Week 12 Questions - Systems Development and Project Management

1. Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.

The three primary variables within any project are time, cost and scope. All projects are limited by one of these variables in some way. These three variables are interdependent and the relationship is that if a change is made to one variable, it is likely to affect one or all of the other variables. It is these three factors that determine the quality of a project with a successful project delivered on time, within the determined budget and according to the scope originally set out during the planning stages.

Triple Constraints Diagram

http://www.traue.com/media/project_triangle.png




2. Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning.

The two primary diagrams used in project planning are;

· PERT Chart: A PERT (Program Evaluations and Review Technique) chart is a graphical diagram that presents are projects tasks and the relationship between those tasks. A dependency is a logical relationship that exists between two tasks or between a task and a milestone. They define dependency between project tasks before they are scheduled. The critical path is the path to completing the project in the shortest amount of time.

Example of a Pert chart

http://www.spottydog.u-net.com/images/fancy_pert.jpg

· Gantt Chart: A Gantt Chart is depicted in the form of a bar graph against a calendar. The tasks to be completed are listed vertically and the time frame they must be completed in is listed horizontally. A Gantt chart shows the schedule of a project and the progress of the tasks against their planned duration.

Example of a Gantt chart

http://www.total-quality-management-software.com/images/project_gantt_chart.gif

3. Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success.

The three primary areas a project manager must focus on to manage success are;

· People: This is the hardest but most important task of a project manager. Two challenges that are faced are resolving conflict within the group and balancing the needs of the project with the personal and professional needs of the group. Project managers are the main communicators with the client. In many cases it is the people management side of the project that determines the success of the project. A project manager needs to manage the stakeholders as well as the team members of a project. It is important for a project manager to correctly manage the stages of the group (forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning) as this can also determine the success of a project.

· Communications: Communication is the key to excellent project management. A project manager should plan what and how they will communicate as a formal part of the project management plan. The project manage should communicate to the team the time, cost and scope of the project in a timely, accurate and meaningful fashion, as well as keeping all stakeholders informed of the progress of the project. Project managers should also monitor feedback and respond in a timely and organised manner, as well as encouraging group members to provide feedback.

· Change: A project manager needs to be able to anticipate, monitor and prepare for change to occur. Change management is a set of techniques that aid in evolution, composition and policy management of the design and implementation of a system. It includes a collection of procedures to document a change request and the steps necessary to consider the change based on the expected impact of the change.

Three guidelines for effectively dealing with change management are:
1. Institute change management policies – clearly define the policies and procedures that must be followed each time a request for change is made.

2. Anticipate change – view change as an opportunity and embrace it.

3. Seek change – look for changes that may be a window to opportunity. Review successes and failures to determine for any opportunities to innovation.

4. Outline 2 reasons why projects fail and two reasons why projects succeed.

Why projects succeed:
· All team members working towards the common goal of the project

· Good decision making structure and communication, e.g. project can be completed within project timeline and all members are aware of their role within the project and are kept regularly informed.

Why projects fail:
· Unrealistic expectations of the project, e.g. too short a timeline, not enough resources available, too large for the company to handle.
· Lack of project management, e.g. no project manager guiding the project, no project plan developed (PERT or Gantt chart)

Week 10 Questions - Customer Relationship Management and Business Intelligence

1. What is your understanding of CRM?

Customer relationship management involves managing all aspects of a customer’s interactions with a business. It aims at increasing customer loyalty and retaining customers, as well as maintaining or increasing the profitability of an organisation.

Customer relationship model

http://www.marketingteacher.com/IMAGES/crm_model.gif

2. Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.

The two primary components of a CRM strategy are:
· Operational - this supports the traditional transactional processing for day-to-day front-office operations or systems that deal directly with the customers.

· Analytical – supports the back-office operations and strategic analysis and includes all systems that do not deal directly with the customers.

3. Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments.

· Marketing Department – Marketing department looks at selling multiple products to one customer. CRM technologies allow them to gather information to ensure successful marketing campaigns.

o List generators: gather customer information from multiple sources and segment the information for different marketing campaigns, e.g. Questionnaires, surveys, website visits. Provides the marketing department with a solid understanding of the type of customer it needs to target for its campaigns.

o Campaign Management System: guide users through marketing campaigns for performing such tasks such as campaign definition, planning, scheduling, segmentation and success analysis. Can calculate quantifiable results for return on investment.

o Cross-selling: Cross-selling is selling additional products or services, up-selling is increasing the value of a sale. CRM technologies help companies to better understand their products to be able to cross-sell and up-sell.


· Sales Department – Sales force automation (SFA) is a system that tracks all the steps of the sales process and focus on increasing customer satisfaction, building customer relationships and improving product sales.

4. How could a sales department use operational CRM technologies?

· Sales Management CRM Systems: automates each phase of the sales process which helps sales representative co-ordinate all of their accounts. Features include calendars and alarm reminders, customisable media presentations and document generation. It provides an analysis of the sales cycle and how each sales representative is performing.

· Contact management CRM: maintains customer contact information and identifies potential customers for future sales. Features include maintaining organisational charts, detailed customer notes and supplemental sales information.

· Opportunity Management CRM Systems: target sales opportunities by finding new customers or companies for future sales. Determines potential customers and competitors and defines selling efforts, including budgets and schedules. It is also able to calculate the probability of a sale.

5. Describe business intelligence and its value to businesses.

Business Intellogence Diagram

http://www.iterating.com/images/wiki_images/d_iterating/database_and_business_intelligence.JPG

Business intelligence refers to technologies that are used to gather, provide access to and analyse data and information to support decision-making efforts. It is the tools and analysis that provide access to data for strategic decision making for analysis that support strategic decision making to align with the company’s goals.

- BI can enable organisations to unlock information held in their database by giving authorised users a single point of access to the data where reports can be prepared to understand what best drives their business.
- BI can be used at every step in the value chain and can be used within every department.
- BI provides users with up-to-the-minute information

6. Explain the problem associated with business intelligence. Describe the solution to this business problem.

One of the problems with business intelligence is that businesses are becoming data rich and information poor. With their reliance on CRM systems they are rapidly gathering vast amounts of data with every transaction made between departments or the outside world being entered into these systems for future use and access. The amount of data being generated is doubling each year and in the future it may double each month. Although organizations have large amounts of data, they are not able to use this data to produce clear information and do not have a clear understanding of where the business is at, what their competitors are doing and their data is not aligning to their strategic goals.

The solution to this problem is business intelligence. A business makes many decisions each day which are normally based on experience, knowledge and the rule of thumb, which poses a problem as it takes many years to gain experience and knowledge, which some employees never gain. To ensure that the business is making informed decisions that will benefit the business, the employer should provide them with BI systems and tools.

7. What are two possible outcomes a company could get from using data mining?

http://www.datapult.com/images/DiagramDataMining.jpg

Data mining is the process of analysing data to extract data that is not offered by the raw data alone. It is the primary tool used to uncover business intelligence in vast amounts of data.

Two outcomes that a company can get from using data mining are:
- Increased profits
- More efficient sales

For more information on Customer relationship management:

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

Week 9 Questions - Operations Management

1. Define the term operations management.

Operations Management (OM) is the management of systems or processes that convert or transform resources into goods and services. It is responsible for managing the core processes used to manufacture foods and produce services. Operations management transforms inputs into outputs and ensures that the processes are efficient and effective.

Example of an IT's Operations Management
http://www.symphonysv.com/images/services/it-operations-management.jpg

2. Explain operations management’s role in business.

Example of an airline business:
· Forecasting – Being able to plan and predict what is going to happen in the future. How many seats on a flight, weather and landing conditions, etc.

· Capacity Planning – Ensuring that the systems put in place are able to handle the demand being placed on them, ie. Are the systems large enough? Being able to plan for growth and decline in the markets to maintain profits

· Scheduling – When it will be done. When to schedule flights, how many flights and staff are needed, when to schedule maintenance, etc.

· Managing Inventory – Managing the essential items that are needed in order for the business to run. Food and beverage, first aid, pillow, blankets, life jackets, etc.

· Assuring quality – Ensuring everything is of the highest standard and in relation to the organisations goals.

· Motivating and training employees – Ensuring all employees receive the required training to perform their role effectively. This is the role of the operations manager. Needed for dealing with frustrated customer.

· Locating Facilities – Knowing where everything is located in the organisation. Knowing which cities to offer services

3. Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology.

Managers are able to use information technology to influence operations management decisions including productivity, costs, flexibility, quality and customer satisfaction. Operations management influences the degree to which an organisations goals and objectives are realised.

- What resources are needed and in what amounts
- When will each resource be needed? When should work be scheduled? When should materials and other supplies be ordered?
- Where will the work be performed?
- How will the product or service be designed? How will the work be done?
- Who will perform the work?

4. Explain supply chain management and its role in a business.

http://www.industryforum.co.uk/images/supply_chain.gif

A supply chain is anyone who is involved, directly or indirectly, in the production of a product. Supply chain management (SCM) involves the management of information flows along the supply chain to maximise the effectiveness and profitability of the supply chain.

An efficient and effective supply chain management can enable an organisation to:
- Decrease the power of its buyers
- Increase its own supplier power
- Increase switching costs to reduce the threat of substitute products and services
- Create entry barriers thereby reducing the threat of new entrants
- Increase efficiencies while seeking a competitive advantage through cost leadership

5. List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain.

· Plan – This is the strategic component of the supply chain management. A business needs to have a plan in place to best manage their resources to help meet the customer demands for products and services. The most important part of planning is developing metrics to monitor the supply chain so that it is efficient, cost effective and delivers high quality and value to customers.
· Source – This involves companies choosing reliable suppliers that will deliver the goods and services for making their products. They need to develop a set of pricing, delivery and payment processes and create metrics for monitoring and improving their relationships.

· Make – This where the companies manufacture their products. This involves having a strong set of metrics for measuring quality levels, production outputs and worker productivity.

· Deliver – This process is known as logistics. It is the set of processes that plans for and controls the efficient and effective transportation and storage of supplies from suppliers to customers.

· Return – This is the most problematic stage of the supply chain process. Businesses need to have a system in place to receive defective and excess products and services and support customers who have problems with their products.

For more information on the 5 components of the supply chain:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/540671/five_components_to_supply_chain_management.html

6. Define the relationship between information technology and the supply chain.

The primary role of supply chain management in creating the integration of tight process and information linkages between functions within a firm, such as marketing, sales, finance, manufacturing and distribution and between firms, which allows the smooth and synchronised flow of information and product between customers, suppliers and transportations providers across the supply chain. Supply chain management relies on information technology to make accurate decisions for without it a business would be over forecasting leading to a loss in profits.

For more information on Operations Management:

http://managementhelp.org/ops_mgnt/ops_mgnt.htm

Week 8 Questions - Networks and Telecommunications

1. Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.

Wireless refers to any electrical or electronic operation that is accomplished without the use of a ‘hard wired’ connection. It gives users a ‘live’ internet connection via satellite or radio transmitters without the use of wires. Mobile means that technology can travel with the user but is not necessarily in real time. Wireless devices, such as Blackberries and iPhones are small enough to carry around and have the ability to store information, perform productive tasks and communicate wirelessly over the internet and with other wireless devices.

The benefits of wireless technology for businesses are;

• Universal access to information and applications – technology is getting to the stage where information is able to be accessed anywhere at any time.
  
  
• The automation of business processes – wireless technologies have the ability to centralise critical information and eliminate redundant processes.
  
  
• User convenience, timeliness and ability to conduct business 24/7, 365 days a year – information, through wireless technologies such as a Blackberry or iPhone, can be accessed anywhere and at any time.
  

http://www.tentechnologies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/wireless.jpg

2. Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP.

Voice over IP (VoIP) uses TCP/IP technology to transmit voice calls over internet technology. As the calls are transported over the internet, international call costs have decreased. VOIP enables phone calls, faxes, voice mail, email and web conferences to be transmitted over the internet. It also reduces the cost and complexity with delivering these services and improves response and restoration times. With VOIP using existing networks to efficiently and inexpensively route telephone calls, businesses can gain significant cost savings, productivity gains and service enhancements.

http://phonology.in/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/voip_diagram.246223601.png


VOIP saves money in 3 ways:

• It runs over the existing computer network



• Calls over the internet do not attract extra telecommunication charges



• Customers are able to port their numbers between carriers
  An example of a VOIP is Skype. Skype allows users to send copies of reports, pictures or other files with no size restrictions on files.

3. Compare LANs and WANs.

• LAN – Local area networks connect a group of computers within a close proximity of each other to be able to share resources like files, games, printers and other applications. An LAN can connect to other LANs to the internet or wide area networks.

Example of a LAN:

http://www.internet-computer-checkup.com/image-files/wireless-lan-router.jpg

• WAN – Wide area networks are networks that span over a larger distance, such as a state or country.

Example of a WAN:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Cc751420.wan_msp01_big(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

4. Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies use active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that store unique identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers. RFID tags are smaller than a grain of sand and combine tiny chips with an antenna, which, when placed on an item, automatically radios its location to RFID readers on shop shelves, counters, loading bay doors and shopping carts. They can cut cost by reducing the number of workers required for scanning items and can provide current and more accurate information to the entire supply chain. They have allowed businesses to reduce costs and overheads by making inefficient business systems more visible and are being used to improve the cost, safety and reliability of managing business processes.

Week 7 Questions - Databases and Data Warehouses

1. List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high quality information.

a) Accuracy – This refers to how correct the information is. For example, have all of the names been spelled correctly and is the amount that is entered correct?

b) Completeness – Refers to whether or not the data base is complete or whether some fields are still requiring data to be entered. For example, is the address complete with street name, city, state and postcode included?

c) Consistency – This refers to whether or not the data presented in a field is consistent with other fields. For example, do all the totals presented in a field reflect the true total?

d) Uniqueness – This refers to whether or not the data has only been entered once or has been repeated throughout the data base. For example, are there any duplicate customers?

e) Timeliness – This refers to how often the data in the data base is updated. For example, is the data updated daily, weekly or monthly?


2. Define the relationship between a database and a database management system.

• A database is the key to an organisation. It stores information on people, places, events and objects, for example employee data, financial records, etc. the schema of a database describes the objects in a database and the relationship between them.



• A database management system (DBMS) is the program that is used to monitor the database. It allows all users to be able to access the data. A DBMS allows users to produce reports, as well as manage the in-put and out-put of data.
  

3. Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database.

Example of a database:

http://www.qweas.com/download/business/database_management/screen/mobile_database_viewer_access_xls_oracle_2.jpg

The advantages to an organisation of using a database include:
- Increased flexibility – A good database is able to handle changes quickly and easily, as well as allowing users to access this information in a way that suits their needs.

- Increased scalability and performance – Scalability means how well a business is able to adapt to changes and increased demands. Performance means how well a system is able to perform a process or transaction. A good database will be able to keep up with the increased demand.

- Reduced information redundancy – Redundancy is the duplication of information or the storing of information in multiple places. With the same information being stored in multiple locations, it makes it difficult to determine which values are the most current and accurate. Through the elimination of information redundancy, it records each piece of data in the same space, which saves space making information updates easier and the information quality increases.

- Increases information integrity (quality) – Information integrity measures the quality of the information. Integrity constraints ensure the quality of information, which are able to be built in the database design. The database ensures that the user is not able to violate these constraints

- Increased information security – Information to an organisation is like an asset and needs to be protected from unauthorised users or misuse. Databases can protect this data through passwords (provide authentication to the user who is accessing the data), access levels (who has access to what information) and access controls (what type of access they have to the information).

4. Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model.

Example of a Relational Database Model

http://www.databasedev.co.uk/image/holiday_cottage_bookings_data_model.gif

A relational database model is a database that stores information in the form of two-dimensional tables each consisting of rows and columns. It is the most commonly used database today, with each of the tables logically relating to each other.

The primary concepts of a relational database model are entities, which are a person, place, thing, transaction or event about which the information is stored, entity classes, attributes (fields or columns), which are the characteristics or properties of an entity class, keys and relationships. To be able to manage and organise the entity classes, the primary keys and foreign keys must be identified and used to create logical relationships. A primary key is a field that identifies a given entity in a table, while a foreign key is a primary key of one table that appears as an attribute in another table and provides a logical relationship between the two tables.

5. Describe the benefits of a data-driven website.

Example of a Data-driven Website

http://images.cowlesgraphicdesign.com/websites/district46.jpg

A data driven website is an interactive website that is constantly kept updated and is relevant to the needs of its customers through the use of a database. They are useful when the site offers a great deal of information, products or services. It works through the user entering a query and the relevant data coming up, for example Wikipedia.

The advantages of a data-driven website are:
- Information is able to be updated and changes made at any time, with little to no training required.
- A data-driven website allows the site to grow faster. The layout, displays and functionality of the site is easy.
- A well-designed data-driven website will have ‘error-trapping’ mechanisms to ensure that the information is filled out correctly and the content is entered and displayed in the correct format.
- Changes made to a data-driven website are easy, cutting time and cost. Training on how to use is minimal.
- Changes to the layout, navigation or site structure only need to be programmed once. A data-driven infrastructure improves the reliability and stability of a website while reducing the chance of it ‘breaking’.
- Content on the website is never lost
- A query or search is able to be made on the website with all information relating to the query returned.
- Increases customer satisfaction

6. Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouses and data marts in an organization.

A data warehouse is a logical collection of information that is gathered from many different operational databases and supports the business analysis activities and decision-making tasks (a large collection of many databases). A data mart is a smaller subset of a data warehouse. The main purpose is to gather all information from an organisation into a single repository so that employees can make business decisions and undertake business analysis activities. It allows the organisation to move away from transactional data giving them visibility across the organisation so that reports can written based on the data.

Week 6 Questions - Enterprise Architecture

1. What is information architecture and what is information infrastructure and how do they differ and how do they relate to each other?

- Information Infrastructure: Information infrastructure identifies how and where important information, such as a customer’s records, are maintained and secured. It is a general plan of how IT will be used within an organisation. This means having back-up systems in place to protect data from being lost, as lost data to an organisation can cost not only time, but money, with some of the data not able to be recovered.

- Infrastructure Architecture: Infrastructure Architecture relates to the hardware, software and telecommunications equipment that provide the underlying foundation to support the organisation’s goals. it is the implementation of the architecture that provides effective information.


2. Describe how an organisation can implement a solid information architecture.

An organisation can implement a solid information architecture through having backup and recovery systems, disaster recovery and information security.
A back-up system is an exact copy of an organisation’s information systems. Recovery is the ability for the business to get their systems back up and running after a system crash or failure. An organisation’s backup system should be in line with their business goals.
A disaster recovery plan is a detailed process that outlines how information on an IT system is to be recovered in the case of a disaster, such as a flood or fire. Many organisations have a backup information system stored offsite in the case of a disaster so that all information is able to be recovered.
Information security is about protecting the information that is stored on an organisations system. It is important for an organisation to have secure systems to prevent hackers, as well as having anti-virus software to prevent the attack of viruses on a systems, which can lead to loss of information.


3. List and describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture.

The five primary characteristics of infrastructure architecture are:

a) Flexibility – The business structure put in place by an organisation must be flexible and able to adapt to business changes.

b) Scalability – Scalability refers to how able a system is to adapt to increased demands. This means being able to estimate how much a business is going to grow and being able to account for this growth in regards to the business systems. Capacity planning is a measure of ensuring your business systems are scalable.

c) Reliability – Reliability means ensuring that all of your systems are performing correctly and providing you with accurate information.

d) Availability – Availability refers to when the systems are able to be accessed by employees. A good system is one that is of high availability.

e) Performance – Performance measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction.


4. Describe the business value in deploying a service oriented architecture.

Service oriented architecture is a business-driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating a business as a linked, repeatable tasks or services. It helps businesses to ensure their IT systems are able to adapt quickly, easily and economically to support the rapid changing business needs. It allows businesses to support and strengthen their IT architecture. Through using a service orientated architecture and using meta data and existing applications, these applications are able to be re-used for different tasks which allows development to become cheaper and more flexible.


5. What is an event?

An event is also known as the eyes and ears of a business. It is an electronic message that indicates something has gone wrong and identifies threats and opportunities and informs those who are able to act upon this information.


6. What is a service?

A service contains a set of related commands that are able to be re-used. It is more of a software product than a coding product. They describe a valuable business process.


7. What emerging technologies can companies can use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?

Virtualisation is one emerging technology that businesses can use to increase their performance. Virtualisation is about dividing the resources of a computer into multiple environments. It is about increasing the physical resources to get the most out of hardware. The logical functions of the computing system are removed from their physical function, which can then be automatically or manually allocated to meet the changing needs of the business. Virtualisation allows people, processes and technology to work together more efficiently to meet the increase in service levels. ‘System virtualisation’ (also referred to as ‘server virtualisation’ or ‘desktop virtualisation’) allows the resources of a single computer to be presented as though they are collection of separate computers, each with their own operating systems. The benefits of virtualisation are that it reduces hardware infrastructure to increase the utilisation of software, increase in security benefits, improved service-level management, the ability to run more legacy systems, greater flexibility in finding staff and reduced hardware and software costs.

http://keynetpro.com/images/crtech%20Microsoft%20Virtualization.jpg

Another emerging technology enabling businesses to improve their performance is grid computing. Grid computing uses virtualisation to gather computing and data resources to create a single system image. It helps to create a sustainable competitive advantage as the focus is placed on the core of the business. Some of the advantages of grid computing include:
- Improving productivity and collaboration of virtual organisations and respective computing and data resources
- Allowing widely separated departments and businesses to create virtual organisations to share data and resources
- Providing instant access to massive computer and data resources

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