RESEARCH PAPER: TOPIC PROPOSAL AND OUTLINE INSTRUCTIONS
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Researchpaperproposal1.docxRESEARCH PROPOSAL 2
Businesses Security Policies and Implementation Issues
Trevor Henry
Liberty University
3/29/2020
Businesses Security Policies and Implementation Issues
Creating and managing security programs in a business is an effort that businesses grow into over a period of time. The goal of business organizations is to find a common ground of responsibly managing the risks that comes with the various types of technologies which the company chooses to deploy. As such, in creating foundation for a security policy, the company must designate duties responsibly for cyber security. A mature security program requires a specific policies and procedures. Additionally, security system integration drives the modern organizations and is a key catalyst for the growth. It enables the organizations for the purpose of leveraging the existing processes, technology, persons, and information to stay ahead of the competition. This paper is a research proposal of Businesses Security Policies and Implementation Issues in relation to Cyber Security. The first part of the paper discusses the concept of system integration in businesses focusing on the importance of software development process. The paper then proceeds to discuss the approach of big-bang integration. The third part of the paper delves on top-down and bottom-up integration approaches. In the final part, the paper delves on the traditional approaches of mixed integration, combining the desirable advantages from top-down and bottom -up integration approaches.
System integration
System integration is a process that involves cohesion of system created from components that are not specifically designed to work in unison. The components of an integrated system are usually system in their own rights. According to (***), system integration is the process of connecting different sub-systems components into a single larger system that functions as one. With regards to software solutions, system integration is typically defined as the process of linking together various IT systems, services and/or software to enable all of them to work functionally together. The main reason for organizations to use system integration is their need to improve productivity and quality of their operations. The goal is to get the organizations various IT systems to “talk to each other” through the integration, to speed up information flows and reduce operational costs for the organization. But system integration is not used only to connect an organization’s internal systems, but also third parties that the organization operates with. The main methods of system integration include pint-to-point integration, vertical integration, horizontal integration, and common data integration.
Importance of system integration
A well-integrated system is important to the organization because it does not only reduce the energy consumption of the organization, but it also allows for drilling down the valuable customer data. Because of this reason, multiple organizations today are integrating with various platforms to bridge the gap between businesses. The importance includes;
Improved Data Accessibility
With the help of system integration, data accessibility becomes easier for stakeholders in organizations. This allows the businesses to make informed decisions at all levels of operation, thus resulting in accelerated business growth.
Better Communication
A well-integrated business has, improved connectivity which streamlines communication between participants of various functions in the organization. Because of this, organizations can easily share more information that was previously difficult, costly and time-consuming to access.
Improved Productivity
Rather than having to duplicate data from one place to another and wait for information to be received from other departments, employees can now spend more time on crucial tasks that will help the business grow.
One-Stop Service
Having all of the valuable data stored in one place, the relevant information is easier for employees to access and share. When one is able to view every aspect of the organization from one system, they will have fewer things to manage and worry about.
Robust Growth
A rapidly growing company can quickly become entangled in a complex application and system landscape. But with an integrated software system, problems can be solved and changes can be made with just a few clicks rather than by having to visit multiple systems. Hence, CRM software has the organization covered.
The Big-Bang Integration Approach
Big Bang Integration Testing is an integration testing strategy, wherein all units are linked at once, which results in a complete and efficient system. In this type of integration testing all the components as well as the modules of the software are integrated simultaneously, after which everything is tested as a whole. During the process of big bang integration testing, most of the developed modules are coupled together to form a complete software system or a major part of the system, which is then used for integration testing. This approach of software testing is very effective as it enables software testers to save time as well as their efforts during the integration testing process. However, if the test cases and their results are not properly recorded in big bang testing, the entire integration process can become complicated and may also prevent the testing team from getting their desired goals or results from integration testing.
Advantages of Big-Bang Integration
· Big bang integration testing is used to test the complete system.
· The amount of planning required for this type of testing is almost negligible.
· All the modules are completed before the inception of integration testing.
· It does not require assistance from middle components such as stubs and driver, on which testing is dependent.
· Big bang testing is cost effective.
· There is no need of immediate builds and efforts required for the system.
Disadvantages
· In Big bang integration testing, it is difficult to trace the cause of failures as the modules are integrated late.
· This approach is quite challenging and risky, as all the modules and components are integrated together in a single step.
· If any bug is found it becomes difficult to detach all the modules on order to find out its root cause.
· Defects present at the interface of components are identified at a later stage, as all the components are integrated in one shot.
· Since all the modules are tested together chances of failure increases.
· There is a high probability of missing some crucial defects, errors and issues, which might pop up in the production environment.
· It is difficult and tough to cover all the cases for integration testing without missing even a single scenario.
Bottom-Up Integration
In this type of integration, the system integration procedure starts from the integration process begins from the lowest level module to the highest-level module of integration. It also uses test drivers to drive and pass the appropriate information to the lower modules. As the code for other modules increase, the drivers are replaced with actual modules.
Advantages
· It is suitable for applications where bottom up methodology has been used
· Advantageous when major flaws occur towards the bottom of the program.
· In cases where low level modules together with their combined functions are invoked by other modules, it becomes more useful to test them for meaningful and effective integration
· Test conditions are easier to create.
· Observation of test results is easier.
Disadvantages
· One big disadvantage of bottom up strategy is that in this sort of testing no working model can be represented as far as several modules have been built.
· The program as an entity does not exist until the last module is added
· Test engineers cannot observe system level functions from a partly integrated system. They cannot observe the system level functions until the top-level test driver is in place.
Top down integration testing
Top-down integration testing is an integration testing technique used in simulating the behavior of the lower-level modules that are not yet integrated. Stubs are the modules that act as temporary replacement for a called module and give the same output as that of the actual product.
Advantages
· Isolation of interface errors becomes easier because of incremental nature of top down integration.
· Test cases designed to test the integration of a module are reused during the regression tests performed after integrating other modules.
· Advantageous if major flaws occur toward the top of the program.
Disadvantages
· Until a certain set of modules have been integrated, it may not be possible to observe meaningful system functions because of an absence of lower level modules and the presence of stubs.
· Test case selection and stub design become increasingly difficult when stubs lie far away from the top-level module.
· Observation of test output is more difficult.
Mixed Integration
Integration means bringing the quantitative and qualitative strands of a mixed methods study together for analysis and comparison, or for one strand of the data collection and analysis to inform the other. Often investigators discuss the integration in the text of manuscripts but joint displays of the data may provide another way to integrate the study strands. Mixed methods may be valuable throughout the development and testing of interventions - in the development of the intervention, during the evaluation of the intervention, and after the follow-up and assessment of outcomes is completed. Qualitative approaches are most frequently used to develop an instrument, to understand strategies for successful recruitment, to find areas for intervention adaptation, to understand the processes of an intervention, to evaluate fidelity and other implementation factors, to explain outcomes, to provide feedback to improve intervention, and to understand mediators and moderators.
References
Herath, T., & Rao, H. R. (2009). Encouraging information security behaviors in organizations: Role of penalties, pressures and perceived effectiveness. Decision Support Systems, 47(2), 154-165.
Kaner, C., Falk, J., & Nguyen, H. Q. (2000). Testing Computer Software Second Edition. Dreamtech Press.
