Replies and Critical analysis needed
John_matt
replies_needed.docxMake sure you explain the reply further, At least 6 to 8 sentences.
Replies needed 1
Chapter 11 discusses measuring business processes. Review the RR Case Study and requirements for part #8 of the IT Decision Paper and come up with 4 business performance measures that the senior executives might review each day on their individual desktop dashboards.
1. Number of customer complaints
2. How long the average delivery/pickup takes
3. How long a vehicle is in maintenance
4. Number of hours the drivers are on schedule
1. Sr. executives would want to see how many complaints there are coming from the customers. This information can prove to be handy for not only the correction of the problem, but it can also assist in preventing future problems for other customers.
2. Determining how long the average delivery/pickup takes will help in adjusting routes to the customer, required equipment to bring for the service, and archives the information for future services of the same requirement.
3. It is very important that this is tracked closely to not take away from the fleet and to keep business running smooth. Without the vehicles running safely and according to state and federal laws for tracking of maintenance, this could possibly put our business to a halt.
4. The number of hours our drivers work is a matter of safety for them and any person travelling on the road. We must ensure they are not over worked, they have the required time off to rest, and that they are not a hazard to anyone on the roads.
Reference:
1. Info Entrepreneurs. Measure Performance and Set Targets. Retrieved from:
http;//www.infoentrepreuners.org/en/guides/
Original document, Measure performance and set targets, © Crown copyright 2009 Source: Business Link UK (now GOV.UK/B
Reply 2 needed
The two SDCLs that I chose were the waterfall model and the Spiral model.
Waterfall Method
The water fall model shows the progress in a downward fashion starting with the beginning on top and working the way down towards the finish and is one of the easiest life cycles to explain. So in this process none of the next steps can be started until the previous step is completed. However, one of the disadvantages is that it does not give a process for going back and making changes if necessary. The testing phase does not occur until near the end of the process meaning issues will be caught later and result in a more difficult time trying to fix those issue.
This model works well with well-defined smaller projects. But does not work well with complicated projects that have requirements that have a decent chance of needing to be changed.
Spiral method (SDM)
The next model is the Spiral model. This model is a combination of the waterfall model and a prototyping method. It tries to combine the advantages of bottom up and top down concepts in one model. It essentially uses the same steps as the waterfall model but is separated by planning, risk assessment, and building of prototypes.
This model is designed for use with large complicated projects. The estimates of the project can become more realistic as the process continues. There are earlier phases of testing which can find any issues sooner. The negatives of this model is that it can be expensive and because a lot of the steps are customized to the specific project it makes the process difficult to reuse.
I added an attachment with a picture of both systems that show how the process is used.
Sami, M. (n.d.). Software Development Life Cycle Models and Methodologies. Retrieved from Melsatar: https://melsatar.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/software-development-life-cycle-models-and-methodologies/
SDLC - V-Model. (n.d.). Retrieved from TutorialsPoint: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/sdlc/sdlc_v_model.htm
SDLC - Waterfall Model. (n.d.). Retrieved from TutorialsPoint: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/sdlc/sdlc_waterfall_model.htm
Reply 3 needed
1. Chapter 11 discusses measuring business processes. Review the RR Case Study and requirements for part #8 of the IT Decision Paper and come up with 4 business performance measures that the senior executives might review each day on their individual desktop dashboards.
During this technological upgrade several divisions within Rusty Rims(RR) Distribution Company process performance will be measured for efficiencies and deficiencies against the previous systems. The senior management team will view the performance measurement of several company procedures and how they will effectively increase the companies revenue base and production while reducing cost over the years in comparison to its competitors.
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Measure |
Benefit to the Business |
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Driver routes and pickup orders |
The upgrade “routing” system will provide VP Operations and Senior Management with the necessary information to measure dispatcher intake effectiveness. In addition to viewing, track and forecast the efficiency of each driver's route and re-routes from origination terminal to drop off (delivery). VP and on-site Operations Managers can monitor the reduced delivery time for customers. |
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Financial Reporting |
CFO, authorized management, and staff will have the functional capabilities of ad-hoc reporting to produce required SOX financial audit and reporting requirements with increase accuracy and efficiency. |
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Finance System Performance |
The Accurate Financial system improves staff performance with a more accurate percentage to exceed the “estimate” 95%. Data validation will prevent inaccurate information impacting the customer during the billing phase, in turn, will minimize client complaints and improve confidence in RR. CFO will have the ability to monitor data accuracy against billing. |
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Fleet Maintenance |
Operations will have the ability proactively to monitor any preventive maintenance, repair scheduling and parts inventory for the entire RR fleet. In turn minimizing any delay in route deliveries. |
Reply 4 needed
Nearly a year ago on a Monday, I was pulled by my upper Chain of Command to create a logistical tracking system. They wanted to be able to pull a database and know the status of every outstanding logistical requirement at all times. At the time, requirement statuses could be found but you had to navigate through several programs to get a clear picture of the status. Because of the immense number of offices and work centers, I expected concocting the database to take roughly a week. I expected to need the first day to design the query and test it to make sure it pulled the exact data I needed every time. I then expected it to take an hour per work center to sift through the data and color code certain items and ensure that everything being dumped into the database was current and accurate. I explained to my superiors that I would need five working days and I would present the database the following Monday morning.
At the time, I had never written a query and was familiar with old versions of the software (like, for Windows 95), but I was not well trained in the current version. I spent the first day putting the query together and watching tutorials on the software. A mentor came to help me and showed me the best way to structure the query. She also showed me how to add code that colored data automatically depending on the input. On Day 2, I did my first data dump. The query she had shown me was perfect, and the color coding occurred automatically. It also pulled all work centers and populated them automatically. I set up filters and made a few tweaks and tested it again. By the end of Day 2, the database was finished. In retrospect, I should have taken the next few days off and presented on Monday as planned.
Instead, overly excited and pleased with myself, I informed my supervisors that the database was ready. They were as pleased as I was and promptly decided I could do anything in 40% of the time expected. The consequences of this were more work than any one person could handle. Over the next month I repeatedly tried to explain that I could not meet some of the deadlines provided, and I was repeatedly ignored. It took a long time for them to understand that the one poor planning incident should not set the tone for future projects. I was chewed out constantly for missing deadlines that I had told them were unreasonable in the first place. Things have evened out now, but it was a definite learning experience for me, and I have not given a timeline on a project since then without consulting with my mentor first.
Reply 5 needed
Consider a situation you've experienced when you made an inaccurate estimation for the duration of some activity. It doesn't necessarily need to be during a project (though that would be desirable if possible).
1. a) What was the situation?
This situation that I was involved in where I had given an inaccurate estimate of time for a task to be completed, was about four years ago. I was in charge of a team that was responsible for a small part of a larger project, but we were the customer interface for all outside organizations. Our task was to work with the customers at each base and track their SharePoint migration. We functionally tested all organizational sites and worked with site administrators to recover data that didn’t originally migrate over.
1. b) Describe how you made the estimate. Discuss your reasoning for estimating the duration of the activity the way you did.
The estimate was first made taking into account the overall content size of each base or military installation. Our back shop or server administrators had all been through a migration before and had made their estimates based off of lessons previously learned. Our entire team also included contingency plans for just about any major issue encountered. The server administrators timeframe along with the amount of time that it had taken us to functionally test our testing environment and production sites, are all circumstances that helped to drive my estimation. I felt that my estimate was a pretty well rounded and thought estimate, with proof of concept working in my favor, considering all other estimates were met or exceeded.
1. c) In what way was it inaccurate? Discuss the factors that caused your estimate to be inaccurate.
It was inaccurate, because we were unable to meet my time estimate for migrating one particular base. As I mentioned before, we had contingency plans for just about any issue you could possibly think of concerning migrating an entire base. We were unable to migrate an organization’s data from the old environment to the new environment. I have to say that the team of about 25 subject matter experts, to include vendor representatives, was not able to figure out exactly what the problem was. Because of this phenomenon, the majority of the scheduled migration time was used trouble shooting verse migrating.
1. d) What was the outcome of the situation?
The outcome of the situation was that the suspense or estimate for that base was busted. Even though the migration was only pushed back by an additional two days, there were additional financial and personnel cost. The vendor was on station longer than contracted and overtime was paid to all of the non-military employees that worked the issue around the clock and also continued with the other base migrations. I of course didn’t get into any trouble nor was I held responsible for the busted suspense.
1. e) What were the consequences of the inaccuracy?
There were no personal consequences for the inaccuracy, because all of the migration stakeholders were very involved in the planning and although I was responsible for making the customer notifications, the team had already agreed on the estimates and timeframes, before every informing the customers. This was a situation that even though it had been planned for and time built into our estimates, it was just a situation that we had no control over and had to work to find a resolution.
Reply 6 needed
1. What was the situation?
I planned a going away luncheon for boss and the miss the fact that the head count was firm and was charged for the buffer attendees.
1. Describe how you made the estimate. Discuss your reasoning for estimating the duration of the activity the way you did.
From experience, I know that we always have stragglers. However, this was the first time I worked with a fixed menu. So, I went with my usual procedures not paying attention to the apparent differences “fixed menu” not a pay per order.
1. In what way was it inaccurate? Discuss the factors that caused your estimate to be inaccurate.
Less people attended than estimated (i.e. no stragglers) and I did not pay close enough attention to the details.
1. What was the outcome of the situation?
I had to pay for the difference.
1. e) What were the consequences of the inaccuracy?
More money was paid than necessa
Reply 7 needed
John,
Thanks for your post. With all the threats surrounding computer systems (mobile or otherwise) it is important to utilize technologies like virtualization and containers to limit the amount of exposure for the Agency. Everyone must be diligent in securing their systems and information as there will always be bad actors. You are correct that cost is also a big factor. A lot of times agencies are required to do more with less resources so somethings suffer, including security.
You also pointed out that cloud services should be utilized. As such there must be more training for administrators and system owners to understand cloud technology because often times people believe the service provider is providing security services, however, the agency always have some security responsibility as well. FedRAMP offers only baseline security as does Amazon and other cloud service providers.
Reply 8 needed
Dmitriy,
Your post was informative, and you are absolutely correct that developers need to do a better job with the programming of mobile applications and networks must be properly designed to support them.There also has to be better policies regarding mobile applications because they are not required to have the level of security as web-based applications.
You mentioned that the benefits of government applications is not there; however, I disagree. I agree that improvements are required, but there are many benefits to government applications. It is nice to be able to go to a government website and request services instead of having to travel to an office and speak with someone in person. One can file their taxes online, get health and benefit information online, and apply for jobs. The list is endless.
Consider that there will always be security issues as technology is continuously changing. Remember security is a journey.
Reply 9 needed
Thank you Zena. There are methods to increase mobile device security and some companies do incorporate them into their business. Methods such as encrypting devices, authentications, stronger passwords and connections to mobile device management software for configurations, allows IT departments to have a strong grasp on security ("Learning guide," n.d.). I'm sure with time, more defensive practices will come and be incorporated as well for stronger security.
When I wrote about benefits of the government applications, I meant to compare it to the applications being in immature stages in security aspect and data that has potential to be leaked, causing more damage, thus outweighing the benefits. Of course these applications are a big plus and I fully support them as they lead to innovations and ways to reduce cost.
Learning guide: Mobile device protection. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/guides/Mobile-device-protection-and-security-threat-measures
