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IS242 Management Information Systems Week 1 Discussion For your follow up post…review the responses provided by your peers. Engage in conversation, or even civil debate, as you discuss their insights and viewpoints. You may ask questions for clarification (if you are confused by their initial post) or pose questions that advance the conversation. You might even find a topic that leads you to further research in the area! Roles and purpose of Information Systems Please respond to BOTH of the following discussion topics and submit them to the discussion forum as a single post. Question A Tell us about yourself so we can get to know you and so you can get to know others within the class. In your post, include what you believe to be your current knowledge level of this course topic and what you hope to learn before the course is over. Question B Information Systems are all around us. From the earliest days of computing with massive mainframes capable of a fraction of what a modern laptop can do, computing has been a part of our lives. Describe your experience or interaction with Information Systems, either through work, school, or in some other capacity. At the time, did you identify it as an information system? What do you think makes (or made) it one – or not? Why? When replying to classmates, see if you agree with their understanding of the concept of information systems. Expand on why you feel as you do.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 2 Discussion Careers in Information Systems As we’re beginning to see, Information Systems is made up of many different roles. Consider one such role that interests you and search the internet to discover the projected future of the job, the potential earnings, the skills and education needed to get the job as well as skills you may need to frequently update in order to remain competitive and relevant in a field reliant on ever-changing technology. When replying to classmates, think about the role they’ve researched and whether it interests you. Compare to your choice – what do you like about each? Does the new information affect your initial choice?   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 3 Discussion It’s all about Data Just like information systems, data is all around us and has been long before computers became the indispensable tools they are now. From the first hieroglyphs scratched into clay tablets to inventory grain stores, people have recorded important data in many different ways. Think back to when you were younger. What are some things you made a list of or counted? Your book or music collection? Some kind of collectibles like sport or other cards? How did you record your data? Tables? Lists? Something else? How would you recreate it now using technology? Remember the correlation of rows to records and columns to attributes. Consider those early records. How might they translate to a database table? Using the table tool in the comment box, create a simple table with 3 records and 3 attributes per record. Describe how you decided on the layout and row/column names used. How does this exercise add to your understanding of data or even databases? When replying to classmates, examine the tables they created and the methods they chose. Are they similar to yours? If different, how? Can you think of a better way or a different technology than they mention?   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 4 Discussion Working in the cloud Cloud computing, as we’ve seen, is a blanket term that now encompasses many different products and services. Take a look at Amazon Web Services or Azure Development Tools offerings to see just how much is available. Then do a search on jobs that involve cloud computing either on the provider end or as an IS professional making use of such services. Write a paragraph or so on one such job. What kind of skills are necessary? What kinds of organizations are hiring and how does the pay scale measure up to your expectations? Do you foresee this career as one with a broad future ahead? Why or why not?   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 5 Discussion Analytics as part of IS Management Data Analytics and business intelligence aren’t new concepts, by any means, but the methods, tools, amounts and kinds of data have definitely changed over time. Consider the role of analytics in the management of information systems based on your knowledge and experience as well as our readings and activities. Discuss some of the ways in which analytics assist information systems management as well as the organization at large. What kinds of data are most useful and how is it gathered? How do managers protect customer, client, and even employees’ personally identifiable information in order for those who may not have permissions to view it? How is the data secured in general?   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 6 Discussion Knowledge Management Knowledge management is a method of compiling knowledge, using it as a reference tool, and fostering learning among new employees and staff. It is, in a very real sense, a model seen throughout human civilization. More experienced workers pass on their skills and knowledge to younger ones through guided internships or apprenticeships. Instructions or methods are written down and saved to help train others. Knowledge management formalizes processes so there is a record and a resource available. Seems like a very logical and essential thing to do yet there are examples of the neglect to manage knowledge that caused businesses to falter and, in some cases, fail. Our readings refer to tacit and explicit knowledge. As we’ve seen, explicit knowledge is knowledge that is easy to explain, write down, or share. Tacit knowledge is gained from experience and can be more difficult to explain. In the article What is KM?  Professor Michael E. D. Koenig suggests this might be expanded to include ‘implicit’ knowledge. Implicit knowledge refers to knowledge or skills that are transferrable from one job to another. Consider your experiences in a work or other environment where knowledge was essential to success.  Were there resources available to help or were people left to figure things out from the ground up? Was the knowledge of more experienced workers or those about to retire valued and retained or did the organization ‘re-invent the wheel’ over and over? Discuss successful or unsuccessful knowledge management in this situation and how it either did or could have helped. In replies to classmate postings, see if you can relate to the situation or circumstance. Elaborate on why or why not. What might you have done in a similar situation?   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 7 Discussion Waterfall vs Agile These two methodologies are often seen in different environments to help manage projects in an efficient and streamlined way. They help keep everyone on the same page from the beginning of a project onward. Take a look at the readings referencing both, or even outside research, and discuss the differences, similarities, and circumstances in which you believe they would apply. Provide at least one substantive example for each. In responses, consider your understanding of each methodology and the examples provided by classmates. Do you agree with their examples? If not, elaborate on why you feel this way. If so, discuss their example or provide one of your own to compare.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 8 Discussion DQ1 Ethics in IS People working with information systems are privy not only to sensitive information but also systems which can be vulnerable to internal or external threats. Even seemingly benign behaviors like checking personal email on a work computer can put the computer, network, and business at risk. This is why such activities are usually prohibited in the workplace or on work equipment. From our readings and activities as well as your own experience, discuss a scenario in which unethical behavior or actions can create problems. Be specific about the risk, the issues that can result, and why it is essential to follow guidelines and ethical tenets required by an employer. In replies to classmates, think about the situations they have described and whether you’ve experienced something similar. Where there consequences – either punitive or preventative? DQ2 End of Course Survey All students need to complete this survey as it provides valuable information for us to better meet your needs, improve our courses, and provide for a better overall student experience – which is one of the Three Pillars of Excellence upon which Grantham is built. If you have not yet completed your survey (these are needed for every course) please select End of Course Survey and do so now. It is needed for the following Discussion Question: After completing your survey, share what you feel is the most valuable suggestion for improvement. Share only what you are comfortable with. Ensure you placed this suggestion in the survey comment section.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 1 Assignment   Chapter 1 1a. Create a table or spreadsheet that lists 10 or more possible career areas—including estimated annual salaries and brief job descriptions. Rate how much you think you would like each potential career area on a scale from 1 (“don’t like”) to 10 (“like the most”). You can use Word or Excel for this part of the assignment. 1b. Highlight roles that you feel pertain to information systems. Add a column to briefly describe where this role fits within the umbrella of information systems. Save as doc or xls depending on which application you’ve used. 2. Use presentation software to create a set of three slides that identifies the top three things you hope to learn from this course and why each is important to you. Save as a PPT file. 3. Submit both files by clicking on the assignment title to find the dropbox (upload facility at the bottom of the page)   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 2 Assignment   Choosing a Computer 1. Consider what you use a computer for and make a list of these tasks and activities (at least 5). 2. Research the main hardware features that will support the things you want to be able to do on your new computer (at least 5). 3. Research at least one example of software to perform each of the tasks in your list. 4. Create a table or spreadsheet listing both hardware and software, the tasks you need to perform, and a price range for each. 5. Include a paragraph discussing the possibility of green computing alternatives to your choices.  This can be in Word or Excel formats.       IS242 Management Information Systems Week 3 Assignment   Researching Big Data Briefly define the term Big Data, what it is and how it is used. Choose one of the following research topics related to Big Data. Find articles that discuss the use of big data in your career field or a field in which you are interested. What benefits are being delivered? What are some of the hardware and software tools being employed? What complications are limiting the results of big data? Write a paragraph or two answering each of these questions. Many executives still mistrust the results of big data and analytics. Find articles that address this issue and summarize the key reasons why. How might these issues be overcome? IBM Watson is a question-answering computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language. Find articles that appeal and develop a one-page report that either discusses how Watson is “trained” or an application of Watson of interest to you.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 4 Assignment   Case Study: Cloud Helps Fight Cancer Each minute a person in the United States dies from cancer—over half a million deaths per year. Thousands of scientists and physicians are working around the clock to fight cancer where it starts—in our DNA. DNA is a molecule present in our cells that carries most of the genetic instructions used in the development, functioning, and reproduction of all known living organisms. The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. The complete set of DNA instructions is called your genome, and it comes packaged into two sets of chromosomes, one set from your mother and one set from your father. Sometimes those instructions are miscoded or misread, which can cause cells to malfunction and grow out of control—resulting in cancer. Doctors now routinely use patient genetic data along with personal data and health factors to design highly personalized treatments for cancer patients. However, genome sequencing is a highly complex effort—it takes about 100 gigabytes of data to represent just a single human genome. Only a few years ago, it was not even feasible to analyze an entire human genome. The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international, collaborative research program whose goal was the complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings. The HGP took over 15 years and cost the neighborhood $3 billion, but the result was the ability to read the complete genetic blueprint for humans. It takes a computer with powerful processing power and prodigious amounts of storage capacity to process all the patient data required to sequence their genome. Most researchers simply do not have the in-house computing facilities equal to the challenge. As a result, they turn to cloud computing solutions, such as the Amazon Web Services public cloud system. Thanks to cloud computing and other technical advances, sequencing of a human genome can now be done in about 40 hours at a cost of under $5000. Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio invented Churchill, a software application that analyzes gene sequences very efficiently. Using cloud computing and this new algorithm, researchers at the hospital are now able to analyze a thousand individual genomes over a period of a week. Not only does this technology enable the hospital to help individual patients, it also helps large-scale research efforts exploring the genetic mutations that cause diseases. Using the cloud also enables doctors and researchers worldwide to share information and collaborate more easily. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) is a research program supported by the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, whose goal is to identify genomic changes in more than 20 different types of human cancer. TCGA researchers compare the DNA samples of normal tissue with cancer tissue taken from the same patient to identify changes specific to that cancer. The researchers hope to analyze hundreds of samples for each type of cancer from many different patients to better understand what makes one cancer different from another cancer. This is critical because two patients with the same type of cancer can experience very different outcomes and respond very differently to the same treatment. Researchers hope to develop more effective, individualized treatments for each patient by connecting specific genomic changes with specific outcomes. Critical Thinking Questions What advantages does cloud computing offer physicians and researchers in their fight against cancer? Estimate the amount of data required to analyze the human genome of 100 patients for each of 20 different types of cancer. Physicians must abide by HIPAA regulations when transmitting data back and forth to the cloud. The penalties for noncompliance are based on the level of negligence and can range from $100 to $50,000 per violation (or per record). Violations can also carry criminal charges, resulting in jail time. What measures can be taken when using cloud computing to ensure that patient confidentiality will not be violated? Submit the assignment to Dropbox. Remember, information should be restated in your own words. Any direct quotes should be properly credited to the source and quotes should not comprise more than 20% of the paper.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 5 Assignment   Research Enterprise Systems or eCommerce Choose one of the following research topics related to Enterprise Systems or eCommerce. Locate an article on eCommerce systems and how they work. Describe how they might be implemented at either a large or small scale and the types of information systems that would need to be in place to support them. Find an article discussing significant technology innovations or security concerns over the last few months. Discuss the innovation or event and what the impacts are or might be. Research transaction systems and identify one to summarize. Discuss advantages, disadvantages, and the process of integrating such a system into an existing information system.     IS242 Management Information Systems Week 6 Assignment   Research assignment Choose one of the following topics: Business intelligence tools BI and Analytics Artificial Intelligence Datamining Augmented Reality Knowledge Management Intelligent Systems Explore the topic you choose in a one-page paper or 10 slide presentation. Include any legal, ethical, or security concerns related to the topic. If doing a slide show, include links just like you would for a paper on a final reference slide.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 7 Assignment   Researching DevOps Choose one of the following research topics related to DevOps. Find articles that discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Agile software development process. Create a two-column table listing advantages on one side and disadvantages in the other. Research companies that have employed DevOps. What activities did these organizations include in their implementation of DevOps. What benefits did these organizations achieve? What complications did they have to overcome? Locate an article that offers suggestions on how to improve the success of software development projects. List at least five and comment on why you feel they are particularly valuable.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 8 Assignment   Research Assignment Choose one of the following research topics: Find at least one article discussing the characteristics of a strong security system. Elaborate on those characteristics focusing on the value they bring to an organization.  Locate one or more articles concerning cyberattacks related to the Internet of Things. Briefly describe the two most serious attacks you can find. What is being done to safeguard the Internet of Things from further, even more, serious attacks? Research the benefits and consequences related to ethical decision-making. On the positive side, how will a company benefit from making ethics-based decisions? On the negative, what might result from unethical decisions? Can you find an example to illustrate?    IS242 Management Information Systems Week 1 Cumulative Project Assignment   Each week you will be adding to a cumulative project.  You will submit weekly assignments and your final project will be the total compilation of all of the combined weeks. Determine a business or organization in need of information systems. This can be a business startup or changes in an existing business. If an existing business belonging to you (now or in the future), treat it as if you will be upgrading technology beyond a single computer, software integration, or system. You’ll be using this concept throughout the course so give it some thought. In this lab: Project Definition 1. Define your IS project and determine what information systems and personnel will be necessary to meet needs and requirements. 2. Is this a startup or a business converting to or making significant changes to its business model and systems? Data 3. What types of data do you think you will be working with? Organizational Changes 4. How big a staff do you think will be needed and in what capacity? Will new people need to be hired and trained? Will existing staff need training? Initial Concerns 5. What initial security, ethical, or legal concerns might you have? You can adjust this later but based on this week’s readings, make your best estimate. We’ve briefly touched on many different concepts and will look at them in greater depth later, so don’t worry about knowing everything now. We’ll revise and re-estimate as we go.         IS242 Management Information Systems Week 2 Cumulative Project Assignment   Project Plan: Moore’s Law and Software/Hardware Revisit your initial ideas about an organization for which you’ll be developing or converting to include information systems. Hardware/Software Requirements After this week’s readings on hardware and software, determine the kinds of hardware you think you’ll need to get meet project requirements. Is this a single-user or multi-user system? Explain. Research, if necessary, to help justify your choices and arrive at an estimate of what these items may cost. Again, you’ll get the chance to revise this information as you learn more and perhaps adjust your initial ideas but try to keep the totals realistic based on your current understanding. Competition Also, explore Moore’s law in the Week 3 videos. Moore’s Law essentially proposes that technological changes will occur on average every 2 years. These changes can create advantages for companies that have the means to implement them quickly, thus creating greater competition. Investigate the probability that your business will have significant competition in the next 18 months. Does competition exist now and how will you make your product or service stand out? Address each of these areas using the headings provided and submit as a Word document. Be sure to run spellcheck and keep quotes to a minimum with credit given to sources. Include any references used. Include project summary each week at the top or add to the previous week as the project is cumulative and the entire document will be submitted in week 8   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 3 Cumulative Project Assignment   Project Plan: Data Data Types 1. Create at least 3 tables to illustrate the kinds of data your company will deal with. They can be related or separate types, internal or external. Consider your headings and which might work as primary keys – remember primary keys must be unique. Highlight or bold the primary key for each table. See Chapter 5, Section 1b for examples. Data Flow 2. Create a diagram illustrating data flow (see Chapter 5 figures for examples). It doesn’t need to be complex at this point, just a breakdown of the system or systems you’ll be using to handle data. Where does external data enter the system? Where does it go and who will have access? Is internal data like employee information directed to one department or person? Why? Where will data be stored – on a local server, the cloud, or something else? PII 3. Lastly, address how you will handle PII (Personally Identifiable information). In what ways can you ensure only those who need access to such information can retrieve and view it?   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 4 Cumulative Project Assignment   Project Plan: Cloud and Networking Needs An information system is limited in its capabilities without access to the internet. Data and communications must flow smoothly and reliably. Infrastructure 1. What kind of infrastructure will be necessary to support your business? Consider the options discussed in Chapter 6 reading and videos and determine what kind of network and storage will be necessary to support the business. Integration 2. Will you start small and expand or get everything in place from the beginning? What are the cost and other benefits of each?  Legal concerns or security risks 3. Are there any risks or legal issues that preclude a specific option? Cloud integration 4. What about cloud services? Can SaaS, DaaS, or other cloud-based tools be more economical and convenient than traditional ones? Do you foresee a need for occasional upscaling of services in times of increased usage like sales, inventory cycles, or holidays? If you decide against cloud services or storage, discuss why you made that decision. Revisit your data flow diagram from last week. Do your choices now affect your original design? If so revise to include the new decisions. Address each of these areas using the headings provided and submit as a Word document. Be sure to run spellcheck and keep quotes to a minimum with credit given to sources. Include any references used.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 5 Cumulative Project Assignment   Project Plan: eCommerce and/or mCommerce We’ve learned a lot about eCommerce this week and it’s time to look at where it will fit with the overall business. eCommerce Model 1. What types of commerce will fit with your business (B2B, B2C, C2C or a blend)? How? Even if it isn’t an immediate concern, proceed as if it will be in the future. See sections 7-1 for details on each. Feasibility Plan 2. Create a feasibility plan for eCommerce, mobile, and/or traditional commerce. How will they interact with one another and how will data be handled? Will everything go to a central location to help track availability and inventory? Sections 7-4 and 7-5 will be of help here. Web or Mobile Presence 3. Discuss how you’ll go about creating a web and/or mobile presence. 4. Sketch out or using a photo editing program to envision what your website or app might look like.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 6 Cumulative Project Assignment   Project Plan: Using data mining, business intelligence, AI, Expert systems or knowledge management As mentioned before, a business generates and relies on massive amounts of data. In many cases, this data be useful in business intelligence and analytics to help make decisions going forward. Data Collection 1. Discuss preliminary ideas on how you can make use of the data you collect to continue to grow your business (chapter 9). 2. Will you use live data or datamining or some combination? Explain (chapter 9). 3. Are there any ethical or legal concerns with its use? Explain (chapter 9). Knowledge Management 4. What about knowledge management (Ch. 10, section 1)? Expert systems or AI (Ch 10, section 2)? Do they fit in your business plan? Detail which and how. If you don’t think they will fit, discuss why not.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 7 Cumulative Project Assignment   Project Plan: Agile, Waterfall, DevOps, SWOT SWOT Analysis 1. Perform a SWOT analysis on your business project. Define strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Use table 11-1 as a guide. Strategic Plan 2. Expand on your analysis with a strategic plan to address each area. How do you protect or ensure strengths and opportunities while mitigating risks and threats? The strategic planning pyramid in figure 11-2 will be helpful. Each level is described below the pyramid. DevOps 3. After reading more about DevOps, consider where it fits with your organization or department. What principles and practices would you consider useful to adopt? Why? (MindTap assignment as well as section 12-5). Models and Frameworks 4. Also consider the Agile and Waterfall models as well as Scrum. Again, which would you adopt? Will more than one work for different aspects of the business? Refer to figures 12-1 and 12-17, tables 12-2 and 12-10. 5. Create a diagram or flowchart detailing how the model or framework you chose would work within your structure. Figures and tables mentioned above can provide example models.   IS242 Management Information Systems Week 8 Cumulative Project Assignment   Project Plan: Risks and Threats Risk Assessment 1. In the last portion of our project, perform a risk assessment based on learning and experience. What risks can you identify? What can be done to address them? Are any of them considered acceptable risks? Why and what will it cost if the risk becomes reality? (Chapter 13, section 2). 2. Discuss or expand on threats and plans to address them. Are your plans for security, both locally and online, sufficient? If not, what else can you do to protect your systems as well as your data? (Chapter 13) Ethics 3. Will you require training in ethics for employees? How will you respond to or enforce breaches due to employee error or deliberate misbehavior? (Chapter 14). Finalize 4. Look at the project as a whole. Finalize or refine anything in your previous labs that needs it, add appropriate diagrams, tables or images you’ve created, then combine everything into one document, save, and submit.