Down Under

Life Cycle of USeP

2010-01-03T04:34:00.000-08:00

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

I am currently studying at the University of Southeastern Philippines. I would have to admit that I had a hard time figuring out what are the stages or life cycle that our university underwent or developed. However, I have read their Strategic Plan which had quite a contribution for me to have an overview on our University's life cycle. But before I lay down my understanding on the University's developed life cycle I will first define what a life cycle is.

Initial Idea
All projects must start with an initial idea. Usually this consists of a brief definition on what is the project all about, what is its purpose and what the project aims to accomplish. How will the success of the project be measured?

Feasibility Study
Expanding on the Initial Idea, the Feasibility Study involves drawing up the terms of reference, which state the objectives and scope of the project, how long it should take and how the results should be presented. The terms of reference are usually drawn up by senior management. The feasibility study must determine if development of the project is justified in terms of economic and organisational terms. The main role of the analyst in the feasibility study is to analyse the current system at a high level. Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) are used to describe how the current system performs and to illustrate known problems. Feasibility studies are not carried out for all projects, and smaller projects omit this stage.

Requirements Analysis
The Requirements Analysis stage defines a series of possible solutions to the problem and presents them to management in terms of business options. These options may be supported by technical documents such as high-level DFD’s, Logical Data Models (LDM) and Work Practise Models. The requirements analysis report must also contain financial and risk assessments to be presented and supported by outline implementation descriptions. The steps involved within the requirements analysis will define the flow of data in the system, deriving system functions and to develop user role specifications, prototypes and process specifications.

Systems Analysis and Specification
The Systems Analysis stage is an extension to the feasibility study. If the project has a feasibility study then the bulk of the work has already been done. A terms of reference will also be required if one does not exist. The output from this stage is the System Specification which gives precise details of what the new system is required to do, but does not go into how it does it. It provides a logical model of the new system. Once agreed, the specification is the basis for the work done by the system designers.

Systems Design
This stage deals with how the requirements of the new system are carried out (how the logical model is implemented as a physical system). The system designer will develop a number of design options and test them against the requirements specification and design criteria. The one that comes closest to the design brief with the most cost effective use of equipment and personnel is selected and broken down into more detailed specs. Because of this the design stage has two phases: produce outline designs based on requirements specification with input from users and the detailed designs produced from the selected design.

Development
This is the only stage in the development where program code is written. The designs and specifications provide enough detail for the programmer to code and test individual modules. Each unit is tested to ensure that it meets the requirements of the specification.

Testing
Within the life cycle there are various levels of testing as well as the unit testing performed in the development stage.

Link testing ensures that programs work together, e.g. the data passed from one program to another has the correct format.

System testing ensures that the system as a whole performs according to the design specification. Recovery procedures must be tested as well as normal operation procedures.

Finally user acceptance testing is carried out by the users in stages to ensure that the system is usable.

Any modifications are passed back to the design stage where changes are made as necessary and passed to the development team.

Implementation
When the testing has been carried out to the users satisfaction the system, or parts of it, are put live. The “put live” phase can also be known as implementation, cutover or production. This is when the users start using the system to carry out their business activities.

There are two main approaches to implementation a project:

Phased: Stand-alone subsets of the system are implemented over a period of time.
Big Bang: The whole system is put live in one go.
Some systems will require special programs or tasks to convert existing data to a format usable by the new system. The process of changing data from the old system to the new is called conversion.

Maintenance and Review
Once the system is put into place, maintenance is required to ensure satisfactory operation. Maintenance should include regular reviews and evaluations to ensure that it is achieving its objectives, identify any aspects that can be improved or any operational problems. Maintenance falls into two categories, implementation of new features or elimination of errors.

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 (which was the original SDLC method); rapid application development (RAD); joint application development (JAD); the fountain model; the spiral model; build and fix; and synchronize-and-stabilize. Frequently, 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 the particular plan was followed.

To sum it up, an SDLC methodology follows the following steps:

1. The existing system is evaluated. Deficiencies are identified. This can be done by interviewing users of the system and consulting with support personnel.

2. The new system requirements are defined. In particular, the deficiencies in the existing system must be addressed with specific proposals for improvement.

3. The proposed system is designed. Plans are laid out concerning the physical construction, hardware, operating systems, programming, communications, and security issues.

4. The new system is developed. The new components and programs must be obtained and installed. Users of the system must be trained in its use, and all aspects of performance must be tested. If necessary, adjustments must be made at this stage.

5. The system is put into use. This can be done in various ways. The new system can phased in, according to application or location, and the old system gradually replaced. In some cases, it may be more cost-effective to shut down the old system and implement the new system all at once.

6. Once the new system is up and running for a while, it should be exhaustively evaluated. Maintenance must be kept up rigorously at all times. Users of the system should be kept up-to-date concerning the latest modifications and procedures.

The University

As I have observed while reading the Strategic Plan of our university, I could conclude that they are using the Traditional Systems Life Cycle. Indicated on the Strategic Plan Action is conducting different studies on different factors that comprises the University. Analysis was also included in the Strategic Plan. They have involved a so-called Key Performance Indicators on the different concerned factors. Under that Key Performance Indicators are the possible response of the concerned group of people.

The life cycle developed by our university will most probably meet our needs (if only it will be strongly implemented) , for the fact that they had made a deep study and a thorough analysis. If you are wondering why I'm using the term "will" it is because I have noticed on the Strategic Plan that some of the projects are YET to be implemented.

References:
http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid92_gci755068,00.html
http://usep.edu.ph
http://sharpertutorials.com/design-methodology-and-system-lifecycle/

Steps in CSF Approach

2009-12-30T04:32:00.000-08:00

Identify and discuss the steps for "critical success factors" approach? (at least 1,500 words)

Critical Success Factor
A key area where satisfactory performance is required for the organization to achieve its goals
A means of identifying the tasks and requirements needed for success
At the lowest level, CSFs become concrete requirements
A means to prioritize requirements

Critical Success Factors are the essential areas of activity that must be performed well to achieve the mission, objectives or goals for a business or project. By identifying the Critical Success Factors, it can create a common point of reference to help direct and measure the success of the business or project. As a common point of reference, Critical Success Factors help everyone in the team to know exactly what's the most important. And this helps people perform their own work in the right context and so pull together towards the same overall aims.

Executives and employees spend a fair amount of time doing things which don't really make the business more successful. When you stop to consider it, there are only generally a limited number of areas - like sales or product development - which make your business succeed. With insight and analysis you can select these things, the critical success factors. A business will succeed or fail depending on how you approach your unique set of critical success factors. Understanding these factors and paying 100% attention to them is a sure way to add power to your efforts and jump start towards a new level of performance.

Steps in Critical Success Factors Approach:

Step 1: Identify your critical success factors
Step 2: Establishing the measurements
Step 3: Setting the baseline
Step 4: Set new goals
Step 5: Closing the gap
Step 6: The Ben Franklin Rotation Program

Step 1: Identify your critical success factors

The first step is to identify the special set of CSFs. This may have already crossed peoples mind in the past, and answered it by instinct. The answers maybe correct answers, but they have to think deeper and broader. I have read from http://www.paullemberg.com/criticalfactors.html a list of factors believed to critical in an enterprise. The list below are only based on that site, this also depends on the business that you have. You may add factors to the list to describe the critical influences on a business' success.

Distribution - this could be direct sales, telesales, third- party sales, etc.	Lead generation	Customer satisfaction
Referrals	Research	Product development
Production, including quality, costing, run-rates, etc.	Sufficient investment capital, sufficient working capital	Customer support / technical support
Quality assurance	Sales process / sales life cycle	Market research
Customer education	Sales compensation	Recruiting
Personnel retention programs	Expense management	Intellectual capital development
Training	Marketing communications	Logistics
Employee equity	Executive leadership	Training and development
Corporate goals / strategic objectives	Values and beliefs	Mission/purpose
Individual accountability	Productivity & effectiveness metrics	Internal communications
Strategic and tactical planning	Executive team	Board of directors/advisors

It is a must to be specific when identifying the CSFs. Don't say "people" when the issue is recruiting, employee satisfaction, training or compensation. Don't say "marketing" or "sales" when the issue is lead generation. Test your assumptions by imagining a decline in a particular factor. You should be able to think of the pros and cons of each factors then come up with a solution for each cons.

In selecting factors, limit your list to no more than seven. Why seven? Cognitive theory suggests that human minds are efficient at juggling from five to nine separate trains of thought - the average and oft- quoted number is seven. Our plan is for you to keep your eye on the ball, you want to limit the balls to those you can keep your eye on.

Step 2: Establishing the measurements

Your next step is to establish a measurement scale for each critical factor. Some of these measures will be quantitative; some qualitative. Sales is an easy one: dollars of revenue measured against budget. Leads generated is also easy - how many? You can further break down sales by product and leads by sources, or you can stick to the consolidated numbers. Choose the measure which best reflects your understanding of how the issue affects your business.

Everything is measurable, you just need the right system. How can you measure your effectiveness in sales compensation? You could establish a compound metric which includes total compensation as a percentage of sales revenue, juxtaposed against goal attainment. Marketing communications is also difficult. One way to measure this is to subjectively assess the quality of your marcom pieces; you could also measure whether you have the total complement of marcom pieces you require. Or, measure whether prospects respond to your marcom efforts. Most likely you will combine all three to get one measure. A final example is measuring your efforts in the area of your Board of Directors / Board of Advisors. Measures include: do you have one? Are all the board seats filled? Is the board effective for your intended purpose? Measuring the Board factor would likely blend each of these.

Step 3: Setting the baseline

Once you've established a measurement structure for a factor, the next step is setting a baseline. Each factor should be set against a normalizing scale ranging from 1 to 10. Subjectively this can translate into non-performing(1), poor (2-3) , mediocre (4-5), good (6-7), great (8-9), and outstanding (10).

Step 4: Set new goals

Next, create a "gap" between where you are - your baseline - and your target for that factor. You already have a sales plan, so your gap exists between your current revenue and your budgeted revenue. You may consider your baseline a 5, and your target an 8. Implicit in this 1- 10 scale are judgements about your intentions: will reaching your budgeted revenue put you at 8 (almost great) or 10 (outstanding)? Where do you want to peg your efforts? If you've assessed your employee training at a 4 (mediocre), are you shooting for a 7 (good) or a 9 (great)? You can see from this how your measurement structure and goal system will impact how you allocate your company's resources and energy.

Step 5: Closing the gap

You now have a baseline and a target for each factor. Between them they define a factor gap - your challenge is to close it. Each gap becomes the focus of a meditation which asks the question: What will close the gap between our current level of this factor and our desired level? What possible actions will raise that measurement? You may have intuitive responses to these questions, and when appropriate, trust your gut. If need be, back that gut response with research - but only when cost effective. (Sometimes the most cost effective research is implementation, particularly in simple matters.)

Use any idea generation process you are comfortable with. Develop several possible initiatives to raise the level of that factor. With luck your ideas will work together and harmonize in terms of impact or implementation requirements. If you create competing ideas, select the best alternatives. Choose based on return on investment, required resources, scheduling conflicts, time to impact, total cost, and likelihood of success versus risk of failure. Depending on the specific factor, and the size of the gap, you may plan to close it in stages or shoot the gap all at once. You can launch one initiative at a time, or implement several initiatives in parallel. You may find my GamePlan!" methods useful in designing your gap-closing programs. Once you launch your gap-closing initiatives, continually measure your results. Report your progress to participants and stakeholders, and post it publicly.

Step 6: The Ben Franklin Rotation Program

As a young adult, Ben Franklin identified thirteen virtues he aspired to. In order to implement these virtues in his life he devised a "Plan for Self Examination", a program whereby he focused his attention, one virtue at a time, for one week at a time, rotating through the entire list four times a year. He kept a detailed log of the actions he took to develop the virtues in himself, along with his personal results. The article I've read adapted Franklin's concept and called it the Ben Franklin Rotation Program. At any point in time, you will have in place a program for improving every one of your critical factors. But in any given week, your primary attention will be on only one factor.

Using Franklin's principles, at the beginning of each week, focus your mind - or collective mind of your management team - on improving that week's factor. What new actions can you take, what new attitudes can you adopt, what new or renewed approaches are available - which will enhance your performance in that one specific area? Do that "thing" wholeheartedly for the entire week. Franklin also shows us how to track your progress in this venture. Create a score sheet detailing your Critical Success Factors. This sheet should detail each factor, its measurements, your current 1-10 rating and your target rating, along with your next action steps for improving that rating. Each factor also gets a weight, which enables you to develop an overall score. Each week, re-rate all the factors on the score sheet, and graph your progress. You may also graph the overall score. Publish the score sheet and the graphs. You can establish a reward system based on individual progress, or, using the factor weights, you can develop a bonus structure which incentivizes total progress.

This simple system will focus your attention on improving each one of your critical success factors. With carefully selected factors, you insure both rapid performance increases and balance in your company.

Critical Success Factors therefore produces results that express the needs of the enterprise clearly and (hopefully) completely. In addition it also allows us to measure success and prioritize goals in a sensible way. CSFs when used together with traditional usage scenarios, ensures that the needs of both the user and the enterprise are being met.

References:

http://www.paullemberg.com/criticalfactors.html

http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/arch/2/04/UCSFA.ppt

Systems Analyst as a Project Manager

2009-12-23T01:29:00.000-08:00

Discuss the role of a systems analyst as a project manager.

A Systems Analyst is responsible for the operating system and associated subsystems. They provide system-level support of multi-user operating systems, hardware and software tools, including installation, configuration, maintenance, and support of these systems. In addition, they also Identify alternatives for optimizing computer resources.

Below are the list of the primary responsibilities of a Systems Analyst:
-Collect information to analyze and evaluate existing or proposed systems.
-Research, plan, install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain and upgrade operating systems.
-Research, plan, install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain and upgrade hardware and software interfaces with the operating system. Analyze and evaluate present or proposed business procedures or problems to define data processing needs.
-Prepare detailed flow charts and diagrams outlining systems capabilities and processes.
-Research and recommend hardware and software development, purchase, and use.
-Troubleshoot and resolve hardware, software, and connectivity problems, including user access and component configuration.
-Select among authorized procedures and seek assistance when guidelines are inadequate, significant deviations are proposed, or when unanticipated problems arise.
-Record and maintain hardware and software inventories, site and/or server licensing, and user access and security.
-Install, configure, and upgrade desktop hardware and peripherals to include; network cards, printers, modems, mice and add-in boards.
-Work as a team member with other technical staff, such as networking to ensure connectivity and compatibility between systems.
-Write and maintain system documentation.
-Conduct technical research on system upgrades to determine feasibility, cost, time required, and compatibility with current system.
-Maintain confidentiality with regard to the information being processed, stored or accessed by the network.
-Document system problems and resolutions for future reference.

As i was reading the aforesaid primary responsibilities of a systems analyst, I had said to myself that indeed a systems analyst should be a percent or a 'part' or had experienced every task such as in documentation team, developing team, quality assurance team, communication team, as a project manager and the likes. Because if he lacks something on those skills there is a possibility that the Systems Analyst won't be effective in doing his job. Here are additional information about a systems analyst. A systems analyst is the person (or persons) who guides through the development of an information system. In performing these tasks the analyst must always match the information system objectives with the goals of the organization.

Role of System Analyst differs from organization to organization. Most common responsibilities of System Analyst are following:

1) System analysis: It includes system's study in order to get facts about business activity. It is about getting information and determining requirements. Here the responsibility includes only requirement determination, not the design of the system.

2) System analysis and design: Here apart from the analysis work, Analyst is also responsible for the designing of the new system/application.

3) Systems analysis, design, and programming: Here Analyst is also required to perform as a programmer, where he actually writes the code to implement the design of the proposed application.

Due to the various responsibilities that a system analyst requires to handle, he has to be multifaceted person with varied skills required at various stages of the life cycle. The technical know-how of the information system development a system analyst should also have the following knowledge. [Just a review]

Business knowledge: As the analyst might have to develop any kind of a business system, he should be familiar with the general functioning of all kind of businesses.

Interpersonal skills: Such skills are required at various stages of development process for interacting with the users and extracting the requirements out of them

Problem solving skills: A system analyst should have enough problem solving skills for defining the alternate solutions to the system and also for the problems occurring at the various stages of the development process.

I have read an article by HM Winning (The Role of Business Analyst), let me quote what she had written into her article regarding being a Business Systems Analyst who has taken various technical roles.

"On the IT side, if a business got the chance to know me they were happy (I was eventually "stolen" from IT by my the client.) Otherwise, they felt that the BA role was there to add another layer of billing to their project and that there would be minimal value. Now that I'm on the business side IT can't shut me out but I am viewed with suspicion....If I didn't have the IT experience I wouldn't have been able to walk into my current role and be as comfortable as I am so quickly. It was my prior role in business that led me to IT because I thought technology had the answers to just about any business question and problem. I think individuals working in the role of BA on both the IT side and business side have a unique opportunity to define and develop the role. We have the unique ability to "step outside and look in". We are not married to any particular technology, theory or methodology. We bring with us both business and technological experience and are open to learning from one another. We need to look within and to understand, as individuals, where we can provide the most value using our unique backgrounds. We need to approach each situation in a neutral fashion. We're the diplomats and the translators and we are in one of the best positions to actively participate in the creation of new and exciting cutting edge solutions. "

- This is how broad a Systems Analyst knowledge should be. Aside from th knowledge, experience also counts!

The role of a Systems Analyst as a Project Manager is to develop requirements, budgets, and schedules for their firm’s information technology projects. They coordinate such projects from development through implementation, working with the organization’s IT workers, as well as clients, vendors, and consultants. These managers are increasingly involved in projects that upgrade the information security of an organization.

Outputs of our interview with Mr James Bautista of SAMULCO regarding this subject

A Systems ANalyst as a Project MAnager is of course the person responsible for managing the project. And he is responsible for accomplishing the project objectives within the constraints of the project. He is responsible for the outcome(success or failure) of the project.

-A Systems Analyst as a Project Manager is responsible for identifying, monitoring, and responding to risk.
**This is very important he said, because the Systems Analyst should be a risk-taker in a smart way. He let us define what is 'risk' for us but he answered his own question he answered that risk is a possibility of a loss. In every move that a Systems Analyst take, there are so many risks involve. HE said that we can never stop a risk from coming but we can prepare on how it will affect us. He emphasized the importance of this characteristic by sharing to us the murphy's law which states that 'If something can go wrong, it will, and it will hit you in the most inappropriate time.' A Systems Analyst knows and understands that murphy's law will exist forever. A good Systems Analyst should be able to identify, analyze and detect the risk that might be involve on his plans. A good Systems Analyst should also be able to take the risk.
He had also shared 4 ways to deal with risks:
Tolerate - these are risks that won't affect you so much.
Terminate
Treat - prepare or aid the risks.
Transfer

-A Systems Analyst as a Project Manager collects metrics data(such as baseline, actual values for costs, schedule, work in progress, and work completed) & reports on project progress and other project specific information to stakeholders. He is also responsible to the project stakeholders for delivering a project’s objectives within scope, schedule, cost, and quality.

**Sir James Bautista always provide this reports specially during the annual general assembly of SAMULCO.

- A Systems Analyst as a Project Manager is involved with the planning, controlling and monitoring, and also managing and directing the assigned project resources to best meet project objectives. He controls and monitors “triple constraints”—project scope, time and cost(quality also)—in managing competing project requirements. He also examines the organizational culture and determine whether project management is recognized as a valid role with accountability and authority for managing the project.

References:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/business-analyst/the-role-of-business-analyst-3357
http://leadershipchamps.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/roles-and-responsibilities-of-a-project-manager/
http://www.freetutes.com/systemanalysis/role-of-system-analyst.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_System_Analyst_an_its_responsibilities

Evidences shall follow... I dont have the copy of the pictures yet.

Radical type of change

2009-12-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

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

Change can take many forms; it can be planned or unplanned, incremental or radical , and recurrent or unprecedented. Trends in the process or sequence of changes can be observed over time. These trends can be accelerating or decelerating in time, and they can move toward equilibrium, oscillation, chaos, or randomness in the behavior of the organizational enitity being examined. Thus, the basic concept of organization change involves three ideas: difference, at different temporal moments, between states of an organizational unit or system.

Automation
-Mechanizing procedures to speed up the performance of existing tasks.
-most common form of IT-enabled change
-involves assisting employees perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively
-akin to putting a larger motor in an existing vehicle

Rationalization of Procedures
-The streamlining of existing operating procedures, eliminating obvious bottlenecks so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient
-follows quickly from early automation
[size=10] [Toshiba had to rationalize its procedures down to the level of installation manuals and software instruction and had to create standard names and formats for the data items in its global data warehouse. Without a large amount of business process rationalization, computer technology would have been useless at Toshiba (what ERPs do) ]

Business Reengineering
-The radical redesign of business processes, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks to improve cost, quality, and service and to maximize the benefits of information technology
-Involves radical rethinking
-Can change the way an organization conducts its business
-Strikes fear, its expensive, its very risky and its extremely difficult to carry out and manage
-Develop the business vision and process objective

Business Process Re-engineering Steps:
-Identify the processes to be redesigned (core and highest payback)
-Understand and measure the performance of existing processes
-Identify the opportunities for applying information technology
-Build a prototype of the new process

Paradigm Shifts
-Radical reconceptualization of the nature of the business and the nature of the organization
-akin to rethinking not only the automobile, but transportation itself
-e-business is a paradigm shift
-Deciding which business process to get right is half the challenge
-70% of time programmatic reengineering efforts fail
-Why then change? Because the rewards are high!

Each kinds of structural organizational change that are enabled by IT carries different rewards and risks. The most common form of IT-enabled organizational change or the first phase of IT adoption is automation. This has allowed employees to automate a number of time-consuming and error-prone activities and gain benefits in cycle-time, productivity, and accuracy. For example, a main contractor makes use of standalone software to keep track all Request For Information (RFI) in a project.

A deeper form of organization change or the second phase of IT adoption is rationalization of procedures. Automation frequently reveals bottlenecks in production and makes the existing arrangement of procedures and structures painfully cumbersome. Rationalization of procedures involves the streamlining of standard operating procedures, which eliminates obvious bottlenecks, so that operating procedures become more efficient. Roughly speaking, it is a process of fine tuning the first step. For example, the main contractor implements an intranet and standardizes the data in RFI across all projects in the enterprise.

A more powerful type of organizational change or the third phase of IT adoption is business process reengineering, in which business processes are analyzed, simplified, and redesigned. Reengineering involves radically rethinking the flow of work and the construction business processes with the intention to radically reduce the costs of businesses. Using IT, organizations can rethink and streamline their business processes to improve speed, service, and quality. Business process reengineering reorganizes workflows, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks. It is much more ambitious than rationalization of procedures because it requires a new vision of how the process is to be organized. For example, the main contractor sets up an extranet to online collaborate with the architect for the RFI process.

Paradigm Shift is the fourth kind of structural organizational change that are enabled by IT. It is a dramatic change in methodology or practice. It often refers to a major change in thinking and planning, which ultimately changes the way projects are implemented. For example, accessing applications and data from the Web instead of from local servers is a paradigm shift.

Not many construction industry players have moved beyond the first phase of automation. However, there are some companies have committed to a continuing investment in technological advancement and organizational change. By changing how they are organized and do business, they have achieved far greater benefits than available through automation alone. Companies like this have succeeded in staying ahead of their competitors not merely by automating but by changing their organization as well. Their strategic advantage has been their preparedness and ability to continually be innovative, and to manage the change necessary to gain substantial business benefits.

The changes in technology has impact the whole sectors and even the whole society. This is because the changes take place at system level, involving technology and market shifts. This involves the convergence of a number of trends which result in a 'paradigm shift' where the old order is replaced. For example, the invention of computer has long been replaced the usage of a typewriter, and since after the appearance of this computer, scenario of the workplace has changed significantly. We can see that all the work can be done in a short time. Computer has become a crucial tool in any office in the world. There are many examples of the technology advances such as the internet, e-business, mobile phone and many more that makes every activities becomes faster and easier. Therefore, based on my readings the most radical type of change are all of the aforementioned structural organizational change, beginning from Automation (wherein an organization will adopt what's the latest technology) proceeds Rationalization of Procedures (which eliminates bottleneck to make automation efficient) followed by Business Process Re engineering (which maximizes the benefits of IT) and lastly is the Paradigm shift (which is a transformation driven by change).

References:

http://www.softlogic.org/blog/

http://quantifactus.wcupa.edu/mis601/chapter14.ppt

http://alexandra.di.uoa.gr/courses/mis/docs/lecture6.ppt

Systems Development Models

2009-12-17T13:34:00.000-08:00

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

A Process Model
Software process models are universal approaches to organize projects into actions. Regularly represents a system series of activities, objects, transformations, and events that symbolize strategies for accomplishing software evolution. These models can be used in developing more precise and formalized descriptions of software life cycle activities.

The Traditional Process Models
Based on the resources that I have read there the traditional process models are the following:
1. The Classic Software Life Cycle (Waterfall Model)
• Frequently embodied as a simple prescriptive waterfall software phase model, where software evolution proceeds through an orderly sequence of transitions from one phase to the next in order (Royce 1970). Going back to the previously finished phase, as well as skipping a phase are not allowed on this model.

2. Stepwise Refinement Model
• Developing software systems through the progressive refinement and enhancement of high-level system specifications into source code components (Wirth 1971, Mili1986). However, the choice and order of which steps to choose and which refinements to apply remain unstated.

3. The Incremental Release Model
• Developing systems through incremental release requires first providing essential operating functions, then providing system users with improved and more capable versions of a system at regular intervals (Basili 1975). This model combines the classic software life cycle with iterative enhancement at the level of system development organization.

4. Military Standards Based Model
• Industrial firms often adopt some variation of the classic model as the basis for standardizing their software development practices (Royce 1970, Boehm 1976, Distaso 1980, Humphrey 1985, Scacchi 1984, Somerville 1999). Such standardization is often motivated by needs to simplify or eliminate complications that emerge during large software development or project management.

5. Build-and-fix Model
• Adopted from an earlier and simpler age of hardware product development. The product’s overall quality is never really addressed, even though some of the development issues are ultimately corrected. Also, there is no way to feed back to the design process any proactive improvement approaches.

6. Spiral Model
• An enhancement of the waterfall/rapid prototype model, with risk analysis preceding each phase of the cascade. This model has been successfully used for the internal development of large systems and is especially useful when software reuse is a goal and when specific quality objectives can be incorporated. Like the other extensions of and improvements to the waterfall model, it adds feedback to earlier stages.

7. Iterative Development Model (Evolutionary Model)
• The most realistic of the traditional software development models. Rather than being open-loop like build-and-fix or the original waterfall models, it has continuous feedback between each stage and the prior one.

Rapid prototyping and extreme programming are processes that have more recently augmented the waterfall model.

• Rapid Prototyping- long been used in the development of one-off programs, based on the familiar model of the chemical engineer’s pilot plant. More recently it has been used to prototype larger systems in two variants—the “throwaway” model and the “operational” model, which is really the incremental model. This development process produces a program that performs some essential or perhaps typical set of functions for the final product.

• Extreme Programming - recent development of the incremental model that puts the client in the driver’s seat. Each feature or feature set of the final product envisioned by the client and the development team is individually scoped for cost and development time. This development model is distinguished by its flexibility because it can work in the face of a high degree of specification ambiguity on the user’s part.

• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) technology- not a software development model. However, OOP does enhance the effectiveness of earlier software development models intended for procedural programming languages, because it allows the development of applications by slices rather than by layers. The central ideas of OOP are encapsulation and polymorphism, which dramatically reduce complexity and increase program reusability.

Each of these models uses comprehensive characterizations when describing software evolution. These models are independent of any organizational development setting, choice of programming language, software application domain, etc. To be brief, the traditional models are context-free rather than context-sensitive. But as all of these life cycle models have been in use for some time, they are referred as the traditional models, and characterizes each in turn.

Process Models in Recent Times
1. Rational Unified Process
• Characterized by a set of software best practices and the extensive application of use cases. Its most important advantage is its iterative process that allows changes in functional requirements also to be accommodated as they inevitably change during system development. Not only do external circumstances reflect changes to the design, but also the user’s understanding of system functionality becomes clearer as that functionality develops.

2. Capability Maturity Model
• An organizational maturity model, not a specific technology model. Maturity involves continuous process improvement based on evaluation of iterative execution, gathering results, and analyzing metrics. As such, it has a very broad universe of application.

Strengths/Weaknesses of the Process Models

Model	Strength	Weakness
Classic Software Lifecycle (Waterfall)	Disciplined, document-driven	Result may not satisfy client
Stepwise Refinement Model	Effective and widely applied in helping to teach individual programmers how to organize their software development work	Choice and order of which steps to choose and which refinements to apply remain unstated
Incremental Release Model	Promotes maintainability	Can degenerate build-and-fix
Military Standards Based Model	Simplify or eliminate complications that emerge during large software development or project management.	Organized software development activities according to succession of military software standards
Build-and-fix Model	Okay for small one-off programs	Useless for large programs
Spiral Model	Ultimate Waterfall Model	Large system in-house development only
Iterative Development Model	Can be used by OOP	May allow overiteration
Rapid Prototyping	Guarantees Client Satisfaction	May not work for large applications
Extreme Prototyping	Early return on software development	Has not yet been widely used
OOP Technology	Supported by IDE tools	May lack discipline
Rational Unified Process	-Well supported by tools -Supports OOP development	-Expensive to maintain - High training costs
Capability Maturity Model	-Provides process guidelines -Documentation facilitated, comprehensive, detailed	- Some firms may seek to gain certification without process redesign

References:

Anon, 199?. Software Development Methodology Today[Online] Available at: http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/0131872508/samplechapter/0131872508_ch01.pdf

John Wiley and Sons, Inc, New York, December 2001. Process Models in Software Engineering[Online](Updated October 2001) Available at: www.ics.uci.edu/~wscacchi/Papers/SE.../Process-Models-SE-Encyc.pdf

Skills and Characteristics of a Systems Analyst -- in an SA's point of view

2009-12-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

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.

On Venus Millena's ___th birthday --- December 16,2009 --- some of my classmates and I went to SAMULCO and heard the SAMULCO's MIS Supervisor --Sir James Bautista -- point of view regarding the skills and characteristics a Systems Analyst should develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process. He first had his sort of a review regarding the question "What skills and characteristics must a systems analyst develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process?".

After 5 minutes of review, the beautiful and knowledge filled discussion had started. He first defined that Systems Analysis is a plan for future purposes, scalability purposes and that a Systems Analyst is the one who solves problems or certain issues that an organization has.

Sir James Bautista had then enumerated the skills and characteristics that a systems analyst should develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process, and these are the following:(These are subjective, it differs from other Systems Analyst)

Flexible - a systems analyst should be flexible to be prepared for the rapid changing technology that we have.

Should have enough knowledge in Systems Integration / Systems Development - if you have the experience of developing system you wil have the idea of how to do it, what to do, what's there, what's not there, what's there to fix, etc. System Analysts should start with something small, he associated the carpenter who starts to build small houses, he said that SA should also start with something small, such as programming small-scales. He also imparted to us his thought that a Systems Analyst should have a 'part' or experience of every task such as in documentation team, developing team, quality assurance team, communication team and the likes. Because if he lacks something on those skills there is a possibility that the Systems Analyst won't be effective in doing his job.

Should have both holistic and systematic approach - a holistic approach looks at the whole picture. The totality of something is much greater than the sum of its component parts and they cannot be understood by the isolated examination of their parts. While a systematic approach is more of a philosophy than a technique. It's the way one approaches problems in life, as opposed to the specific solutions that exist. Given a certain problem, one has many choices as to how to solve it. However, approaching the problem haphazardly, may or may not solve the problem. But, approaching the problem with the analytical approach, one is more likely to find the solution to the problem. How one can approach the problem analytically, or systematically, depends on how one views the problem. This is what is often called Analysis, and is really the same thing as breaking the problem down, sometimes referred to as "Divide and Conquer." By breaking down a problem, one can see the various aspects of the problem, and how they inter-relate, and by isolating the causative factors in the problem, one can find the solution to the problem. A Systematic Approach can be used in many areas, such as, systems analysis, software development, (which are part of the software development life cycle), internet site design, web optimization, hosting, business management and consulting, sales, and training. He emphasized that both approaches or views should be a character of a Systems Analyst.

Should have a skill on Calculating Risks - this is very important he said, because the Systems Analyst should be a risk-taker in a smart way. He let us define what is 'risk' for us but he answered his own question he answered that risk is a possibility of a loss. In every move that a Systems Analyst take, there are so many risks involve. HE said that we can never stop a risk from coming but we can prepare on how it will affect us. He emphasized the importance of this characteristic by sharing to us the murphy's law which states that 'If something can go wrong, it will, and it will hit you in the most inappropriate time.' A Systems Analyst knows and understands that murphy's law will exist forever. A good Systems Analyst should be able to identify, analyze and detect the risk that might be involve on his plans. A good Systems Analyst should also be able to take the risk.
** He had also shared 4 ways to deal with risks:
Tolerate - these are risks that won't affect you so much.
Terminate
Treat - prepare or aid the risks.
Transfer

Should be a people person/ Good Communication Skills -A good systems analyst should be able to communicate to other people.

Should have high Adversity Quotient (A.Q.) - Sir James mentioned that Intelligent Quotient and Emotional Quotient will never be used in Systems Planning, because the Adversity Quotient is what matters. Adversity Quotient test the unconscious pattern of how people respond to adversity/problems, and show how to increase it and, thereby, help individuals become valuable at work.

These skills can not be easily learned or acquired in a one sitting, it is built through experience. Therefore, systems analyst are not born they are made.

References:
http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/501-550/article517_body.html
http://www.systematicapproach.com/

Expedite the implementation of the IS plan

2009-12-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

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.

Preparing an Information Systems Plan for the university is a very challenging task because a lot of things are to be considered when we talk of Information System Planning. Planning for information systems, as for any other system, begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. Such planning for information systems is much like strategic planning in management. Objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. The plan must be specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary. There was an article which contains an argument that a strategic capability architecture - a flexible and continuously improving infrastructure of organizational capabilities - is the primary basis for a company's sustainable competitive advantage. It has emphasized the need for continuously updating and improving the strategic capabilities architecture.

Some characteristics of strategic IS planning are:

• Main task: strategic/competitive advantage, linkage to business strategy.
• Key objective: pursuing opportunities, integrating IS and business strategies
• Direction from: executives/senior management and users, coalition of users/management and information systems.
• Main approach: entrepreneurial (user innovation), multiple (bottom-up development, top down analysis, etc.) at the same time.

Implementing the proposed Information Systems Plan is ,in my own perspective, the second toughest thing to do in Information Systems Planning. All the hard works starting from the identification of needs, then formalizing the objectives, priorities, and authorization for the information systems project, and all the necessary things needed to be done in planning information systems will not be appreciated if the said information systems plan will not be properly implemented or worst, will never be implemented because of some user resistance. Thus, in an information systems planning, steps for implementing the proposed information systems plan should be included -- which is in fact already the situation but I just wanted to emphasize why it should be included.hehe

One of the important factors in implementing the Information Systems Plan is that it should be useful so that there will be no user resistance and the organization itself will be satisfied and be convinced to implement the proposed information systems plan. Let me present to you a table of the 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.

Characteristic	Description
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.

Whenever a proposal for the development of an ISP is created it must be assessed against these five characteristics. If any fail or not addressed in an optimum way, the entire set of funds for the development of an ISP is risked.

In my own reflection, to expedite the implementation of the proposed Information Systems Plan, it should be totally supported by all -- 'all' means including the students, the board of directors, the faculty and everyone who will be affected by this plan. But how can it be supported by the students if the students are not informed about it? Or the information disseminated to the students are not enough? Which might make the students misunderstood the ISP, in result they will resist from implementing it. Hence, informing the students or having a proper conference regarding this matter would be very helpful for the students to be enlightened and even have their questions answered. This also should be done for other concerns not only for the students, I have just specified the students as an instance since I am a student, hehe. In addition, the budget should also be properly allocated. We all know that money can speed up things, in one way or another. Lastly, the proposed Information Systems Plan should be very convincing and properly planned so that it will deserve a nod to everyone.

References:

http://viu.eng.rpi.edu/publications/strpaper.pdf

http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262

Characteristics of a Systems Analyst

2009-12-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

Since we are talking about characteristics here, I would like to start this post with a quote from Samuel Johnson (an English author) that says: “Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind .”

Systems Analysis?
Systems Analysis is a process of understanding in detail what a system should accomplish. It is about understanding the goals and strategies of the business and defining the information requirements that support those goals and strategies. Most importantly, systems analysis is not about programming.

Now, what is the key role of a Systems Analyst?
A Systems Analyst serves as a business professional who uses analysis and design techniques to solve business problems using information technology. As we all know information technology is the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware, which deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information. The typical problems a systems analyst solves are:
Customers want to order product anytime of the day.
Suppliers want to minimize inventory holding costs.
Marketing wants to know customer needs better.
Management want to analyze financial information more efficiently.

Systems Analyst Required Skills
Understanding the goals and strategies of a business and defining the information requirements that support those goals and strategies are a mighty hard task done by a Systems Analyst. This task requires specific skills and these are: Technical Knowledge, Business Knowledge and People Knowledge.

Technical Knowledge and Skills
A Systems Analyst should have technical knowledge and skills in both tools and techniques. When we say technical knowledge and skills in tools, he/she should be acquainted or has knowledge with computers / peripheral devices (hardware) ,communication networks and connectivity, database and database management systems (DBMS), programming languages (for example, VB.NET or Java), operating systems and utilities, software productivity packages, integrated development environments (IDEs) for programming languages, and CASE tools, testing, documentation support, reverse engineering, configuration management. On the other hand, when we say technical knowledge and skills in techniques, he/she should be acquainted or has knowledge with project planning, systems analysis, systems design, database design, network design, construction, implementation, and systems support.

Business Knowledge and Skills
A Systems Analyst’ primary task is to solve business problems, thus he/she should know the business functions performed by the organization. Some of these are:
-Strategies, plans, traditions, and values of the organization
-Organizational structure
-Organization management techniques
-Functional work processes

People Knowledge and Skills
Systems analysts need to understand how people think, learn, react to change, communicate, and work (in a variety of jobs and levels). Interpersonal and communication skills are crucial in obtaining information, motivating people, getting cooperation, understanding the complexity and workings of an organization in order to provide necessary support.

Characteristics of a good Systems Analyst
Allow me to relate this element to my very first sentence of this post, which is one of the quotations of Samuel Johnson. In his quote, he pointed out that curiosity is a characteristic to have a vigorous mind. Being a Systems Analyst, in my point of view, needs a vigorous mind hence I would say that a Systems Analyst have to be curious or inquisitive. Remember that a Systems Analyst needs to obtain the organizations’ goals and objective and define the information requirement, in defining the information requirements one needs to be inquisitive, that proves the importance of the said characteristic on being a Systems Analyst. However, let me show you Yahoo! Answer’s result on the question ‘Explain five characteristic of a good system analyst?’:

1. The system analyst must be able to communicate in writing and orally.

2. The analyst must easily get along with people.

3. The analyst must be a good listener and be able to react to what people say.

4. The analyst must be knowledgeable of technology. The analyst is not expected to know the intricacies of programming, but a decent general knowledge of concepts and terms are essential.

5. The analyst must be knowledgeable of business. The analyst is not expected to be an expert in business but a decent understanding of the client's world is required.

After I have read the aforementioned answers, I was actually a bit bewildered with the terminology ‘skills’ and ‘characteristics’ because it seems that the required skills of a Systems Analyst was also brought up in the characteristics of a Systems Analyst. For that reason, I decided to consult Encarta and define the two terminologies. Below are the results:
Skills – ability to do something well.
Characteristics – a feature or quality that makes something or somebody recognizable.

After defining the two terminologies, I now understand why some of the mentioned skills are also brought up in the characteristics. Because the skills of a System Analyst are indeed a part of characteristics or the feature that a Systems Analyst should obtain.
Therefore, I have come up with my list of the characteristics of a System Analyst based on my understanding on Chapter 1 Sharing, a Systems Analyst should be/have:
Technical Knowledge and Skills
Business Knowledge and Skills
People Knowledge and Skills
Inquisitive
Critical/Logical Thinker
Able to adjust to rapidly changing technology
Patient
Perseverance
Methodical
Broad-minded

I could have written more but I think it will be redundant because the first three characteristics actually sums up the characteristics of a Systems Analyst. Many computer systems analysts have a bachelor's degree in computer science, information science, or management information systems. Some analysts get college degrees in other subjects. Then, they take computer classes and get computer experience. Some analysts also have a master's degree in business. This helps them to understand the types of computers that businesses need. Analysts need to understand computers, math, and planning. They need to know math so that they can solve problems and figure out how much computer power different systems would use. Logical thinking skills are also important. Analysts need good speaking and writing skills, too, so that they can explain their systems and give good instructions.

Characteristics I have as a good system analyst
I am currently still studying the required skills of a System Analyst. The good thing though is that while I am still learning the three knowledge and skills, in the process my patience, perseverance, curiosity, flexibility, and critical thinking are also being honed. Through the help of project proposals which are checked meticulously and through giving us other brain and attitude honing projects.

References:
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/characteristics/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080725042042AA2MqMh
http://www.bls.gov/K12/computers06.htm

10 years from now

2009-11-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

Think about yourself worthy to be called as IT professional, how do you see yourself 10 years from now, what are your strategies to get there?

I have to finish my studies in Bachelor of Science in Information Technology by the year 2011. Four years ago when I found out that Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering is not offered here in our university -- University of Southeastern Philippines-- and when I decided to just enroll as a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology student, I actually planned to finish my studies in Bachor of Science in Information Technology by the year 2010. But unfortunately because of my negligence, that foresaid plan failed, hence I planned to fail.

Anyway, after I graduate, I would like to create a system suited to help a treasurers' tasks in an organization. Specifically in producing reports such as: Cash Position Report, Summary of Collections, Summary of Disbursements, Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, Monthly Spread and the likes. I wanted to create this kind of system because my Aunt is a treasurer in a small developing organization and she sometimes asks me to lend a hand in recording some of the transactions and sometimes produce a report out of it (of course, she'll check it first if I have done it correctly.hehe). I find it bothersome to do some of the encoding whenever the thought that it could actually be automated crosses my mind, especially typing names repetitively (who are members of the organization) and the balancing part. So I promised to myself that I will create a system that caters to that kind of service, or a system that will actually automate all the reports that my Aunt needs to produce as a treasurer. In creating this kind of system I could actually be able to review and put into application what I have studied for five years. If ever I will be successful in creating this system it will eventually boost my confidence and I will be convinced that I am worthy to be called an IT professional or an IT Specialist, in a nutshell the accomplishment of this system will be my very first achievement as an IT Professional.

I plan to take my masteral degree, but until now I am not sure if it will be right after I graduate or will it be after I finish the system. But I would really like to take it only after I finish the system, what is boggling me is the thought that I would be so captivated in creating systems and as a result I will keep on postponing on taking my masteral degree. Oh, just now, after stating the previous sentences I realized that I should take my masteral degree right after i graduate (hehe) and maybe start creating the system (the paperworks to start with) during my free time in my masterals’. In that way, I could still apply in my system what I will learn during the masteral and I could spend my free time productively and not on senseless matters.

Those are the first two things that I wanted to fulfill after I graduate as a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology student. Hopefully I could achieve those by the year 2013, that is two years after graduating Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. However, if I will not be fascinated and engrossed with creating systems, if the 'i-want-more' attitude of mine will occur and my interest in taking up Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering is still alive, then I will surely enroll as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering student in a university who is known to produce great Computer Engineers! In addition, I will make sure that while I am studying BSComEng I will have a part-time online job -- a job that is somehow related and fitted to a person who had finished her Masteral Degree in IT. It could be an online job under the leading Internet search engine, offering targeted search results from billions of Web pages, no less than the Google Inc. Eventually, my position and/or my income will buildup. Within five years or less, I will be able to finish BSComEng, currently there is no licensure examination for Computer Engineers but if ever there will be on the years to come I will surely take that licensure examination. So by the year 2019, I will be a regular and one of the most treasured employee of Google Inc.

Before this post ends, I would just like to share what Tom Landry (an American football player and coach, legendary for his successes as the coach of the Dallas Cowboys and ranked as one of the greatest and most innovative coaches in NFL history) said: "Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan."

References:

http://finance.aol.com/company/google-inc/goog/nas/company-description

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Landry

ISNA Submitted

2009-10-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

What a relief! We have submitted our ISNA yesterday. Sir RSG gave our ISNA a grade of 1.75. We are so happy that at last..after those sleepless nights... we have finally finished and submitted our ISNA.

Thank you groupmates namely, Edsa Fe Esio and Emilio Jopia Jr. for the cooperation and understanding. Thank for our family and friens who financially and emotionally supported us. Thank you Sir RSG for appreciating our effort. Lastly, I thank HIM, for everything. :)

ISNA First Consultation

2009-10-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

We had our first ever consultation on our Information Systems Needs Assessment.

My feeling was so unexplainable... I haven't eaten my breakfast.. I was confused on what I felt..

Was I nervous because of the consultation? or I was just trembling because I skip my breakfast?

Anyway, I had surpassed the feeling.. *sigh of relief*

Our ISNA's temporary grade is 2.5, but it will increase if we will do the revision that our professor suggested. We immediately revised it because that was just a minor revision, just for spacing, justifying and omitting a paragraph..And yeah, a comma for the denomination.

We ringbound the ISNA and we are ready to pass it, after we finish our assignments. :)

SWOT and STEEP Documentation

2009-09-28T02:08:00.000-07:00

Our group agreed to meet today (oh well, yesterday) for us to continue our documentation for our major paper. Supposedly, we had to meet 2:00 pm at McDonalds Bajada but due to some circumstances we had started our documentation 6:30 pm. We divided the task, the SWOT analysis was assigned to Edsa and Emilio, and the STEEP analysis was assigned to Karen. The first 3 hours of our documentation was going well but the next hours were strenuous.

It was already 12:00 am when we left at McDonald.

Final Interview on ANFLOCOR

2009-09-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

On this day, we had our interview at ANFLOCOR. We arrived there at 12:30 pm and we had to wait 30 minutes because office time is 1:00 pm.

We had so many questions that we asked from Mr. Giovanni Pimentel, the IT-Senior Manager of ANFLOCOR. The questions were more about on STEEP and SWOT analysis. We asked him about the Sociological, Technological, Economical, Environmental, and Political factors that are external to the organization. Then, we asked him about the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of their organization. We also asked him about the structure of their company and a brief history of there IS.

We ended our interview at 2:30 pm.

Follow-up interview approved,

2009-09-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

During the last few days we have been checking our email account but there is still no reply from Sir Giovanni. So we decided to call them. Fortunately, we were able to talked to Sir Giovanni. We first asked for an apology (thank God! He understands.). Finally, we will have our interview this Friday, September 25, 2009 at 1:00 pm.

2009-09-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

We sent an email to Sir Giovanni, saying sorry and we also asked for a reschedule of our interview… if we can still. *hopefully*

2009-09-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

We checked our email and read Sir Giovanni’s reply which was sent on September 10, 2009. Sir Giovanni said that he will be vacant on September 11, 2009 at 1pm. Since, September 11 had already passed and we weren’t able to be there, we felt sorry for ourselves and we were so downhearted and afraid that Sir Giovanni might not allow us to conduct an interview with him anymore. :(

2009-09-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

We went at ANFLOCOR before 8:00 in the morning. Sir Giovanni has not yet arrived and the girl on the reception said that Sir Giovanni will be having an important meeting on that morning, so we might not be entertained. Sir Giovanni’s secretary said that we really cant be entertained so she gave their contact number for us to call and confirm our next interview.

Later that day, we checked our email and figured out that Sir Giovanni had actually sent us a message telling that we can interview him 1pm that day.

Information Environment

2009-09-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

I had a hard time dealing with this question.. I honestly don't understand what exactly an information environment is. I have tried surfing for those terms, and read some of my classmates answers, hoping that I could understand it. But I am still not sure if my understanding is correct.

Allow me to state what I understand about this 'information environment'. I think it is a place or field wherein you gain information or knowledge. I am so much confused if it's really just a 'field to gain information' or is it a 'field to enhance a specific knowledge'. Most of my classmates answered 'professions', so maybe Information Environment is a field wherein we enhance and/or practice our knowledge.

Well then, my information environment would be either on SYSTEM DEVELOPING or INTERNET/WEB DESIGNING, or NETWORK SPECIALIST.

SYSTEM DEVELOPING

Popular titles are Programmer, Systems analyst or System Developer. They create, manage and maintain software programs. To create such programs you need to learn and master the art using programming languages (code). Popular programming languages are Visual Basic, C++ and Java. It involves gathering requirements, coding and testing.

Programmers create software products based on identified market needs, and or specific user requirements. This allows a lot of room for creative ability and innovative thinking while working to specifications and standards. In performing systems analysis, you interact with users, observe their workflow and attempt to create models that will satisfy the user. It means a certain degree of conceptualization is required. To give the user what the user wants, the analyst must know the working requirements of the user, sometimes to the minute details. You need to love paying attention to details.

Analysts in some organizations may not necessarily start out with a computing background. Often people bring their previous job experience to work with the programming team in understanding user requirements. A programmer may be involved in analysis, or may strictly focus on programming, or both. This depends entirely on the working environment.

Programming, just like engineering design requires logical thinking, attention to detail and the ability to focus for long periods. Although programming routines tend to be more predictable than jobs with a fair amount of troubleshooting, it can be quite intensive with regard to self-development. You must be ready to keep learning programming languages/tools/updates because of continuous enhancements in the way programs are written.

I am not so good on this one but I do have fun programming our machine problems, although sometimes it doesn't end successfully. One of the challenges being a System Developer is having the patience debugging the errors.

INTERNET/WEB DESIGNING

Web sites are coming up all the time all over the world. Web professionals develop and maintain web pages and web sites on the Internet. Internet design and development is a combination of two skill sets: Programming as well as art/graphic design. Web development can be regarded as a special form of programming. Web developers are involved in creating models, graphic designs, web page designs, testing and troubleshooting.

Web development requires creativity and attention to detail. Although programming skills are important, it is also vital that the Web developer has a flair for presentation and aesthetics. Web development in addition involves a fair amount of testing and problem solving.

This is a bit harder than System Developing since it includes graphic designing. I get encouraged doing this because of designing, when you see the result..whoa! So self-satisfying! In this information environment, my role should be the web designer..hmm, what i mean is only with the design..hehe..not with functionality.. but if i could..then why not!

The challenge as a Web Designer, is that you got to think on how will it look good while performing its function. There is tendency that your web will get ruined because of the design.

NETWORK SPECIALIST

With the growth of the Internet, driven primarily by the merging of Communications and Computers, there is a growing demand for individuals skilled in the technical aspects of this unique convergence. Networking is an area of IT that is developing rapidly, especially with new developments in wireless and mobile computing. No wonder the fastest growing sector in IT now is that of Wireless networking.

Networking encompasses Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and Internet. Networking facilitates communications and the sharing of resources using IT. Just like the Engineer, the Network Engineer is involved in the design, maintenance and troubleshooting of all aspects of the Network environment - Network equipment, the physical Network, Network connections, Network management and Network Software. Popular Networking names and products include Microsoft Windows, Novell Netware, Banyan, US Robotics, Appletalk, Cisco, Agere, Orinoco, 3COM and Linux.

The Network professional not only deploys networks but must also ensure reliability and consistency of the network by handling problems efficiently, and reducing the risk of network failure. You're also expected to keep abreast of the latest in computers and network technology. The job can therefore be quite demanding as you should not only be flexible enough to provide service at any time, but as a network professional you should be expect to work long hours, weekends inclusive. This is a good position for those with problem-solving and analytical thinking skills.

References:
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.jidaw.com/myitcareer.html
http://rsg0927.forumsmotion.com/management-information-systems-1-f1/assignment-10-due-before-september-26-2008-1300hrs-t168.htm

USeP IS -Insource or Outsource?

2009-08-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

As a student, you were invited by the Dean of the Institute of Computing to attend a seminar-workshop on information systems planning with some of the faculty members. In one of the sessions, a discussion of outsourcing came up. You have been asked to present your evaluation about outsourcing the information systems functions of the school.
Required:
You are to take a position- outsource or in-source and justify your position.

Overview about insourcing and outsourcing:

Insourcing is the opposite of outsourcing; that is insourcing (or contracting in) is often defined as the delegation of operations or jobs from production within a business to an internal (but 'stand-alone') entity that specializes in that operation. Insourcing is a business decision that is often made to maintain control of critical production or competencies. An alternate use of the term implies transferring jobs to within the country where the term is used, either by hiring local subcontractors or building a facility. - http://en.wikipedia.org

Outsourcing is subcontracting a service such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour. Outsourcing in the information technology field has two meanings. One is to commission the development of an application to another organization, usually a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The other is to hire the services of another company to manage all or parts of the services that otherwise would be rendered by an IT unit of the organization. Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider. The client organization and the supplier enter into a contractual agreement that defines the transferred services. Under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. The client agrees to procure the services from the supplier for the term of the contract. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions like telemarketing, CAD drafting, customer service, market research, manufacturing, designing, web development, print-to-mail, content writing, ghostwriting and engineering. Offshoring is the type of outsourcing in which the buyer organization belongs to another country. Outsourcing and offshoring are used interchangeably in public discourse despite important technical differences. Outsourcing involves contracting with a supplier, which may or may not involve some degree of offshoring. Offshoring is the transfer of an organizational function to another country, regardless of whether the work is outsourced or stays within the same corporation/company.- http://en.wikipedia.org

My Stand:
Outsourcing
As mentioned in the overview outsourcing is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business. Since our university can't seem to have enough budget to insource, I opt to outsource. Besides, contracting an expert who is already employed in the university might be complicated, as what I have noticed and observed. We are aware that one of our instructors is one of the experts contracted by the university to create systems. It was more than once that his class has been transferred to other classes for him to (I think) concentrate on making the system. Additionally, this will serve as an opportunity to broaden our horizon by learning from the work of people outsede the school's control. So what I'm saying is, since this is a school, as a learning institution they should put attention into what it does best, educating students. Additionally, outsourcing creates a competitive environment where different institions would have to compete for the project. Since more and more are competing, the cost would become cheaper. This is also an opportunity to broaden our horizon by learning from the work of people outside the school's control.

I have also browsed through the internet top 7 advantages of outsourcing:

1. Focus On Core Activities
In rapid growth periods, the back-office operations of a company will expand also. This expansion may start to consume resources (human and financial) at the expense of the core activities that have made your company successful. Outsourcing those activities will allow refocusing on those business activities that are important without sacrificing quality or service in the back-office.

2. Cost And Efficiency Savings
Back-office functions that are complicated in nature, but the size of your company is preventing you from performing it at a consistent and reasonable cost, is another advantage of outsourcing.

3. Reduced Overhead
Overhead costs of performing a particular back-office function are extremely high. Consider outsourcing those functions which can be moved easily.

4. Operational Control
Operations whose costs are running out of control must be considered for outsourcing. Departments that may have evolved over time into uncontrolled and poorly managed areas are prime motivators for outsourcing. In addition, an outsourcing company can bring better management skills to your company than what would otherwise be available.

5. Staffing Flexibility
Outsourcing will allow operations that have seasonal or cyclical demands to bring in additional resources when you need them and release them when you’re done.

6. Continuity & Risk Management
Periods of high employee turnover will add uncertainty and inconsistency to the operations. Outsourcing will provided a level of continuity to the company while reducing the risk that a substandard level of operation would bring to the company.

7. Develop Internal Staff
A large project needs to be undertaken that requires skills that your staff does not possess. On-site outsourcing of the project will bring people with the skills you need into your company. Your people can work alongside of them to acquire the new skill set.

Enough to make me say, that it would be better for our university to outsource.

References:
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://operationstech.about.com/od/officestaffingandmanagem/a/OutSrcAdvantg.htm
http://rsg0927.forumsmotion.com/management-information-systems-1-f1/assignment-9-due-before-september-192008-1300hrs-t167.htm

Barriers in IT/IS implementation

2009-08-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Based on your adopted organization(s), identify and discuss barriers in their IS/IT implementation. (2000words)

Organizations that will be able to realign their operational policies and practices with the new IS will have an easier time with the implementation, create more positive organizational goodwill, successfully optimize the software, and achieve a greater return on their investment.

Our adopted organization is ANFLOCOR. Their MIS (internal affairs) are for its clients, they create a system that is required by their clients. On the word of the Senior Manager- IT and Management Services of ANFLOCOR their end-users who are also their customers are their main concern. They do not consider the end-users as a barrier (the term ‘barrier’) in their IS/IT implementation but their approval is a necessity before the implementation. Since the IS that ANFLOCOR brings into being are from the request of their customers, implementation will really vary upon the customer that is why it is necessary for them to have the nod of their end-users/customers before implementing it.

However, on the end-users/customers part, in view of the fact that they took ANFLOCOR’s service there is the assumption that the company (end-user/customer) had already discussed the cost and their current system before taking the service of ANFLOCOR.
In my point of view, our adopted organization for study – ANFLOCOR, since whom we interviewed is under MIS for internal affairs whose main focus are their clients also and only have their clients as barriers on IS implementation. Although realistically speaking, they are not the one responsible for the implementation but their customer. Then again, they have to satisfy the customer and the customer will only be satisfied if they can see that the IS to be implemented conforms to their:

• Organizational Policies and Procedures (Workflow and Timing, Transaction Flows, Organizational Rules and System Rigidity);

• Computer Related Procedures and Policies (Data Entry Policies and Procedures, Timing Considerations, Data Updates, User Access and Security Administration);

• Input and Processing Capability (Speed, Information Retrieval, Data Integrity, Printing and Report Design, and Distribution Needs); and

• Organizational Technology Capability (IT Staff, Users and Management).

Let me explain further those aforementioned issues, because they are what the clients of our adopted organization for study – ANFLOCOR – consider.

Organizational Policies and Procedures

•Workflow and Timing: Manual processes and/or current systems must blend into the new IS.

•Transaction Flows: Address, revise and reach agreement on input forms, authorization signatures, and report routing.

•Organizational Rules: The system must include specification of any organization specific rules in existence.

•System Rigidity: Once again emphasize that the flexibility of manual processes may evaporate with a new system.

Computer Related Procedures and Policies

•Data Entry Policies and Procedures: Who's responsible for entering the data? Does this still make sense if the business processes change with the new system?

•Timing Considerations: When will reports be generated? What are the cut-off dates for data entry?

•Data Updates: Can anyone update data at any time or will there be cut-off times and/or dates?

•User Access: Which users shall have access to which portions of the database and on what basis?

•Security Administration: What levels of security do they currently have? What do they want? Is there a plan for the prevention of data damage or loss, the backup of data and program files, unauthorized distribution of information, computer viruses, network crashes, and interruptions in power?

Input and Processing Capability

•Speed: Just because a system can hold a large volume of records does not mean that it can process changes to all those records rapidly. Acceptable time parameters should be established early in the project.

•Information Retrieval: Users must be able to retrieve grouped data, such as a list of certain types of loans.

•Data Integrity: A good system includes several types of procedures that maximize the accuracy of the data it contains. Most data errors occur in the data entry process through miscoding or operator carelessness. Edit and validation processes limit the types of data accepted in a particular field.

•Printing and Report Design: A good system is capable of producing reports for management, employees and other government organizations.

•Distribution Needs: The form in which information needs to be disseminated has to be addressed. Options may include electronic mail, batch data, use of external databases, distributed or off-line printing at multiple locations, and other telecommunications options.

Organizational Technology Capability

•IT Staff — A centralized database will require the use of a network, in some form, to enable user’s access to the data. Also the larger the database required, typically the more sophisticated it will be. Both of these elements together will require a high skilled network systems administrator. Consider the availability and cost of acquiring such a person for the institution.

•Users — Depending on the daily staff’s previous experience with using computers, it may be necessary to provide a much greater amount of up front training in basic computer skills, in addition to training on the new software package. For novice users a windows based product can be much less intimidating.

•Management — Managers often receive the same training as staff users, but in fact their primary contact with the MIS is not putting data into the system, but getting information out of the system. It is important to provide training to management that is customized to their information needs as managers. In some cases, exporting the data or reports into MS Excel or a similar tool will be necessary to do more in depth data modelling and trend analysis. An MIS is only as good as the information its users can extract from it.

Reference:
http://www.cgap.org

ICT on SONA '09

2009-08-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

SONA '09 - Areas related to ICT and how can it improve our quality of life.

“Kung noong nakaraan, lumakas ang electronics, today we are creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall in accordance with the state of the world economy. But BPO remains resilient. With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity. Let us have a Department of ICT.”

-> Through the BPO industries the percentage of unemployment will lessen, contributing to the development of our economy status.
-> Technology, as we all know, has the ability to create shortcuts in working and can make tasks easier as well. Building a Department of ICT is a good idea because we will be (somehow) updated with the current technology. Admit it, we are a bit behind when it comes to technology, but by having a Department of ICT, we will not only be updated with the technology but it will also help other government offices by creating systems that a specific department needs. Additionally, we -- techie students -- will have the opportunity to showcase our talents to our country. The possibility for technology innovations might open wider than it is right now.

“In technical education and skills training, we have invested three times that of three previous administrations combined. Narito si Jennifer Silbor, isa sa sampung milyong trainee. Natuto siya ng medical transcription. Now, as an independent contractor and lecturer for transcriptions in Davao, kumikita siya ng P18,000 bawat buwan.”

-> This statement should have encouraged out-of-school youth and/or people whose not financially capable enrolling in a university, to continue their search for knowledge through enrolling into the technical education that our government offers in an affordable fee. Not only that it will lessen the count of undergraduates but of unemployment as well.

“As a country in the path of typhoons and in the Pacific Rim of Fire, we must be prepared as the latest technology permits to anticipate natural calamities when that is possible; to extend immediate and effective relief when it is not. The mapping of flood- and landslide-prone areas is almost complete. Early warning, forecasting and monitoring systems have been improved, with weather tracking facilities in Subic, Tagaytay, Mactan, Mindanao, Pampanga.”

-> Good! This is very helpful in a way that people will not be misinformed about the weather or other natural calamities that might occur. Making people ready and alert.

References:

http://coolbusteratyourservice.blogspot.com/2009/06/pgma-sona-2009-full-text.html

http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Advantages-Technology/49372

2009-08-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

We browsed through the internet for STEEP and SWOT analysis examples. After an in-depth study about what and how to come up with STEEP and SWOT. We immediately formulated questions for our adopted company. *sleepy*

Start Documentation

2009-08-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

August 17-19, 2009

We started making the possible contents of our ISNA. After making the draft of our table of contents, we decided the task among the members. The introduction was assigned to Edsa, background information about the company to Edsa and Emilio and the purpose, scope and objective of the study and the approaches to systems building was assigned to Karen.

Improve Internet Connection in USeP

2009-08-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

If you were hired by the university president as an IT consultant, what would you suggest (technology, infrastructure, innovations, steps, processes, etc) in order for the internet connectivity be improved? (3000words)

Internet is a rich source of bundled information for students. Students can get research papers on different topics to enhance their knowledge. Communication with friends and family is easier due to instant messaging websites...creating a social network is also good because it helps people improve on their conversational skills. The Internet provides an immediacy and global awareness to students. Students and teachers are able to have interactions not only in other parts of the country, but also around the world. From this they can learn about the life and issues that impact on other people. Many teachers can get access to relevant discussions hosted by the Internet. Educators can use these discussions and the ability to share experiences with other educators for professional development and to combat the sense of professional isolation. The internet has many advantages indeed, it helps us to find information on almost any topic.it saves us a lot of valuable time.

Having an internet connection in school is really a big thing. Students have actually paid for it right? And students expects a good internet performance. But since students are not that satisfied with the internet connection of the university the result is some are forced to spend money into the internet cafe's outside. Although some students still has the patience to wait the loading of the internet and to fall in line because they seem to have no choice.

The internet connection should really be improved, let me state the current situation of our schools internet connection and equipments as well:
-Limited number of computer units
-Computers load not that fast, sometimes it freezes.
-Some of the important websites are blocked
-Computers have viruses
-Secured wireless connection, only faculties know the security key
-Students are not allowed to plug in their devices

Those abovementioned are just some of my observations on the university's status. Below are my opinions and suggestions on how to improve the university's internet connection:

Increase Bandwidth?
After reading the question my immediate answer was 'to increase the bandwidth' (bandwidth- typically means the net bit rate, channel capacity or the maximum throughput of a logical or physical communication path in a digital communication system). But as i have read and browsed over the internet I realized that increasing the bandwidth isn't really the ultimate solution. Sooner or later after the bandwidth has been spent and the internet connection is still slow, should the bandwidth be increased again? That would be very costly and impractical to suggest. I have read in an article that the network infrastructure should be determined first to ensure that the work infrastructure is viable or sustainable. If the network infrastructure is not sustainable, problems are not going to be resolved by adding more bandwidth; instead you have to think about a network redesign and reengineer process.

Survey students regarding the websites they want to access for educational purposes that cant be accessed in the virtual library.

Unsecured Access Points (Free Wi-fi Access)
In our university there is an undeniably increasing number of students who has/brings their laptops in school, regardless of their courses. It would be very helpful and students will be very happy if our university will have a budget for vacating a space in the school wherein there is an unsecured network where anybody can connect to the internet. Internet plays a big role on the lifestyle of the students not only for fun but mainly for academic purposes. Currently, there is only one Unsecured Network broadcast inside the computer laboratory 1. Wouldn't it be practical to just spend a space, let's say a students lounge where we could access the internet wirelessly? Aside from the fact that students with laptops will surely be happy with that idea, students who doesn't have or own a computer can benefit as well. Since the number of students falling in line to use the computers in our laboratory is expected to decrease, thus, it will be hassle-free for them to log-in into their accounts.

Inform the users/students about the proper use of computers or regarding the schools regulation in using the internet
Some of the students isn't really aware on the proper use of the computer or maybe they are they just have to be reminded about. So it would be good if we will be informed or reminded on the proper usage and the schools regulations on internet browsing, but how? Well, when we log-in to our computer laboratories to surf through the internet the homepage of the browsers are set to www.usep.edu.ph, why not make a webpage that contains the schools regulations and the proper use of computers and set that webpage to be the homepage of all the browsers? The webpage should look very interesting so that students will take time to read it. But how about the students using wi-fi? Hmm, i think the network administrator has a way to set the homepage of every computer/network who wants to connect to his network so even the wi-fi users will be informed or reminded about the schools regulation and the proper usage of internet and computers. Implementing this suggestion will surely be of help not only for the students but for the faculties as well. Additionally, we could promote green campus computing and other valuable things in that webpage. Example of the things that should be showed by the webpage are the facts below on why computer or internet runs slow:

There are numerous programs that can be obtained over the Internet that are harmful to your computer (aside form viruses). These are not viruses or worms. Instead, they are known as "Spyware." Spyware is not easy to define, because there are so many variations of it. In the most typical case, Spyware usually arrives on your computer because you agreed to permit it. Perhaps you signed up for a free tool bar, or downloaded free software, or you are using some web-based server such as a file-sharing site. Some Spyware merely records information about what web sites you have visited, and transmits that information back to Spy. This slows down your computer because it takes time to send back this information. Some Spyware will actually hijack your computer. Many of the sophisticated Spammers (people who send junk mail) will hijack your computer and send off a few hundred junk emails without you ever knowing about it.

Another factor that slows down surfing, and is downright annoying anyway, is pop-up advertising. Pop-ups cost you bandwidth, which results in a loss of speed. There should be a pop-up killer installed in the computers.

There are problems that occur because others are attempting to gain information and/or control of your computer. They may do this by "pinging" your computer. A "Ping" is a request made by another computer for the identification number of your computer. Again, this information can be used to hijack your machine. Installing software known as a “Firewall” can prevent this.

Viruses of course. SO install an up to date anti virus.

Setting the internet options of our browser would also be of help. Managing caches and defining blank homepages are some of the stuffs we can do to it. If images are not that important in your browsing you may also set our browser not to load the images for fast browsing.

References:
http://www.epinions.com/content_3428491396
http://www.google.com.ph/search?hl=en&q=importance+of+internet+in+education&btnG=Search&meta=

2009-08-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Again, we consulted Sir Gamboa for our gantt chart. At long last! He approved it and it's ok for posting. :)

2009-08-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

We started to researched and study for our major paper. We browsed the internet looking for articles that are related to our study. We did a research about the STEEP and SWOT analysis and examples of it. We also did research about the background information of ANFLOCOR and what is a holding company. Moreover, we researched about the agile method and waterfall method and we also looked for examples of Information System Needs Assessments. After we have gathered such information we discussed and studied it.

2009-08-10T22:24:00.000-07:00

By this time, we consulted Sir Gamboa for our ghant chart. Unfortunately, we had some mistakes that we hadn’t noticed so we had to revise our ghant chart.

2009-08-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

This day is our schedule for our second interview. We arrived at the ANFLOCOR approximately 8:00 am. The interview started 8:15 am. We asked the IT-senior manager about their strategic transitions in there IS, how their organization does used Information System for competitive advantage and the factors to consider when planning a new system. We also asked him whether their system is in-source or out-source, what are the hardware and software used and how does they manage it e.g. maintenance and back-up. Also we asked him regarding the company’s approached to system building, the SWOT of the company, the problems and issues they had encountered and the flow of their major business and IS operations. However, he refused to give us the information about the flow of their major business and IS operation.

Lastly, we had a picture taking with him and ended our interview past 9:00 am.

2009-08-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Our group decided to discuss or review the slides presentation of the reports so that we can formulate guide questions for our interview. So we met up at the boarding house of one of our group mate after our classes. But before that we did a research on the library and internet for other references.

Asking for a follow-up Interview

2009-08-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

In this day, I submitted a letter in the email for our second interview at ANFLOCOR. The next morning, August 04, 2009, Mr. Pimentel replied to schedule us on Friday, August 06.

2009-07-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

On this day, we had our first ever interview in ANFLOCOR with Mr. Giovanni Pimentel, senior manager – IT and Management Services of ANFLOCOR Company. The scheduled time was 8am, and we were there just on time but only Edsa and Emilio was there to conduct the interview.

he interview was all about the basic information in management information system of the company. It goes smoothly yet a little nervous in our part, we felt intimidated and challenge as well. We asked questions such as the role MIS in their company, how it affect, in what way and some sort of things. We also threw the same questions we had during the class sharing like hacking, resistance, and etc. He shared to us the company background of the company, their services, what kind of company is ANFLOCOR, the history of there is, about their personnel and department, the sub-company it has and a lot more. General thoughts regarding their company was tackled and discussed.

During the interview we informed him regarding the ISNA or major paper we have, if it is okay to conduct a series of interview for the information we needed to complete the study. He told us that he is willing to be interviewed but he also informed us that e cannot give us the confidential information.

Before the interview ended, we also had a picture taking with Sir Pimentel and informed him that we will have another interview with him. It was a good start for our major paper though.

2009-07-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

After a few days, July 23, we visited our prospect companies and presented a letter asking for interview and ANFLOCOR was one of it. Fortunately, the said company accepted the request and told us to follow-up the request letter on the following day. After a day, we made a call to the company and luckily the senior manager of MIS department gave us a schedule date for interview.

Different Systems- Building Approaches

2009-07-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

Different Approaches To Sys Bldg

View more presentations from karainie.

Green Campus Computing in USeP

2009-07-17T02:38:00.001-07:00

Three URLs that talks about Green Campus Computing:

http://inews.berkeley.edu/articles/Spring2009/green-computing
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/12/02/u-m-hopes-green-computing-will-cut-costs-emissions/
http://chronicle.com/free/2009/01/10296n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Green Campus Computing is the practice of using computing devices efficiently and in an environmentally friendly way. The commonly used computing device is a computer. We, students, use computers whether for fun or study purposes; especially as an IT student, we work with it every now and then. In fact, when I go to our virtual library or to NODAL I see a lot of students waiting for a computer unit to be vacated. And I have noticed nowadays that more and more students have their laptops. This situation only shows that most of the students, if not all, are using computers on day to day basis.

In my point of view, the very first step for our university to adopt the concept of Green Campus Computing or for the students to practice Green Computing is to conduct a symposium about Green Campus Computing. If not all students will be able to attend the symposium then giving in flyers and putting posters are the possible solution to inform students about Green Campus Computing. Some of the non-computing courses in our university also have their computer fundamentals subject and it would be a good thing if Green Campus Computing will be a part of the Instructors Course Outline.

While the students are being educated about Green Computing our university should also:
Supply computers directly with local DC power
Installing more solar panels
Direct cool air only where the facility is generating the most heat

Computers generally use direct current, but the public electricity grid typically supplies alternating current, and 30 percent of the electricity can be lost in the conversion of one form to the other. Some US colleges have started projects to power their computers directly from solar cells or other sources of DC power on the campus, avoiding the energy loss altogether.

Our university may also launch a "green computing" educational campaign; recognizing and rewarding individuals who conserve energy; adopting campuswide purchasing guidelines for computing equipment.

Since I am already aware about Green Computing I am now practicing it. I turned off my screensaver so it will just be in standby mode or sleep mode, I even turn it off if I think that it will take me a long time before using it again. An active PC uses between 60 to 90 watts, while a sleeping PC uses 2 to 3. When I plug in a peripheral (such as USB’s) in my laptop after I have done copying or saving something into it I immediately safely remove it to save the battery’s life. I also lessen the brightness on my laptop during daylight to save the battery’s life.

Let us all support and practice Green Campus Computing!

COMDDAP Davao Reflection

2009-07-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

COMDDAP Davao Reflection

Computer Manufacturers, Distributors, and Dealers Association of the Philippines (COMDDAP) held an exhibit at Apo View Hotel from July 2 to July 4 of this year, 2009. I scheduled to attend their seminars on the 3rd day of July but my classmates also scheduled me on the 2nd day of July (hehe), both on afternoon schedule so I decided to attend on those days that I’m scheduled regardless of who scheduled it (besides it’s an opportunity, right?).

On the 2nd day of July 2009 my classmates and I went to Apo View Hotel and attended the afternoon session seminars, but before that, we first strolled around the exhibits because we find them interesting specially the booth with free sling (hehe). I think it was SmartBro’s booth that includes that freebie thing; anyway, we didn’t have that sling because the line was quite time-consuming and we are not the kind of person who stays only for a sling (haha!). So we continue roaming around and there were some people who also roam around while giving brochures, as a result we have collected a lot of different brochures. When we notice that some of our classmates are not around anymore we immediately looked for the room where the seminar is held.

We went in a bit late in the 'ERIC Dealer Management System' session; this tackles the ERIC DMS which is an end-to-end software solution for automotive dealer operation. ERIC DMS range of solutions covers Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Vehicle Sales and Administration (VSA) and Service Management (SVM). It is also supported by a robust back-end system on parts and supplies inventory, over the counter sales, purchasing and requisite financial modules for financial accounting and reporting.

The next session was about ‘HP Thin Client’. Thin clients are computing devices that function as an access device on a network. During the session it was discussed that the typical computing solution for most enterprises is an unmanaged network. Unmanaged PC computing has its advantages: user autonomy, the ability to work independent of a network, and the ability to utilize graphics-intensive applications. However, unmanaged computing has significant drawbacks that lead to higher costs: lower security, increased downtime, and increased soft costs. Users are able to add, delete, and modify programs and data. Diskette drives allow for users to remove confidential data and load (intentionally or otherwise) harmful viruses. Companies that are able to utilize a thin client server computing solution are able to reap substantial savings and benefits versus companies that use traditional PC-based computing solutions. Below are some of the traditional pitfalls that commonly occur in an unmanaged computing network:
• Hard drive crashes resulting in data loss and user downtime
• Costly service calls to repair hardware and solve software problems
• Multiple images on different PCs leading to a different set of problems for each machine
• Theft of equipment
• Theft of data
• Applications are not standardized
• Version control is difficult to maintain
• Increased time spent deploying software and upgrades
• Difficulty establishing uniform standards in complex business environments, such as post-merger companies.

So, to avoid those pitfalls it is better to use HP Thin Client. (toinks!)
Anyway, there was a ‘question and answer’ portion at the end of the HP Thin Client session and the prizes were really good because they had given away four flash drives with 2 gb, a t-shirt, and an 8gb flash drive (whoa!). I was really eyeing for the 8gb flash drive but the question was quite hard (not really hard, I just haven’t written down the HP models which was the question.tssk3x.), but one of our classmates got it because the question had been changed and he happen to know the answer so he got it.

After HP Thin Client was ‘Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System’. This is a software suite built for the retailer designed to fully automate their business across all channels of commerce, it has a low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) that provides quick return on investment (ROI). The facilitator discussed this subject very quickly because he was aware that we (the listeners) were a bit sleepy already. Honestly, that is all I can remember because I was indeed very sleepy that time. Peace!

My energy went back when I heard that the next session was about ‘Open Source for Business Applications’ catered by Spinweb. I only have a little knowledge about Open Source and I wanted to know more about it so I listened very well (hehe). Open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to software’s source code. Some of the Open Source Technologies are: LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP), Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, OS Commerce, Zen Cart, Ruby on Rails, PHP Cake, Civi CRM and Moodle. I have also thought before that Open Source Application doesn’t have a license but because of this seminar I learned that it is actually licensed the thing is it is “free”. Chocolates were also given after the session because of the Q & A about the different logos of those Open Source Technologies that I have mentioned earlier. hehe
All those things happened on July 2, 2009 but I went back on July 3, 2009 and attended the ‘Windows Server 2008’ session. I am interested in this topic because on our DataComm II last semester we have discussed different servers but we were not able to discuss Windows Server 2008. The features of Windows Server 2008 are really nice compared to the other Windows Servers. Windows Server 2008 is designed to power the next generation of networks, applications and Web services. There are new Web tools, virtualization technologies, security enhancements, and management utilities which will help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure.

Attending COMDDAP was really a great experience for me. My favorites are the Open Source Business Applications, Windows Server 2008 and HP Thin Client. I have gained new learning and I am sure I will be able to use these learning in the future when I will be an IT Consultant or even for some decision makings. Maybe someday I will be part of a team who will build a website using an Open Source Application, or maybe I will use Windows Server 2008 and HP Thin Client…just maybe, someday..who knows? Hehe..

Reference:
http://www.wikipedia.com/

2009-07-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

We managed to gathered/researched basic information of our prospect company to be adopted from the visitation we had. Through the use of internet we acquired information such as company’s background and company’s profile that is needed for the approval of company adaptation.

Reaction on the 2010 automated election.

2009-07-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Your thoughts on automated elections with reference to the current situation.

Before I react, let me just recall how did this issue regarding automated elections start and the procedures done before Smartmatic/TIM won the bid.

The bidding...

Last March 11, 2009 the Comelec en banc approved the Terms of Reference/Request for Proposal (TOR/RFP) for the Solutions, Terms and Conditions for the 2010 poll automation.

TOR/RFP documents contain the Comelec's policies, requirements and technical specifications which prospective bidders will need in order to prepare their bids. TOR/RFP documents come with a P1 million price tag, a non-refundable fee to be paid by interested bidders.

Later on March 30, 2009, the Comelec Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) held a pre-bid conference for the 2010 automation project. The conference was an opportunity for the prospective bidders to seek clarification on any part of the bid documents. At the time of the pre-bid conference, 10 firms have already purchased the TOR/RFP, and among those is Smartmatic/TIM. In fact, Smartmatic/TIM is one of the companies who were first to procure bid documents.

By June 23, 2009 SBAC submitted to the Comelec en banc its report recommending the award of the 2010 poll automation contract to Smartmatic/TIM. Smartmatic/TIM passed all the eligibility, technical and financial requirements. According to SBAC, the consortium had the "lowest calculated responsive bid": P7,191,484,739.48 (well within the approved budget for the contract -- P11,223,618,400.00). Later on, Comelec en banc approved the SBAC's recommendation and SBAC issued a notice of award to Smartmatic/TIM. About Smartmatic and TIM...

Smartmatic International Corp. (Smartmatic) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Smartmatic International Holding, BV, a company organized under the laws of The Netherlands. Smartmatic has organized elections using its electronic voting solutions in Latin America, the Carribean, the United States, and Asia.

Total Information Management Corporation (TIM) is a domestic corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1981. The corporation is engaged in the business of information technology and service provider. These two corporations entered into a joint venture on April 23, 2009.

The dispute...

Before the month of June ends TIM had pulled out its partnership with Smartmatic . An information had leaked that it is due to corporate issues between Smartmatic and TIM ranging from the chairmanship of the board to funding disputes.

Malacañang appealed to Smartmatic and TIM to immediately resolve their differences because it is interfering COMELEC's internal affair. Besides, if Smartmatic and TIM wasn't able to patch things up they could have faced charges for violating Republic Act 9184, the "Act Providing for the Modernization, Standardization and Regulation of the Procurement Activities of the Government and For Other Purposes."

So, just last July 3, 2009, after their 3- hour meeting Comelec chairman Jose Melo said that the two companies had agreed to be 'held liable severally and jointly' as a joint venture entity if they fail to provide services in accordance with the contract.

My reaction...

Whenever I hear the word 'automated' what immediately goes in my mind are 'technology' and 'fast'. I felt so excited when I first heard that our country will have an automated election on the year 2010. Well, I think it is time for our country to change the election system. Having an automated election will make the election process, such as voting and counting of votes, faster than the manual election.

The system should be user-friendly that during the operation a computer literate person won't be of need anymore. Because if it is not user-friendly then it will defeat the definition of technology which is made to finish or do things faster. There is a minimal human intervention during the counting of votes that means the 'sabotage' is unlikely to happen. Besides the Smartmatic/TIM , I think, already know that there should really be a security code embedded inside the machine sealed against human intervention. But if during the election a power interruption or power shortage happen, can the system sustain it? Or worst, what if the system itself will have some errors DURING the election? Well, I think it should be one of the features of the system -- to be able to work without electricity.

Sources:
www.igma.tv

Risks associated with business and IS/IT change.

2009-07-07T03:38:00.000-07:00

Based on the organization(s) that you visited, what do you think are the risks associated with business and IS/IT change?

Company visited: Concentrix

Concentrix’ MIS department said that they are constantly evolving because Concentrix, like all other Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Company, is a fast transforming corporation. But what are the consequences with the changes that they do and what are the factors that they first consider before implementing a change on their system?

According to the MIS Supervisor of Concentrix’ MIS department, before a modification on their system will be done a feasibility study should be made regarding the proposed changes of the system. Generally, before approving for a change on the system they make sure that the change is necessary and/or that it could truly enhance the system. In addition, since there is an approval needed before taking any changes on the system thus the management will have an overview of what are the downsides or what will be the risks of changing the system.

So, what are the possible things that might happen in changing a system? Why should a comprehensive study be made before implementing a change?

System failure
Security
Loss of data
Design
Cost

System Failure - a breakdown or decline in the performance of the system. Concentrix is a large company with numerous employees; a system breakdown will surely interrupt the entire business especially that their clients are from outside the country and the communication process is through the use of telephones and distribution of calls is part of their system. And as far as I remember the MIS Supervisor said that the MIS department is the core of the company because they are a technological call center therefore, a system failure will really discontinue the operation of the business.

Security – confidential data might be accessible to people who doesn’t have the right to access that particular data. In Concentrix’, the employees have limited access to the applications that they have; it depends on the position of the particular employee.

Loss of data – when a certain data had been removed, deleted or in anyway not accessible anymore. Loss of data is losing a client in Concentrix’ state, so they are really careful in implementing a system change because if there will be a loss of data, there will be no documents to be shown to their clients.

Design – the actual design of the system fails to capture essential business requirements. Information may not be provided quickly enough to be helpful; it may be in a format that is impossible to digest and use; or it may represent the wrong pieces of data. A system may be designed with a poor user-system interface. The way in which nontechnical business users must interact with the system is excessively complicated and discouraging. As a result, a system may go unused and eventually may have to be discontinued.

Cost – some systems operate quite smoothly, but their cost to implement and run on a production basis is way over budget. Good thing though, the people under the MIS department of Concentrix are the one who creates their system that is why it will not be that costly.

Information systems facilitate the acquisition, transformation, and distribution of information. Information systems can improve decision making, enhance organizational performance, and help increase firm profitability, thus contributing to corporate value.

Often, a change in the business's strategy, rules, or procedures requires changes in the information systems software, hardware, databases, and telecommunications. An organization’s present and future accomplishments depend in many aspects on what its systems will permit it to do now and later. Also, system projects are increasing in reach and scope. Whereas early information systems addressed primarily technical or operational issues, contemporary information systems are integral to the management and strategic goals of the firm. Today information systems affect a much larger part of the organization itself, such as organizational products, objectives, and structure.

Reference:
Management Information Systems, 8th edition (Laudon)

Listing of Companies

2009-07-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

In our group we started our major paper on July 6, 2009 by searching of what company to be adopted. List of companies were presented to seek for approval from our MIS-instructor. During these days, presenting of different companies were made tow or more times, prior to this, we also started to visit some of the company to ask for permission to conduct a study. Throughout of the visited, some of the companies declined from our request namely: Concentrix and some of the companies which don’t have a MIS.

Best practices in IT/IS...and the journey of finding the company.

2009-06-25T00:10:00.000-07:00

The planning…

Yesterday – June 24, 2009 –my classmates and I decided on what company shall we interview for the assignments. There were lots of companies that had been mentioned so we made up our mind and came up with the solution of having an ambush interview and do a ‘company hopping’ until a company entertains us. Our first stop was the business process outsourcing company – CALLBOX – because it is the nearest company from our school, of all the other companies that we have in mind. Before we went to the said company we first had our request letters printed and we’re on. (^_^)

The First stop – Callbox

The company Callbox occupies the 9th floor of the LandCo building and at around four in the afternoon we visited their office. We were a bit hesitant to go inside their office because there was nobody in there. For few minutes we stayed outside the women’s washroom when an employee who was about to go through the second door gently asked about our purpose. He then suggested to us to just enter at the main door and wait until their fellow worker comes out and entertain us. Soon after, a young woman went out and she asked if we are going to apply – needless to say that we answered ‘no’ (naturally!). We gave her the letter and elaborated our concern. Subsequently, she spoke to her co-employees – whom I guessed are under the MIS department. Well, I guessed it right! The two gentlemen are indeed from the MIS department. After the MIS guys read the letter, one of them advised us to write down our questions so that we can get the answers on Friday. For a second we were tongue-tied but afterwards we diffidently said that the deadline for the submission of the assignment was today and as a result he said that the answers will just be sent via e-mail to make it faster. We had given them only two e-mail addresses – Sarah’s and John’s – because they can access the Internet at their respective houses; they will just forward the message sent by Callbox to us.

We were so happy that they were still able to entertain us even with their hectic time! And we thought that we don’t have to visit other companies anymore to answer this assignment, but unfortunately, there were no e-mail message that our classmates had received. So, just this morning – June 25, 2009 – we planned to visit another company which is Global Connect E-Solutions, it is also a call center company here in Davao.

The Second stop – Global Connect E-Solutions

One of our classmates had worked at this company – Global Connect E-Solutions – so we went their with her. The programmer of their MIS department was having a meeting when we arrived at their office. He went out for a while to entertain us and since he's still having a meeting we just gave our questionnaire and he told us that we can have the answers minutes after the meeting.

Global Connect E-Solutions is just a kilometer away to Concentrix which is also a business process outsourcing company so we decided to visit Concentrix as well.

The Third stop – Concentrix

At last! In this company we were able to conduct a face-to-face ambush interview to the MIS Supervisor.(^_^)

Concentrix maximizes the long-term value of the clients' customers with solutions that support the entire customer life cycle and provide a high return on investment. And, by delivering from their locations in Asia, Latin America, and the United States in 12 major languages, they give their clients the global reach essential for business success. Their results: satisfied clients, some with relationships of 12 years or more.

Company Profile:
Parent company: SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX)
Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) industry
Lines of business include technical and customer support,
sales and marketing, and back office transaction processing
Experience 25 years
Industry expertise in technology, communications, and consumer electronics
Quality process: ISO 9001-2000, ISO 27001, CMMI
Mission statement: At Concentrix, we deliver knowledge-based services that have one measure of success — customer satisfaction.

The Interview...

What is the basic function of MIS in this company?
- Help Desk - personnels assigned in repairing, installing and troubleshooting basic networking problems. They are also responsible in user configurations such as adding a username for the newly employed and access restrictions and sites as well.
- Network Specialist - they are the mentor of the 'help desk'. They are responsible for the deeper aspect of troubleshooting.
- Senior Network Specialist - this person is responsible for configurations of servers and telephone companies. They suggest for upgrades if ever they find something that needs more improvement on the system.
- MIS Supervisor - this person is the one who makes the decision for the changes to be made and he also recommends for the development of all accounts.

They make sure that the development to be made is properly planned and conceptualized so they submit or conduct a feasibility study before it will be approved.

What are the best practices of MIS which you think contributes to the success of the company?
- Teamwork - they are cooperating and they do have a good communication to each other.
- Constantly evolving - they are open to changes as long as properly justified. In fact, the systems that the company uses are developed by them. One of the systems is:
  - CMS (Call Monitoring System) - the system that records all the discussion between their employees and their clients' customers.

The MIS Supervisor said that generally, MIS is the core of the company because Concentrix is a technological call center thus MIS is an essential part of it. One of the things that the MIS Supervisor is very proud about their MIS is that among all the call centers here in Davao they have the best MIS. Some of the call centers have their MIS personnels just similar to the level of their 'help desk' which is also synonymous to technicians. Concentrix' MIS has its service not only in local but also global, because their server is actually accessible in different parts of the globe.

To all the companies: Thank you for the journey..we will keep on traveling.
The end of the beginning.

Note: Concentrix had already been informed that the contents of their interview will be posted in the Internet and agreed.

First day learnings in MIS.

2009-06-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

Management Information Systems learnings:

Management - it is the Planning, Directing, Organizing, and Controlling a certain matter or event.

Information Technology = HARDWARE + SOFTWARE

Information Systems = HARDWARE + SOFTWARE + PEOPLEWARE

Therefore, MIS is planning, directing, organizing and controlling IT and peopleware?

But our MIS Instructor said that people can't be managed because we are not robots, thus we have feelings.

What we can only do to people is to LEAD them.. give directions and be a guide.

We can all be MANAGERS but not LEADERS.

Aside from learnings I also gained confusions during our first meeting..hehe

Sir Gamboa left us the question "Is the subject MIS, correct?".

Well, a part of me says 'YES' because if it's wrong, then why would we have this subject?

And a part of me says 'NO' because only software and hardware could be manage..

So I browsed the meaning of Management Information Systems in wikipedia and below is just a part of it..

"Management information systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. decision support systems, expert systems, and executive information systems."
Source: en.wikipedia.org

The way I understand it, MIS is a method (Software + Hardware) to support or guide human (Peopleware) in decision making.