Reply to Discussions Homework
1st Reply to Discussion, Project Management (Minimum 250 Words)
In order to create a project plan, there are six steps that need to be taken. First, you reiterate the project scope to ensure everyone understands the justification of the project, its deliverables to the customer and objectives of the project. Next, the group will identify the project milestones, phases, activities and tasks that will be completed during the project. This will also assist in keeping track of the project progress. Then, you will quantify the effort required for each task by breaking down each task and determining how many hours will be needed for dedication to the task. From here, resources will be determined and allocated to support each task needed for the project. After this is complete, development of a project schedule can be initiated. Further analysis of the project will be taken while constructing the schedule to see if any other planning needs to be taken before project execution. Lastly, you will list any planning dependencies, assumptions and constraints for the project. These outline any relationships between tasks within the project as well as detailing requirements that must be met to accomplish certain tasks.
For a quality plan to be created, these four steps must be completed. First, define the quality of the deliverables of the project. With everyone at a complete understanding of the expected quality, they can ensure each activity is maintained at the quality. Next, the group identifies the quality of the deliverables targets during each activity. Then, you can describe the quality assurance and control techniques that need to be taken to ensure quality is being met. Finally, you define the processes required to achieve the specified quality targets during each phase or activity.
A communication plan is a document that outlines the information that needs to be shared and when it needs to be shared among everyone involved with the project. This document details which information needs to be communicated, how it needs to be communicated, how often it is communicated and who is responsible for ensuring it is communicated. It is a pretty neat document and the project team discusses this document before starting any project as to ensure everyone understands what information is required from them at which times.
Thanks for reading,
2nd Reply to Discussion, Project Management (Minimum 250 Words)
· Discuss the steps taken when creating a project plan - give examples
· The project plan according to the text is the overall most important document because it will be the drawback point for most of the topics that need to be covered if any type of questions come up during the project. It will highlight time frames, scheduling, points of contact, different phases within the project, who will direct which section and that is to just name a few. This also has a lot to do with the budgeting and it is important to understand that because it is consistent with what is going to be allowed during the project. The project plan will have to highlight who will be involved, the money, the budgeting, the scheduling, the scope of work, the statement of work and other necessary pieces.
· Discuss the steps taken to create a Quality plan
· The steps that need to be taken during the quality plan are effective scheduling that will highlight what is necessary for the project and the people working. Like the text stated, you could meet your deadline but at what cost? Did you have to work your team 14 hour days 6 days a week for 5 weeks to get that goal? If that is the case then the product that is produces is at risk for not being a quality product. This is important to consider because you need to maintain that level or exceeding the customers expectations. Without a quality plan you can run into those issues. A quality plan also details Functionality and features, System outputs, Performance, and Reliability and maintainability. All of these play a different role in the plan but they should not be overlooked by any means. You don't want to produce a product that lacks features that are out dated or no longer the new trend, the system outputs need to be compatible with other technologies that are commonly being used. The performance will need to outlast possibly for the next 2 years and reliability and maintainability will more than likely be the thing that gives the most issues but as long as a good back up system is in place in case the product has trouble, this can still be realistic.
· What is Communication plan and what information does it contain
· Communication plan may consist of how often you report back to your client or stakeholders. That process may include what is the status update on the project, how much money has been spent and have there been any hiccups on the project.
3rd Discussion to Reply, IT Infrastructure (Minimum 150 Words)
An Management Infrastructure System or MIS is broken down into three primary types: information (which supports operations such as backup, recovery, disaster recovery and business continuity plans), agile (supports changes the business may experience by providing accessibility, availability, maintainability, portability, reliability, scalability and usability) and sustainable (supports sustainability of environment through Grid computing, cloud computing and virtualization) (Baltzan, 2012). MIS infrastructure is dynamic meaning it is constantly changing in order to meet the demands of the organization as said organization grows (Baltzan, 2012).
Why are they important? Well, as we all know, in today’s day and age we have grown extremely dependent on technology to accomplish the vast majority, if not all of our daily tasks. Businesses are no different; companies have become dependent on IT systems to conduct their day to day operations, thus, MIS are a must since they provide the means for said company to have the ability to back up data, protect itself from disasters, continue to provide services by any means to their customers. MIS enables businesses to adapt and overcome the majority of the obstacles they may encounter, since it provides a low cost solution that not only provides the customer with 24/7 services but it increases productivity, optimizes business operation, generates growth which in turn increases profitability (Baltzan, 2012). Needless to say a business that does not have a solid MIS infrastructure in place will more than likely face a plethora of issues that may end up causing significant problems that can ultimately cause the business to fail.
References:
Baltzan, P. (2012). Business driven information systems (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
4th Discussion to Reply, IT Infrastructure (Minimum 150 Words)
The infrastructure of an Information Technology system is composed of a collection of assets and components. These entities include the hardware, software, networks, facility, and any components that are integrated into the system. The infrastructure can vary in price, scalability, security, and it can include a wide variance of different entities. In addition, each infrastructure is tailored to its organization’s requirements.
The three primary types of infrastructures include the Information MIS Infrastructure, Agile MIS infrastructure, Sustainable MIS Infrastructure. Each one of these types of infrastructures support a different role. The Information MIS infrastructure supports operations. The Agile MIS infrastructure supports change. Lastly, the Sustainable MIS infrastructure supports sustainability. Each of these play a vital role and each contains its own value in the overall system’s architecture.
The Information MIS infrastructure supports the data recovery process. This includes backups, restores, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning. These implementations and the capability of these processes can vary depending on how much data it processes. The system owner can choose from three different options when they select their disaster recovery site. They can choose either a warm, hot, or a cold site. A service level agreement should also be in place to notify the user of the business continuity plans and of response times.
The Agile MIS infrastructure supports the accessibility, availability, maintainability, portability, reliability, scalability, and usability of the system. It identifies changes within different areas and allows for expansion while maintaining operational use of the system. The lifecycle of the system is important to ensure the upkeep of the system and to ensure security standards are met.
The Sustainable MIS infrastructure supports the sustainability through grid computing, cloud computing, and virtualization. These capabilities ensure the organization is able to best utilize their hardware in order maximize their operations. Utilizing a virtual environment can save money and it can also help provide redundancy. The virtual capability can provide a multitude of capabilities that a physical server cannot provide. It also allows for admins to increase storage to the virtual servers as needed. In addition, it is much easier to migrate virtual machines over to different host if the hardware is about to fail or resource balancing is required.
Reference
Kerr, J. (26 June 2016). Welcome to Business 2.0 as Powered by New IT. Retrieved October 25,
2018, from https://www.inc.com/james-kerr/welcome-to-business-2-0-as-enabled-by-new-it.html
5th Discussion to Reply, Web Development Javascript, (Minimum 150 words)
his week we are covering JavaScript. So, I answer the first question, I would like to cover what JavaScript is. I am sure we all know what JavaScript is, but I think it is better to refresh our knowledge about it. JavaScript is a client-side and server-side scripting language which is used to make Web pages rich and dynamic. I am sure many of you have encountered such Web page already before way back when you didn’t know anything about it yet. Using JavaScript to add interactive capabilities to Web pages offer advantages such as speed in term of development, simplicity, interoperability. Unlike Java, JavaScript does not need to compile on the client side and on the server side unless there are outside resources required. JavaScript is also a lot easier to learn compare with Java. I can say this because I had Java and JavaScript classes before. I am not expert but base on my experienced, Java was a lot complicated. The last advantage I would like to mention is the interoperability. I think that this feature is very useful for every scripting and programming language. Developers love this feature because it allows them to combine other languages.
With all the advantages also comes disadvantages with it. The biggest disadvantage of JavaScript is the security issue. Excuse my word but I hated JavaScript because of this. Back in the day, I encountered problems with browsers hanging or acting up or even being infected with virus because of the wrong use of JavaScript on a website. I think this is what made JavaScript less popular. Because of this problem, comes the second disadvantage of JavaScript; disabled JavaScript. Many users disable this JavaScript because of bad experience. So, the code used in a Web page is not rendered.
As for my assignment last week, I spent most of my time thinking what animation of effects I could add. I did not add much because I personally do not think it would look good on my Web page. But for that sake of this assignment, I made my logo on the header slide to the right and back to original when opened. I also used buttons, text-shadow and made my web page two columns.
6th Discussion to Reply, Web Development Javascript (Minimum 150 words)
Just like anything in life and any program, they have their advantages and disadvantages. That is true for JavaScript. JavaScript client side scripting provides many advantages over server side scripts. For example, using JavaScript, you can check if any user has entered a correct email address in a form field. JavaScript is one of the simplest, lightweight, versatile and interpreted programming language used to extend functionality in websites. It also comes with some negative effects, which can make a person think twice before applying JavaScript to your website.
Some of the advantages of JavaScript are you can validate any user input before sending a request to the server. This makes less load on the server. It has a relatively easy language when talking about software. It also has a fast response to the websites visitors. It has no server interaction in other words you do not have to wait for a page reload to get your desire result. It is fast for the end user as the script is executed on the user’s computer, depending on task, the results are completed almost instantly. It is interactivity increased by creating interfaces that can react when the user hovers over them or activates them using the keyboard. It has rich interfaces like drag and drop components or slider may give a rich interface to your site visitors.
Some disadvantages are security issues while appended onto web pages on client side immediately can also be used for exploiting the user’s system. It does not have any multiprocessor or multi-threading capabilities. It cannot be used for any networking applications. It does not allow you to read or write files. It also renders varies JavaScript may be rendered by different layout engines differently. As a result, this causes inconsistency in terms of interface and functionality. I am sure if you speak with people who use JavaScript daily they will all have their options of the advantages and disadvantages.
Reference
UI, N. (2016, February 23). Advantages and disadvantages of JavaScript. In nameste. Retrieved October 24, 2018, from http://www.namasteui.com/advantages-disadvantages-javascript/
7th Discussion (Minimum 150 words)
what are some of the free online resources that you found useful to pick up the JavaScript language? What are some of your favorite JavaScript features?