were the creators of Blogger, a weblog publishing platform, first launched in 1999. This acquisition led to many premium features becoming free. Pyra Labs was originally formed by Evan Williams, yet he left Google in 2004. In early 2006, Google acquired Upstartle, a company responsible for the online collaborative word processor, Writely. The technology in this product was combined with Google Spreadsheets to become Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

What new services do they offer?

Desktop products
Standalone applications
• AdWords Editor (Mac OS X, Windows 2000 SP3 /XP/Vista)
Desktop application to manage a Google AdWords account. The application allows users to make changes to their account and advertising campaigns before synchronising with the online service.
• Gmail/Google Notifier (Mac OS X, Windows 2000/XP)
Alerts the user of new messages in their Gmail account.
• Photos Screensaver
Slideshow screensaver as part of Google Pack, which displays images sourced from a hard disk, or through RSS and Atom Web feeds.
• Picasa (Mac OS X, Linux and Windows 2000/XP/Vista)
• Picasa Web Albums Uploader (Mac OS X)
An application to help uploading images to the "Picasa Web Albums" service. It consists of both an iPhoto plug-in and a stand-alone application.
Desktop extensions
These products created by Google are extensions to software created by other organizations.
• Blogger Web Comments (Firefox only)
Displays related comments from other Blogger users.
• Dashboard Widgets for Mac (Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets)
Collection of mini-applications including Gmail, Blogger and Search History.
• Send to Mobile (Firefox) (Discontinued)
Allows users to send text messages to their mobile phone (US only) about web content.

Mobile products
Online mobile products
These products can be accessed through a browser on a mobile device or a standard desktop web browser such as Firefox.
• Blogger Mobile
Only available on some US networks. Allows you to post to your Blogger blog from a mobile device.
• Calendar
Read a list of all Google Calendar events from a mobile device. There is also the option to quickly add events to your personal calendar.
• Gmail
Access a Gmail account from a mobile device using a standard mobile web browser. Alternatively, Google provides a specific mobile application to access and download Gmail messages quicker.
• News
Access Google News on a mobile device using a simpler interface compared to the full online application.
• Google Mobilizer
Makes any web page mobile-friendly.
• iGoogle
Simple version of iGoogle - you must visit the information page to choose which modules to display on your personal mobile version as not all modules are compatible.
Downloadable mobile products
Some of these products must be downloaded and run from a mobile device.
• Gmail
A downloadable application that has many advantages over accessing Gmail through a web [interface] on a mobile such as the ability to interact with Gmail features including labels and archiving. Requires a properly configured Java Virtual Machine, which is not available by default on some platforms (such as Palm's Treo).
• Maps (Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Symbian,Palm OS, and J2ME)
A mobile application for viewing maps on a mobile device. The application lets you find addresses and plot directions. Teamed with a GPS the application can use your geolocation and show your current location on the map. The device must have either a specific application to use Google maps or any phone with a properly configured Java Virtual Machine.

Web products
Account management
• Dashboard
Dashboard is an online tool that allows Google Account holders to view all their personal information Google is storing on their servers.
Advertising
• Ad Planner
An online tool that allows users to view traffic estimates for popular web sites and create media plans.
• Ad Manager
A hosted ad management solution
• AdSense
Advertisement program for Website owners. Adverts generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-ads-displayed basis, and adverts shown are from AdWords users, depending on which adverts are relevant.
• AdWords
Google's flagship advertising product, and main source of revenue. AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads.
Communication and publishing
• 3D Warehouse
Google 3D Warehouse is an online service that hosts 3D models of existing objects, locations (including buildings) and vehicles created in Google SketchUp by the aforementioned application's users. The models can be downloaded into Google SketchUp by other users or Google Earth.
• Apps
Custom domain and service integration service for businesses, enterprise and education, featuring Gmail and other Google products.
• Blogger
Weblog publishing tool. Users can create a custom, hosted blogs with features such as photo publishing, comments, group blogs, blogger profiles and mobile-based posting with little technical knowledge.
• Calendar
Free online calendar. It includes a unique "quick add" function which allows users to insert events using natural language input. Other features include Gmail integration and calendar sharing. It is similar to those offered by Yahoo! and MSN.
Mapping
• City Tours
An overlay to Maps that shows interesting tours within a city
• Maps
Mapping service that indexes streets and displays satellite and street-level imagery, providing driving directions and local business search.
• Map Maker
Edit the map in more than a hundred countries and watch your edits go into Google Maps. Become a citizen cartographer and help map your world.

What makes them so unique?

• Better and quicker search results
• Advanced search features, including searching for PDF, .doc and .ppt files, and displaying them as HTML
• Easy and powerful search administration
• Easy integration into web sites
• google is free to use, has a custom search engine, puts the search results according to the most popular to least popular.
• google has options for image search, article search or even search for any government document.
• It searches according to the terms you type and also searches for other terms with same meaning.
• It is fast, realiable, it has its own dictionary, calculater, and spell check.

How competitive are they in the international market?

Google has worked with several corporations, in order to improve production and services. On September 28, 2005,Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1-million square foot R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center. NASA and Google are planning to work together on a variety of areas, including large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry. The new building would also include labs, offices, and housing for Google engineers. In October 2006, Google formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help the open source office program OpenOffice.org.
Time Warner's AOL unit and Google unveiled an expanded partnership on December 21, 2005, including an enhanced global advertising partnership and a $1 billion investment by Google for a 5% stake in AOL. As part of the collaboration, Google plans to work with AOL on video search and offer AOL's premium-video service within Google Video. This did not allow users of Google Video to search for AOL's premium-video services. Display advertising throughout the Google network will also increase.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_produ
https://adwords.google.com/select/
https://www.google.com/adsense/
www.google.com enterprise/gsa/index
http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~paturi/cse91/Presents/mbotella.pdf

Assignment 4

2009-12-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

You were invited by the university president to prepare an IS plan for the university, discuss what are the steps in order to expedite the implementation of the IS Plan.

Information System Plan

In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people, processes, data and technology. In this sense, the term is used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes.
Some make a clear distinction between information systems, ICT and business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology in that an information system is typically seen as having an ICT component. Information systems are also different from business processes. Information systems help to control the performance of business processes.
Alter argues for an information system as a special type of work system. A work system is a system in which humans and/or machines perform work using resources (including ICT) to produce specific products and/or services for customers. An information system is a work system whose activities are devoted to processing (capturing, transmitting, storing, retrieving, manipulating and displaying)information .
Part of the difficulty in defining the term information system is due to vagueness in the definition of related terms such as system and information. Beynon-Davies argues for a clearer terminology based in systemics and semiotics. He defines an information system as an example of a system concerned with the manipulation of signs. An information system is a type of socio-technical system. An information system is a mediating construct between actions and technology .
As such, information systems inter-relate with data systems on the one hand and activity systems on the other. An information system is a form of communication system in which data represent and are processed as a form of social memory. An information system can also be considered a semi-formal language which supports human decision making and action.

A business application of the computer. It is made up of the database, application programs and manual and machine procedures. It also encompasses the computer systems that do the processing.

Processing the Data

The database stores the subjects of the business (master files) and its activities (transaction files). The application programs provide the data entry, updating, query and report processing.

The Procedures

The manual procedures document how data are obtained for input and how the system's output is distributed. Machine procedures instruct the computer how to perform scheduled activities, in which the output of one program is automatically fed into another.

Transaction Processing

The daily work is the online, interactive processing of the business transactions and updating of customer, inventory and vendor files (master files).

Batch Processing

At the end of the day or other period, programs print reports and update files that were not updated on a daily basis. Periodically, files must be updated for routine maintenance such as adding and deleting employees and making changes to product descriptions.

Strategic Information Systems Planning

Strategic information systems planning, or SISP, is based on two core arguments. The first is that, at a minimum, a firm’s information systems investments should be aligned with the overall business strategy, and in some cases may even become an emerging source of competitive advantage. While no one disagrees with this, operations management researchers are just starting to study how this alignment takes place and what the measurable benefits are. An issue under examination is how a manufacturer’s business strategy, characterized as either “market focused” or “operations focused,” affects its ability to garner efficiency versus customer service benefits from its ERP investments.
The second core argument behind SISP is that companies can best achieve IS-based alignment or competitive advantage by following a proactive, formal and comprehensive process that includes the development of broad organizational information requirements. This is in contrast to a “reactive” strategy, in which the IS group sits back and responds to other areas of the business only when a need arises. Such a process is especially relevant to ERP investments, given their costs and long-term impact. Seegars, Grover and Teng (1) have identified six dimensions that define an excellent SISP process (notice that many of these would apply to the strategic planning process in other areas as well):

1. Comprehensiveness

Comprehensiveness is “the extent to which an organization attempts to be exhaustive or inclusive in making and integrating strategic decisions”.

2. Formalization

Formalization is “the existence of structures, techniques, written procedures, and policies that guide the planning process”.

3. Focus

Focus is “the balance between creativity and control orientations inherent within the strategic planning system”. An innovative orientation emphasizes innovative solutions to deal with opportunities and threats. An integrative orientation emphasizes control, as implemented through budgets, resource allocation, and asset management.

4. Top-down flow

SISP should be initiated by top managers, with the aid of support staff.

5. Broad participation

Even though the planning flow is top-down, participation must involve multiple functional areas and, as necessary, key stakeholders at lower levels of the organization.

6. High consistency

SISP should be characterized by frequent meetings and reassessments of the overall strategy.
The recommendations found in the SISP literature have been echoed in the operations management literature. It has been suggested that firms should institutionalize a formal top-down planning process for linking information systems strategy to business needs as they move toward evolution in their management orientation, planning, organization, and control aspects of the IT function.

The Steps in Order to Expedite the Implementation of the IS Plan

Step 1.Getting Started

The first step in a consumer information project is to lay the foundation for the project—financially, politically, and organizationally. While this may sound obvious, many projects fail because sponsors do not take the time to prepare. They dive right into the process of collecting and reporting data, only to be taken by surprise when someone objects to the project or the money runs out.
On the other hand, some projects never even get off the ground because the sponsors can't move beyond the planning process. The key to moving beyond the organizational stage is to develop and stick to a schedule that will force decisions and push the participants forward in the process.

Step 2.Collecting and Analyzing Data

During the planning stage (Step 1), sponsors choose what types of quality measures to share with the audience.
For guidance, go to Choose Quality Measures.
For many sponsors, the next step in a consumer information project is to gather that data and conduct the appropriate analyses so that these measures have meaning for consumers.
For more information on this step, choose one of the following topics:
• Where You Can Get Information on Quality.
• How to Know When You'll Need Help.
• How to Skip This Step.
• Making Sure Information Is Credible.

Where You Can Get Information on Quality

The source of quality information depends on the kind of data you need, which depends on the nature of the project you undertake. For some projects, particularly those involving health plans, standardized information is readily available, with little need for additional analysis. For projects involving provider groups, on the other hand, it may be necessary to collect and process raw data that can be turned into useful information.

How to Know When You'll Need Help

You are not likely to need help if the information you want is available from a reliable, trustworthy source that has already processed the data. In that case, you need only request or purchase the data and prepare it to meet the needs of your audience. For instance, several State agencies use the HEDIS® results (including averages and benchmarks)
provided by the NCQA's Quality Compass database to create a quality report on all the plans in the State.

Analysis Needed? Consider Some Assistance

If the data exist but require additional analysis to be useful to your audience, you may need assistance from a vendor qualified to conduct the type of analysis you need. For example, a purchasing coalition that offers five health plans to its members' employees could use HEDIS® results to calculate benchmarks or averages for those plans only. While some sponsors can handle an analysis of quality data on their own, others would benefit from expert advice and technical know-how.

Doing Your Own Data Collection and Analysis? Hire Help

If you want to collect and analyze quality data yourself, you would be well-advised to contract with a knowledgeable, experienced vendor. Few sponsors have the technical know-how, the manpower, or the clinical knowledge to generate their own data and do their own analyses. If, for instance, you want to use the CAHPS® survey kit to gather data on your employees' experiences with care, you have to rely on an outside contractor.
The CAHPS® protocol recommends that the survey be conducted by an independent vendor that will take responsibility for collecting the data, analyzing it, and presenting the results in a manner consistent with the CAHPS® methodology.
Sponsors may also need outside help when they combine measures into categories, calculate summary scores, or show relative performance; consultants with statistical expertise can ensure that the sponsors don't misrepresent the performance of competing plans.

How to Skip this Step

Of course, not all sponsors want to or can gather quality information on their own. While you may start out with the intention of doing everything yourself, it is not always practical or affordable to obtain the data you need when you need it. It may also be redundant and thus wasteful to ask health care organizations for information they have already given to someone else.
Rather than follow this path, you may prefer to use information that another party has already prepared, or direct consumers to data provided by others. In many markets, organizations such as regulatory agencies, purchasers, accrediting organizations, and provider associations are collecting health care quality data on a regular basis. Examples of useful sources of quality information include Medicare, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and possibly agencies in your own State government.
This approach is efficient and offers sponsors the ability to present more data than they could have ever gathered on their own. The potential downside, however, is that you will probably need to make some compromises. That is, the information made available by someone else may not be exactly what you want, ready when you want it, or applicable to the precise information needs of your audience.

Making Sure Information Is Credible

From your perspective as a sponsor hoping to educate and inform the public, the validity and accuracy of data are critical. If consumers do not trust that the data truly reflect the quality of care they can expect, all your efforts are wasted.
To ensure the credibility of your data, make sure you understand the methodology that was used to collect and analyze it. Some tools, such as the CAHPS® Survey and Reporting Kit, include specific instructions for sponsors regarding what they need to understand to maintain the validity of data. You do not need to understand all of the technical and statistical details, but you should feel confident about the following:
• The information has been collected and reported in compliance with an established, tested methodology. If the task is being handled by an outside vendor, confirm that the vendor is following an accepted protocol (e.g., using an appropriate sample size).
• The analysis and interpretation of the data has been handled independently of the health care organizations. That is, while these organizations may offer helpful and necessary advice, they should not be making the final decisions.
To confirm that health care organizations have followed the standard procedures for calculating measures, consider having the measures audited or requiring audited measures. To improve the consistency of auditing criteria and processes, NCQA certifies organizations to audit HEDIS® results from health plans. Since 1999, all health plans accredited by NCQA have had to submit HEDIS® results that have been audited by an NCQA-certified vendor.
For measures other than HEDIS®, sponsors may want to consider vendors that can apply the auditing principles recommended by NCQA. To minimize inconsistencies, hire the same vendor to handle all audits and confirm that all auditors use the same criteria in their work.

Step 3. Presenting the Information

Presentation—or how you say what you have to say—plays a critical part in ensuring that your efforts to convey quality information are successful. One of the most challenging aspects of a performance measurement project is figuring out how to present the data in a way that helps consumers interpret the information and apply it to their health care-related decisions. Many sponsors have struggled with this question, only to find themselves making the same mistakes as others before them. One of the key objectives of this site is to support project sponsors in learning from the experiences of their peers as well as from the findings of researchers regarding the best ways to discuss, format, and display information on quality.

Five Key Points About Presentation
Here are the five most important things to remember about presenting information on health care quality:
1. There is no one way to do this—but there are better ways and worse ways.
At this time, there is no universally accepted approach to providing information on quality to consumers. The marketplace is full of experiments, most of which have not been evaluated. But we do know that some approaches to presenting quality information work better than others in the sense that consumers find it easier to understand the data and evaluate their options.
2. The answer that's best for you depends on who your audience is and how they'll use the information.
The way you present information—and even the information itself—should be driven by the needs of whoever is supposed to be reading it. Consumers are the focus of this Web site, but they are not the only audience for health care quality information. Sponsors can develop information for:
• Public or private purchasers.
• Non-purchasing intermediary organizations, such as consumer advocacy groups.
• Policymakers.
• Provider organizations.
• Individual providers.
• Health plans.
Each of these audiences has different needs for quality information. As a result, an approach that is appropriate for individual consumers may not be at all useful for a different audience.
For example:
• Plans and providers may want more detail in order to identify specific opportunities to improve quality.
• Policymakers, on the other hand, may want a higher level of aggregation that would reveal larger trends in the marketplace.
• Intermediary organizations and purchasers may want enough data to draw their own conclusions rather than having the information interpreted for them.
3. Data cannot be presented in a vacuum.
The context you provide (or fail to provide) for the information affects what your audience pays attention to and how they interpret it. In particular, consumers are more likely to care about the information if you can connect it to their concerns about health care and the health care system. For instance, data on ease of referrals has greater relevance to an audience that understands how a health plan may limit their access to specialists. This implies that it is not enough to provide data; a quality report must include some explanation of how the health care system works and what the data reveal about a health care organization.
4. For the typical consumer, a quality measure has no meaning on its own.
It is the sponsor's job to turn quality measures into information that consumers can easily comprehend, evaluate, and use. You can do this by doing one or more of the following:
• Grouping measures into consumer-friendly categories.
• Offering a basis for comparison, such as an average or benchmark for the market.
• Interpreting the information for your audience by making it clear which results are truly better than others.
5. The medium shapes the message.
Whether you rely on printed reports, Web sites, or live presentations, the medium you choose to deliver the information can determine how much you present and how you display it. For instance, you can offer many more layers of detail on the Web than you can in print without overwhelming your audience. A printed report, on the other hand, offers the ability to create large displays of information across multiple pages. This suggests that you will need to have some sense of what the final product will be before you can decide on a design and format for quality information.
Making Sure Your Materials Work for Your Audience
No matter how limited your resources may be, do what you can to test the materials as you develop them to make sure they are suitable for your audience. This approach allows you to identify and remedy trouble spots along the way rather than waiting until the information has been disseminated to discover any problems. Specifically, sponsors can conduct ongoing testing to assess:
• Whether consumers can read the information easily.
• Whether they can understand it.
• Whether the content is appropriate for your audience.
• Whether people are interested in your content (i.e., its salience).
• Whether consumers can use your materials for the purpose for which they are intended.
• Whether they can navigate through the materials to find the information they want.
Techniques for this kind of iterative testing include one-on-one interviews as well as focus groups.

Step 4. Disseminating Information

Long before you have the information to distribute, you need to be thinking about how and when to get it into the hands of consumers. Sponsors should ask themselves:
• What can we do to ensure that our audience is aware of our information and motivated to use it?
• When is the best time to make the information available? Is this timing realistic?
• What channels can we use to distribute the information to our audience? How can we make sure they see it?
• How should we package the information? Should it stand alone or be incorporated into other information?
The answers to these questions will affect how much time you have to produce the report as well as the kinds of measures and depth of content that you can include. For example:
• If the goal is to release a performance report in early fall so that consumers have it in time for the open enrollment season, you may not have enough time to conduct your own survey of enrollees but you could ask your plans to share the HEDIS® scores—which include results of the CAHPS® survey—that they have to report to NCQA by early summer.
• If the most sensible way to package the performance information is to integrate it into open enrollment materials, you will have to deal with space constraints that would not be necessary in a stand-alone document. This may affect the way you present the data or how much data you can include.

Step 5. Supporting Consumers

For many sponsors of consumer information projects, the job ends once the reports have been distributed. But both experienced sponsors and researchers testing consumer behavior have demonstrated that it is not enough to give consumers data. They need help in interpreting the information on quality, integrating it with other relevant data (such as costs), and using it to make decisions. Without this help, many simply ignore the information they have, or worse, use it inappropriately.
Strategies for providing "decision support" include the following:
• Refer consumers to consumer advocates and other "information intermediaries" who can help your audience understand and use the information you provide. You may need to provide those intermediaries with training, scripts, and documents they can share with consumers. For example, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration, funds a Nationwide program called SHIP (State Health Insurance Assistance Programs) to help seniors work through insurance issues and answer their questions.
• Offer consumers a worksheet that guides them through the process of evaluating their options. Worksheets help the reader keep track of the information needed to make decisions. While they can be too complicated for some consumers, they are a valuable tool for the information intermediaries who may assist consumers in reaching decisions.
• Design computer-based systems that facilitate decisionmaking by allowing the user to weight different factors or by ranking the available choices based on the user's response to a set of questions.
To determine which strategy will work best for your audience, you may want to consult with representative consumers and/or appropriate intermediaries. Also, be sure to evaluate your support strategy once it is implemented to find out how well it is serving the needs of your audience and how you can improve it.

Step 6. Evaluating the Project

Finally, the last step for sponsors is to evaluate the extent to which the project achieved its objectives. This could be as simple as asking whether consumers are aware of the information you produced or as complicated as finding out whether and how consumers used the information to help make decisions.
Evaluations are important for internal purposes because they enable you to determine how effective your project is and how it can be improved. But they are equally critical for external reasons. First, being able to demonstrate that the project has had a positive impact will help you secure political support and continued funding. In addition, an evaluation allows other sponsors to learn from your experience.
The following methods are commonly used to evaluate projects:
• Focus groups.
• Surveys.
• Usability testing.
• Analysis of changes in enrollment patterns.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_system
http://scm.ncsu.edu/public/facts/facs060329.html
http://www.talkingquality.gov/docs/section1/1_2.htm

Assignment 5

2009-12-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts?

Organizational Change

Companies that are undergoing or that have undergone a transformation. This keyword should always be used in conjunction with "Success Story" or "Experiment" or "Failed Experiment."

Organizational change is an ongoing process in order to bring the organizational systems and processes in line with the factors prevailing in the external and internal environment of the organization. The forces of organizational change include internal and external forces. Organization Development (OD) refers to the framework consisting of planned-change interventions involving human interactions that seeks to improve organizational effectiveness. OD is an effective tool to manage change. The paper discusses the dynamics of change management.

Organizational change initiatives to realign company objectives, capital and resources become necessary when the company shifts its strategic focus in response to exogenous market forces or events that require it to examine the way it does business and implement a new framework to accommodate changed goals and objectives. Despite this re-orientation, not all companies experience a smooth transition to the new paradigm.

Managing Organizational Change

It is important to have a change in the organization. In addition, such change should be successful and must contribute towards the success of the organization. The main objective of this paper is to characterize the prevalence of the change process in organizations and understand what occurs during organizational change and the forces responsible for unplanned organizational change. Organization change is a planned or unplanned transformation in an organization’s structure, technology, or people. However, there are internal as well as external factors forcing the change. Besides this, there are critical issues in the organizational development. One should be able to overcome such issues and led to effective change in the organization.

Learning Objectives For Organizational Change

Organizational change is important to usher in long-term success in an organization. A change entails realignment of organizational systems and processes. Managing change involves institutionalizing the philosophy of change in the organization. Effective change management entails creating a definitive vision and managing the transition to the desired future state.

Organizational Change And Stress Management

The forces prevailing in internal or external environment of an organization necessitate organizational change. The prime challenge before organizations is to fully institutionalize the philosophy of the change. The organizational change can be either planned or unplanned. After the change has been effected, initially, there is a resistance to change, primarily, because people have fear of the unknown. This can be overcome by effectively teaching the employees about the philosophy and the reasons for the change. The paper examines change management. In this context, stress management is also discussed.

Steps in the Organizational Change Process
• Assess need for change
• Decide on the change
• Implement change
• Evaluate change

The Three Greatest Barriers to Organizational Change

The need for rapid organizational change is a fact of life in today's business environment. While there may be a few companies whose leaders are committed to a belief that it is good for everyone to "shake things up" from time to time, most organizational change is undertaken to accomplish key strategic goals. No matter how necessary change seems to upper management, many barriers must be broken down if a planned strategic change is to be implemented successfully. The key to successful change is in the planning and the implementation. The three greatest barriers to organizational change are most often the following.

1. Inadequate Culture-shift Planning. Most companies are good at planning changes in reporting structure, work area placement, job responsibilities, and administrative structure. Organizational charts are commonly revised again and again. Timelines are established, benchmarks are set, transition teams are appointed, etc. Failure to foresee and plan for resultant cultural change, however, is also common. When the planning team is too narrowly defined or too focused on objective analysis and critical thinking, it becomes too easy to lose sight of the fact that the planned change will affect people. Even at work, people make many decisions on the basis of feelings and intuition. When the feelings of employees are overlooked, the result is often deep resentment because some unrecognized taboo or tradition has not been duly respected.

2. Lack of Employee Involvement. People have an inherent fear of change. In most strategic organizational change, at least some employees will be asked to assume different responsibilities or focus on different aspects of their knowledge or skill. The greater the change a person is asked to make, the more pervasive that person's fear will be. There will be fear of change. More important, however, there will be fear of failure in the new role. Involving employees as soon as possible in the change effort, letting them create as much of the change as is possible and practical is key to a successful change effort. As employees understand the reasons for the change and have an opportunity to "try the change on for size" they more readily accept and support the change.

3. Flawed Communication Strategies. Ideal communication strategies in situations of significant organizational change must attend to the message, the method of delivery, the timing, and the importance of information shared with various parts of the organization. Many leaders believe that if they tell people what they (the leaders) feel they need to know about the change, then everyone will be on board and ready to move forward. In reality, people need to understand why the change is being made, but more importantly, how the change is likely to affect them. A big picture announcement from the CEO does little to help people understand and accept change. People want to hear about change from their direct supervisor. A strategy of engaging direct supervision and allowing them to manage the communication process is the key to a successful change communication plan.

Radical Type of Organizational Change

• Automation

Automation Planning and Organizational Change: A Functional Model for Developing a Systems Plan

Automation represents one of the greatest changes a library can undergo. An automation plan must not only produce an optimum system, but prepare the staff, institution and clientele for far-reaching change. This change can be accommodated by a functional model consisting of three phases: 1) organization and overview, 2) project expansion, and 3) project consolidation and preparationof the system plan. An educational program is the centerpiece of the process.

• Rationalization of procedures

Report on Rationalization of Procedures: (for) Building Approvals and Completion Certificates

The Committee deliberated upon the procedures for grant of building plan approvals and completion certificates including the role of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission therein. The consensus of the opinion was that the present procedures involving a multiplicity of authorities were resulting in considerable harassment and delays. The present procedures of scrutiny of building plans, issue of C & D forms and completion certificate is very cumbersome and involved delays at each stage due to site inspections and site reports. Further, since there was no single person specifically responsible for adherence to regulations at the approval or completion stage, owners with the connivance of building officials and unscrupulous architects, indulged in violations for financial advantage. Thus while honest owners are harassed, unscrupulous architects, indulged in violations for financial advantage. Thus while honest owners are harassed, unscrupulous ones get away with serious violations.

• Business reengineering

Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises. BPR reached its heyday in the early 1990's when Michael Hammer and James Champy published their best-selling book, "Reengineering the Corporation". The authors promoted the idea that sometimes radical redesign and reorganization of an enterprise (wiping the slate clean) was necessary to lower costs and increase quality of service and that information technology was the key enabler for that radical change. Hammer and Champy felt that the design of workflow in most large corporations was based on assumptions about technology, people, and organizational goals that were no longer valid. They suggested seven principles of reengineering to streamline the work process and thereby achieve significant levels of improvement in quality, time management, and cost:

1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks.
2. Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in order of redesign urgency.
3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces the information.
4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized.
5. Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating their results.
6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into the process.
7. Capture information once and at the source.

The impact of BPR on organizational performance

The two cornerstones of any organization are the people and the processes. If individuals are motivated and working hard, yet the business processes are cumbersome and non-essential activities remain, organizational performance will be poor. Business Process Reengineering is the key to transforming how people work. What appear to be minor changes in processes can have dramatic effects on cash flow, service delivery and customer satisfaction. Even the act of documenting business processes alone will typically improve organizational efficiency by 10%.

How to implement a BPR project

The best way to map and improve the organization's procedures is to take a top down approach, and not undertake a project in isolation. That means:
• Starting with mission statements that define the purpose of the organization and describe what sets it apart from others in its sector or industry.
• Producing vision statements which define where the organization is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position.
• Build these into a clear business strategy thereby deriving the project objectives.
• Defining behaviours that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims.
• Producing key performance measures to track progress.
• Relating efficiency improvements to the culture of the organization
• Identifying initiatives that will improve performance.

• Paradigm shifts

A paradigm shift is an often radical change of paradigm. It is the successful new theory which explains a phenomenon or phenomena that the previous theory fails to. The term was first used by Thomas Kuhn in his famous 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Paradigm shift (or revolutionary science) is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) to describe a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science. It is in contrast to his idea of normal science.
The term paradigm shift, as a change in a fundamental model of events, has since become widely applied to many other realms of human experience as well, even though Kuhn himself restricted the use of the term to the hard sciences. According to Kuhn, "A paradigm is what members of a scientific community, and they alone, share." (The Essential Tension, 1977). Unlike a normal scientist, Kuhn held, "a student in the humanities has constantly before him a number of competing and incommensurable solutions to these problems, solutions that he must ultimately examine for himself." (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions). Once a paradigm shift is complete, a scientist cannot, for example, posit the possibility that miasma causes disease or that ether carries light. In contrast, a critic in the Humanities can choose to adopt a 19th-century theory of poetics, for instance.

A paradigm is our perception of reality, our view of the world. It is our interpretation of events based on previous teaching we have received. If our paradigm is based only on our input from the media of conventional newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Hollywood films, public education etc., may God help us, for we will only see things the way they, the elite and wealthy rulers of this world who control these sources of information, want us to see things! This is often the opposite of the Truth. A paradigm shift means to have a sudden change in perception, a sudden change in point of view, of how you see things. Hopefully this change will be in the right direction. (Based on Stephen R. Covey's definition in "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People")

Sources:
http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/organizational+change.html
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid182_gci536451,00.html
http://www.architexturez.net/+/subject-listing/000073.shtmlhttp://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/eb047604
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/business-process-reengineering.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift

Assignment 6

2009-12-15T08:39:00.000-08:00

Identify and discuss the steps for "critical success factors" approach?

Critical success factor

Critical Success Factor (CSF) is the term for an element that is necessary for an organization or project to achieve its mission. It is a critical factor or activity required for ensuring the success of your business. The term was initially used in the world of data analysis, and business analysis. For example, a CSF for a successful Information Technology (IT) project is user involvement.

So many important matters can compete for your attention in business that it's often difficult to see the "wood for the trees". What's more, it can be extremely difficult to get everyone in the team pulling in the same direction and focusing on the true essentials.
That's where Critical Success Factors (CSFs) can help. CSFs are the essential areas of activity that must be performed well if you are to achieve the mission, objectives or goals for your business or project.

By identifying your Critical Success Factors, you can create a common point of reference to help you direct and measure the success of your business or project.
As a common point of reference, CSFs help everyone in the team to know exactly what's most important. And this helps people perform their own work in the right context and so pull together towards the same overall aims.

The idea of CSFs was first presented by D. Ronald Daniel in the 1960s. It was then built on and popularized a decade later by John F. Rockart, of MIT's Sloan School of Management, and has since been used extensively to help businesses implement their strategies and projects.
Inevitably, the CSF concept has evolved, and you may have seen it implemented in different ways. This article provides a simple definition and approach based on Rockart's original ideas.

The advantages of identifying CSFs are that they are simple to understand; they help focus attention on major concerns; they are easy to communicate to coworkers; they are easy to monitor; and they can be used in concert with strategic planning methodologies. Using critical success factors as an isolated event does not represent critical strategic thinking. But when used in conjunction with a planning process, identifying CSFs is extremely important because it keeps people focused. Clarifying the priority order of CSFs, measuring results, and rewarding superior performance will improve the odds for long-term success as well.

Critical success factors cannot be specifically defined for the masses because success can be defined quite differently by each individual, and for the goal at hand. Therefore, in order to identify critical success factors, it is first necessary to come to terms with your own personal definition of success. Each individual’s own definition of will be influenced by several key factors:

• Success is subject to individual interpretation based on upbringing, past experiences, role models, personal motivations and goals. For some it might be to own a home in an upscale neighborhood, while for others it might be a career in the Peace Corps. Carefully contemplate your definition of success based on your values—not what your brother-in-law or Madison Avenue tells you it is. Your own definition of personal success directly influences critical factors leading to that success.

• Your view of success will change at various times throughout your life. For example, what might be deemed successful in college or on your first job is very different from successfully raising a family or comfortably retiring in the Caribbean. Your definition of success will continue to change, so don’t make the error of pursuing an outdated version of it. Success factors will change over time.

• Personal success is sometimes measurable and sometimes not. Accumulating a certain amount of wealth is one way to measure success, but it is not the only way; a successful marriage may be far more meaningful to many people and can only be measured by how the two partners feel about each other as the years go by.

• Very few people achieve success accidentally. Most people who achieve success first defined it then planned for it; they set a goal to achieve it. Critical success factors change with the goal.

There are four steps of CSFs:

Industry CSF's follows from specific industry characteristics.

Different industries have different CSFs. Even within same industry CSFs are not identical from company to company. For example:
Objective: Achieve market share locally of 15%.
CSF: Increasing of customers quantity, increasing of competitiveness versus other local shops.

Strategy CSF's follows from the selected competitive strategy of the business.

It depends on how company positions itself on market, what is the strategy of business and development.
Objective: Decrease time of client servicing to 50%.
CSF: Install PC-ba
sed customer service system.

Environmental CSF's follows from economic or technological changes.

These factors represent environment in which company operates. They include things like the business climate, the economy, competitors, sociopolitical issues, technological improving and so on.
Objective: Expand assortment of goods to attract more consumers.
CSF: Discovery of new required local suppliers, arrangement of win-win relationship with them.

Temporal CSF's follows from internal organizational needs and changes.

These are temporary conditions or situations in which the organization must achieve success in order to ensure safety of successful accomplishment companies main goals.

A plan should be implemented that considers a platform for growth and profits as well as takes into consideration the following critical success factors:

• Money: positive cash flow, revenue growth, and profit margins.
• Your future: Acquiring new customers and/or distributors.
• Customer satisfaction: How happy they are.
• Quality: How good is your product and service?
• Product or service development: What's new that will increase business with existing customers and attract new ones?
• Intellectual capital: Increasing what you know is profitable.
• Strategic relationships: New sources of business, products and outside revenue.
• Employee attraction and retention: Your ability to extend your reach.
• Sustainability: Your personal ability to keep it all going.

The 5 Critical Success Factors in Business

There are five business success factors (critically important core profit principles) that all businesses share - both small business and large. In times of economic crisis like these, they are essential. And, they can make the difference between just getting by - or you getting ahead in your business.

Here, we'll explore what they are - and how you can put them to work for you in your own business. These principles form the basis for most success in business achieved by entrepreneurs, business owners, business managers, and professionals. Without following them at least to some extent, you'll find business to be a struggle - and much less rewarding than it could be.

As you read this, see how well your own thinking and actions in business stack up to these five core principles:

1) Profits are essential for your business to succeed - they are what pays you.

You don't have to look far to find examples of businesses imploding due to lack of profits. (The current banking and financial crisis immediately comes to mind... Or, remember the dot-com bubble?... the spend, spend, spend your way to market share type of thinking.) And, those are just some larger, more visible examples... small businesses are at even more risk.

Ultimately, profits are the essential key ingredient for business survival - and your focus on them is key. The very existence of your business depends on a steady-stream of profits... to pay your bills... your salary... your employees... your vendors and suppliers... and to secure your financial future.

Profits make the difference between the success or failure of your enterprise. They're the essence of being in business and are the fruits of your labor. Without profits (or deep pockets), you can't last long.

2) Most businesses miss profit opportunities on almost every transaction or customer/client relationship - and are limiting their incomes without even knowing it.

Here again, you won't have to look far for examples. Just think of all the leads that don't get proper follow-up, the customers/clients that receive only occasional communications (if any), the up-sells, cross-sells and add-on sales that could have been part of a given transaction, the unrealized intangible opportunities that exist in your customer/client or vendor/supplier relationships - and you can begin to see a sad pattern.

It's a pattern of profit opportunities gone by... wasted utilization of assets... or under-realized profit potential in your transactions. In many cases, business owners, managers and professionals are completely unaware of their lost profit opportunities.

Make your expenditure of time, energy, capital, and resources produce more for you - and capture the money that most businesses miss. Think about your sales, marketing, and advertising process as a total package - and create, test, and put in place processes that take advantage of strengths in your business.

3) Stability and security comes from creating a "Web of Profits" in your business.

Do you have a number of different sources within your business to support you? Or, are you relying on only a few? Or, even worse, relying on only ONE primary source of profit?

The majority of businesses rely on fewer than five profit sources - and think in terms of "profit centers." In other words, a collection of different channels of profit from individual sales of products or services (retail), bulk sales (wholesale), joint ventures, ownership interests, licensing and/or other arrangements, and so on.

But, when you create a "Web of Profits" in your business - that is, an interconnected approach that integrates a variety of profit sources and activities together into a single unit of functionality - you stand a better chance of leveraging your business in new ways.

4) The focus on Increasing Profits is more beneficial than the focus on Cost-Cutting.

In times of recession or economic crisis, sometimes cost-cutting is the only logical and sane option. If you're bleeding... you stop the bleeding before anything else. But, when it comes to cost-cutting, the effect is temporary and fleeting. Once you've drastically reduced your expenses, any additional cost-cutting might hurt your business's effectiveness and viability.

Crisis management aside, it's much better to focus on getting more business, to create new profit sources, run better promotions, do better advertising and marketing, and generally operate your business in a more customer/client oriented way.

That's what eases the pressure from high-costs... and provides you with what you need from your business. The thinking that goes into a profit-oriented focus and mindset can often provide innovative and inspirational breakthroughs in results.

5) Strategically plan for Profits - and take the specific action steps needed to implement your plan.

Being laser-focused on profits - rather than your strategic planning being primarily focused on revenue - takes you to the next level in your business plan. You'll be able to see alternative profit possibilities - and the action steps needed - so you can build them directly into your plan.

By their very nature, business plans focus on the bottom-line - and usually they just focus on the obvious sources - not necessarily on the alternative profit possibilities. And it's these alternative profits that most businesses miss... profits that could even eclipse what's being produced by your current business activities.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_success_factor
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_80.htm
http://www.e-competitors.com/Strategy/SBUPlanning/SBUPositioning/SBU_Critical.htm
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/the-5-critical-success-factors-in-business-639661.html

Assignment 3

2009-12-15T07:53:00.000-08:00

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?

We visited the AMS Group of Companies located at F. Torres St., Davao City for an interview regarding to our subject MIS2 assignment, include the question which is “What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan?”. To answer the question, we approached Mr. Gemrald R. Glibara, the M.I.S Department Head of AMS Group of Companies.

FRUSTRATION

Frustration a common emotional response to opposition. Related to anger and disappointment, it arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of individual will. The greater the obstruction, and the greater the will, the more the frustration is likely to be. Causes of frustration may be internal or external. In people, internal frustration may arise from challenges in fulfilling personal goals and desires, instinctual drives and needs, or dealing with perceived deficiencies, such as a lack of confidence or fear of social situations. Conflict can also be an internal source of frustration; when one has competing goals that interfere with one another, it can create cognitive dissonance. External causes of frustration involve conditions outside an individual, such as a blocked road or a difficult task. While coping with frustration, some individuals may engage in passive-aggressive behavior, making it difficult to identify the original cause(s) of their frustration, as the responses are indirect. A more direct, and common response, is a propensity towards aggression.

This is the point where a lot of people will just say, “I Quit” and give up. Before you do though, here’s 8 ways you can blast through any frustration:

1. Ask Yourself, “What Is Working in This Situation?”

Even if feels like nothing is working, look closely and you will probably find at least something that is going right. So, that’s good. You’ve found something that’s working. Now, how do you improve it? By asking this question, you’ve taken yourself out of the negative mindset of “it’s hopeless” and are back to focusing on the positive.
There's something that’s working and that will give you a clue of what direction to focus on. You may find that even if your previous issues come up you’ll be able to resolve them in the process of concentrating on your improvements.

2. Keep an Accomplishments Log

Write down everything you accomplish in a log. If you do it in a monthly format you will be able to see all that you have accomplished in just one month. You may be surprised by how much you have done. If you realize there’s not much on the list, it may open your eyes to the fact that you may be procrastinating more than working or that you are using too much of your energy going in too many directions and that you need to focus more. Hopefully, you will have lots of items on your list then you can see that even though it may not feel like it, you are moving forwards. The log will also help to highlight where you were the most effective and where you need to work harder.

3. Focus On What You Want to Happen

Go back to the big picture. What is the desired outcome? Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in one problem and trying to solve it that we forget what we were originally trying to accomplish. Try not to ask yourself, “Why did this happen?” Asking questions like that will keep you rooted in the past. It doesn’t offer a solution to the problem. The important thing is knowing the answer to the following two questions:
- What do you want to happen differently this time?”
- What do you need to do in order to get there?

4. Remove the “Noise” and Simplify

When you’re trying to solve a problem, you can get so wrapped up in trying to find a solution that you add unnecessary clutter, noise, and tasks to a project because you thought they “might” be a solution.
Working on this website, I get bombarded by offer after offer of “easy ways to run your website”, “get more traffic”, “make more money” etc. They’re just noise though and usually a waste of my time even reading them. These people are just trying to make money off of me. They have no interest in whether I succeed or not. When people are frustrated by how slow the hard work process is taking, they get tempted by these “here’s what you’ve been missing” and “I’ll make it easy for you” offers. Usually, it ends up that if you do get tempted by the offers you discover 6 months down the road that if you had just stuck with your first plan and just kept working at it, you’d be a lot further ahead by now. Not to mention richer from not having spent money on the Get Rich Quick schemes. Believe in yourself. Simplify and go back to the basics. Determine what is really necessary and remove everything else. Anything that takes your time and effort that isn’t adding value, should be eliminated.

5. Multiple Solutions

You always have options. You just need to brainstorm and figure them out. Tell yourself you need to come up with 8 possible options to what you’re dealing with. Just knowing that you have lots of options will help to make you feel better. You won’t feel like you are trapped in one negative situation. From your list, figure out the best direction and go for it.

6. Take Action

When you get into serious frustration with a problem, you tend not to want to work on it anymore. It’s hard, it’s frustrating, and you’re not getting anywhere. So, anything to avoid having to be in that situation may be far more attractive. Procrastination may start to set in. If you can keep taking steps forwards, you will probably make it past this temporary hump. As Thomas Edison said, “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up” and “Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment.”
The other thing that can happen is that you start to spend a lot of time worrying. Worrying is a definite way of energy and does not move you in a forwards direction. Only taking action will. Once you start moving forwards again, you will most likely find that you worried for no reason.

7. Visualize a Positive Outcome to the Situation

A lot of times you can get stuck on focusing on what you don’t want to happen or fearing the absolute worst thing that could happen. The top athletes of the world will imagine themselves competing flawlessly over and over again. There is no room for failure in their minds. This is what you need to focus on as well. See yourself achieving your desired outcome. What will it look like? What will it feel like? What will you say? How will you feel? Take the time to visualize it and really feel it. It will inspire you to keep moving forwards.

8. Stay Positive

Things are usually not as bad as they first appear. Sometimes, things seem much worse simply because we’re tired or mentally drained. Taking a break and remembering to keep your sense of humour can also help. This time of frustration will pass. A positive mind is far more open to solutions and answers than a negative one that thinks it’s just “hopeless” and thinks “what’s the use?” A closed mind will not be able to see the possible solutions when they do come along. Stay positive.
As with any problem, the solution is to figure out what your options are, decide on a plan, focus, and then take action. By using the above 8 steps, you should find that you’re running into fewer problems and feeling less frustration. Instead, you may find that you’re running into opportunities and you know exactly how to take advantage of them.

According to him, the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan are:

In our company which is the AMS Group of Companies, according to them the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan are:

1. Lack of Support / Resistant to changes

According to Mr. Glibara, in any groups you cannot expect that all are adaptive to changes which he consider that as one of the frustrations as an IT professional. It is really hard to purse IS plans when the users themselves resist for changes, that’s the challenging part of being a project manager. You cannot please everyone, he added.

No matter whether a change is of major proportions or is objectively rather small, the change manager
must anticipate that people in the organization are going to find reasons to resist changes. It is a basic tenet of human behaviour that Any belief or value that has been previously successful in meeting needs will resist change. This applies even if there are better more successful alternatives to meet those needs.

Employee resistance

Participants gave a variety of reasons for resistance by employees and managers. The top-five reasons for employee resistance were:

1. Lack of understanding around the vision and need for change.

Participants indicated that the primary reason for employee resistance was that employees did not understand the vision of this particular change project. Employees did not clearly understand why the change was happening, nor did they have adequate knowledge regarding the change itself. Employees did not have the answer to the question, “what’s in it for me?” – or WIIFM. This could include, "Will I have a job?," "How will it impact my daily work?," "How will I benefit from the change?".

2. Comfort with the status quo and fear of the unknown.

Participants indicated that employees tended to be complacent, or that the current way of doing business had been in place for a long time. The current processes and systems seemed fine to the employees, and they were opposed to the change since it forced them out of their comfort zone. Uncertainty and fear of the new system compounded the desire of employees to continue with the “old way” to which they had grown accustom.

3. Corporate history and culture.

The organization’s past performance with change projects impacted the employees’ support of the current change project. Employees were desensitized to change initiatives, as many had been introduced and failed. The project was seen merely as the “flavor of the month,” and employees expected it go away like those in the past.

4. Opposition to the new technologies, requirements and processes introduced by the change.

Many participants felt that some employees resisted the change because of opposition to the actual change itself. Employees were opposed to changes that increased the performance and process measurement of their work. The change was seen as adding unwanted work, responsibility and accountability. Lastly, some employees opposed the new processes, systems or technologies because they felt the change would not solve the problems.

5. Fear of job loss.

Employees perceived the business change as a threat to their own job security. Some employees felt that the change would eliminate the need for their job, while others were unsure of their own abilities and skills in the new environment.

Manager resistance

The top-six reasons for manager resistance to change were:

1. Loss of power and control.

The leading reason for manager resistance to change was a fear of losing power. Changes often eliminated something the manager had control of or introduced something that the manager would not have control over. Managers perceived the changes as infringements on their autonomy, and some participants indicated that the change was even perceived as a personal attack on the managers. Managers reacted to the change initiative as a "battle for turf."

2. Overload of current tasks, pressures of daily activities and limited resources.

Managers felt that the change was an additional burden. Limited resources compounded the problem. The change initiative seemed like extra work and resource strain at a time when the pressures of daily activities were already high. In many projects, managers were expected to continue all of their current duties in addition to the duties of implementing the change.

3. Lack of skills and experience needed to manage the change effectively.

Managers were fearful of the new demands that would be placed on them by the business change. Several skill areas were identified as areas of concern. First, managers were uncomfortable with their role in managing the change. Some feared recrimination while others did not have the experience or tools to effectively manage their employees’ resistance. Managers also were concerned about the demands and responsibilities placed on them by the new business processes, systems or technologies.

4. Fear of job loss.

Managers felt that the business change would ultimately impact their own job security. Middle management is often the victim of large-scale business change. One participant reaffirmed this fear:
“They were eliminated in the change, so no resistance was recorded.”

5. Disagreement with the new way.

Some managers disagreed specifically with the change. They did not feel that the solution was the best approach to fixing the problem. Managers who did not play a role or provide input in the design and planning phases tended to resist the solution. Some participants felt that the resistance was due to the solution not being the idea of the manager ("not invented here").

6. Skepticism about the need for change.

Managers were not convinced of the need for change. They did not see the business issues driving the change, or they did not identify the same problems as the design team.

2. Communication Gap

He consider this gap as a cause of frustration for it is apparent in their organization. He experienced communication gap between himself and the office he is working to automate transactions. During the requirements gathering, both the office specified the functionalities to cater on the system that Mr. Gemrald will developed, after passing all the necessary documentations they came up to the development of the system. As he deployed the system, all specified functionalities were made and it is functional. As time goes by, there were functionalities that the office wanted to add which supposed to be addressed during the requirements gathering, in this case it is now cumbersome to the part of the IS professional to do some revisions and recoding when the system was actually delivered already.

Communication gap is a state that occurs when what is being said is not been communicated to the addressee properly and completely. There can be many causes of communication gap depending on where it exists. Actually Communication gap is the biggest hurdle in achieving the organizational goal and does not help at all in achievement of organizational goal. Communication gap in an organization means that the goals and objectives that are set by the top management are either not communicated to the employees of the organization at all levels or if communicated they are not been understood properly by the employees. This can be because of improper communication channels, unrealistic goals, inappropriate language etc.

Communication gap can be a major hurdle for the growth of an organization. Communication gap makes everybody on different pages and mindsets in terms of the information and updates. An organization has to ensure a smooth flow of communication all across the board. Even the duration of the passing the information matters. Information delayed is sometimes equivalent to information denied. The lack of information due to communication gap would make a person to go wrong path when a follow up corporate update happen regarding a project or strategy, since the background of latest information being presented would not have reached this employee at the right time. Communication gap can easily result in inappropriate decisions resulting in loss for the company.

The Bridge the Communication Gap course enables people to get through to others more easily, obtain agreement with less effort, and get things moving quickly. Participants learn how to:

• Recognize other people's most preferred channels of communication.
• Translate their messages so they answer the key questions uppermost in other people's minds.
• Reduce resistance and increase acceptance by using communication strategies tailored to the needs of their audience.
• Create a non-defensive, open atmosphere in which information flows more freely, leading to more effective planning and decision making.
• Resolve differences in values, priorities, and interpretations of information for identifying mutually satisfying solutions
To accomplish these goals, participants learn how to:
• Recognize: Identify other people's preferred ways of communicating by what they do, say, write, and ask.
• Translate: Adjust their requests, proposals, and presentations to match other people's preferred ways of communicating.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frustration
http://www.life-with-confidence.com/frustration.html
http://www.prosci.com/tutorial-resistance.htm
http://www.bcon-lifo.com/communication/comm_20.htm

Assignment 2

2009-12-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan?

Planning

The process of setting goals, developing strategies, and outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish the goals.

Basic management function involving formulation of one or more detailed plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with the available resources. The planning process (1) identifies the goals or objectives to be achieved, (2) formulates strategies to achieve them, (3) arranges or creates the means required, and (4) implements, directs, and monitors all steps in their proper sequence.

Why Plan?

The purpose of an explicit planning process is to develop clear business strategies in order to improve the odds that Your Company will have above average returns in the future.
Capitalism is spreading throughout the world; and throughout the world competitors are planning to eat each other. Those companies not prepared to meet the challenge will disappear. The days of the "we are guaranteed our share of the industry's profits" are gone. It's survival of the fittest - and not all companies will survive to see the year 2010.
To meet the challenges ahead, companies need to become more strategic and more flexible by providing business managers with a structured framework to think strategically in order to raise the level of business decision making and business performance.
In practice, business managers are almost always eager to plan effectively. It's when the planning process is illogical and chaotic that things go awry and managers look for cover.

Purpose of Plan

Just as no two organizations are alike, so also their plans. It is therefore important to prepare a plan keeping in view the necessities of the enterprise. A plan is an important aspect of business. It serves the following three critical functions:
• Helps management to clarify, focus, and research their business's or project's development and prospects.
• Provides a considered and logical framework within which a business can develop and pursue business strategies over the next three to five years.
• Offers a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured and reviewed.

Importance of the planning Process

A plan can play a vital role in helping to avoid mistakes or recognize hidden opportunities. Preparing a satisfactory plan of the organization is essential. The planning process enables management to understand more clearly what they want to achieve, and how and when they can do it.
A well-prepared business plan demonstrates that the managers know the business and that they have thought through its development in terms of products, management, finances, and most importantly, markets and competition.
Planning helps in forecasting the future, makes the future visible to some extent. It bridges between where we are and where we want to go. Planning is looking ahead.

Nature of Business Plan

Business Plan

A business plan is a document that summarizes the operational and financial objectives of a business and contains the detailed plans and budgets showing how the objectives are to be realized.
Because the business plan contains detailed financial projections, forecasts about your business's performance, and a marketing plan, it's an incredibly useful tool for business planning.
A business plan is also a road map that provides directions so a business can plan its future and helps it avoid bumps in the road. The time you spend making your business plan thorough and accurate, and keeping it up-to-date, is an investment that pays big dividends in the long term.

A business plan is also a road map that provides directions so a business can plan its future and helps it avoid bumps in the road. The time you spend making your business plan thorough and accurate, and keeping it up-to-date, is an investment that pays big dividends in the long term.

Why is a Business Plan needed?

You may be asking yourself, why do I need a business plan?
You need a business plan because it provides specific and organized information about your company. It shows all of your business associates (bankers, lenders, partners etc.) what the business ideas are exactly, how you will repay borrowed money, and helps you plan in detail all of the steps you will take now and in the future. A business plan is a crucial part of any loan application. Additionally, it informs sales personnel, suppliers, and others about your operations and goals. Click on the link below and find out from other sources why you need a business plan.
To be sure, a business plan is important. A sound business plan serves multiple purposes:
• Business Plan as Reality Check. The process of putting a business plan together, including the thought you put in before you begin to write it, forces you to take an objective, critical, unemotional look at your business project in its entirety.
• Business Plan as Performance Tool. Your written business plan is an operating tool which, when properly used, will help you manage your business and work effectively towards its Success. Your business plan will allow you to set realistic goals and objectives for your company's performance, and, if maintained, will also provide a basis for evaluating and controlling the company's performance in the future.
• Business Plan as Message Sender. The completed business plan communicates your company's ideas and message to employees, outside directors, lenders, and potential investors. outside your company. A business plan helps you do that in an organized, credible manner. Also, the process of planning helps you determine if your vision is realistic, and tells you what you need to do in order to achieve it.
• Business Plan as Motivation Tool. The development of your business plan is one of the best ways for you to communicate how well you understand your business and describe your vision of your business. Without proper planning, it becomes impossible for you to get all of your employees reading off the same page of the book and generating energy through high levels of team work. It is impossible to motivate people when they do not know where they are going or what they are trying to achieve.
• Business Plan as Management Development Tool. Putting together your business plan will help you develop as a manager because it can give you practice in thinking and figuring out problems about competitive conditions, promotional opportunities, and situations that are or may be beneficial or harmful to your business.
• Business Plan as Road Map. Your business plan, once it is completed, will give you and your employees goals and direction: a roadmap to follow in guiding your business through good and bad times.

Reasons You Need a Business Plan

Deal with displacement. Displacement is probably by far the most important practical business concept you've never heard of. It goes like this: "Whatever you do is something else you don't do." Displacement lives at the heart of all small-business strategy. At least most people have never heard of it.

Hire new people. This is another new obligation (a fixed cost) that increases your risk. How will new people help your business grow and prosper? What exactly are they supposed to be doing? The rationale for hiring should be in your business plan.

Share and explain business objectives with your management team, employees and new hires. Make selected portions of your business plan part of your new employee training.

Develop new business alliances. Use your plan to set targets for new alliances, and selected portions of your plan to communicate with those alliances.

Deal with professionals. Share selected highlights or your plans with your attorneys and accountants, and, if this is relevant to you, consultants.

Create a new business. Use a plan to establish the right steps to starting a new business, including what you need to do, what resources will be required, and what you expect to happen.

Seek investment for a business, whether it's a startup or not. Investors need to see a business plan before they decide whether or not to invest. They'll expect the plan to cover all the main points.

Nature of Information System Plan

Information System Plan

Information System Planning (ISP) is a structured approach developed by IBM to assist organizations in establishing a plan to satisfy their short and long term information requirements. The ISP methodology was implemented at Tel-Aviv University. A comprehensive plan for the development of a Management Information System (MIS) was derived. This paper presents a review of the process by which the plan was obtained, a discussion of the methodology, and its ramifications.
information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people, processes, data and technology. In this sense, the term is used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes .
Some make a clear distinction between information systems, ICT and business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology in that an information system is typically seen as having an ICT component. Information systems are also different from business processes. Information systems help to control the performance of business processes .
Alter argues for an information system as a special type of work system. A work system is a system in which humans and/or machines perform work using resources (including ICT) to produce specific products and/or services for customers. An information system is a work system whose activities are devoted to processing (capturing, transmitting, storing, retrieving, manipulating and displaying)information .
Part of the difficulty in defining the term information system is due to vagueness in the definition of related terms such as system and information. Beynon-Davies argues for a clearer terminology based in systemics and semiotics. He defines an information system as an example of a system concerned with the manipulation of signs. An information system is a type of socio-technical system. An information system is a mediating construct between actions and technology .
As such, information systems inter-relate with data systems on the one hand and activity systems on the other. An information system is a form of communication system in which data represent and are processed as a form of social memory. An information system can also be considered a semi-formal language which supports human decision making and action.

Characteristics of a Quality ISP

A quality ISP must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it is useful. These five are presented in the table that follows.

Timely
The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned.

Useable
The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started.

Maintainable
The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.

Quality
While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly.

Reproducible

The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.

ISP Summary
In summary, any technique employed to achieve an ISP must be accomplishable with less than 3% of the IT budget. Additionally, it must be timely, useable, maintainable, able to be iterated into a quality product, and reproducible. IT organizations, once they have completed their initial set of databases and business information systems will find themselves transformed from a project to a release environment.
The continuous flow environment then becomes the only viable alternative for moving the enterprise forward. It is precisely because of the release environment that enterprise-wide information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained are essential.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning
http://bizinfonetwork.org/content.php?id=269&siteName=Starting%20a%20Business
http://www.gaebler.com/Why-Are-Business-Plans-Important.htm
http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262