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Why do we need to study Technology?

Why do we need to study Technology?

Fast changes to our society and wider imaginations have brought our world a lot of advancements and innovations life has to offer. With these changes, the lives of the people were solely affected by means of the Technology.

As we all know, Technology has been invading our world since years ago. And I could say, Technology has become part of our daily lives and considered as one need of the day. Let’s accept it; people became so dependent on technology that they could not imagine life without it.

As a student inclined in Information Technology, it’s a must to somehow learn every new technological advancements that given to our society. It’s a one great way to take a leap towards success in everything that our world dreams of. I believe that every new development is a pace towards the growth of mankind.

We are lucky enough to experience the comfort and luxury brought by these new discoveries. Since our time is the time for Technology, why not spread and let the mass be aware by this modernization? Why not furnish the whole humanity with the information of the latest inventions in technology?

There is no permanent in this world except for the word itself. So lets not hinder ourselves from learning new and exploring things that we would benefit with.

2nd ICEAN Congress with DevCon



2nd ICEAN Congress

Anyone could be a GEEK! The recently concluded 2nd ICEAN Congress proved it. IC students from all year level gathered to participate with this event which is also tagged as “DevCon in USEP” as Society of Information Technology Students is in partnership with DevCon Philippines.

It started with a thought, and later on plan for it. The moment DevCon was introduced to us; I had already in mind that I want to bring it to our school.

After a week of exchanging emails from Ms. Diane Suico, the Executive Vice-President of DevCon, DevCon in USEP got its date – 26th of November 2010.

Yours truly with Ms. Diane Suico, DevCon Executive Vice President

2nd ICEAN Congress and DevCon in USEP started with a blast. Though we started late, still the organizers (SITS) managed to catch up with the schedule.

The first speaker Mr. Eric Su energized the students with his tips on Getting Jobs the Awesome Way! It then followed by with an amazing video from Mr. Milvene Mineses of Simply Gray Studio and shared to us some basic knowledge about Photography and Photoshop. He even showed us actual tools and equipments that awed the students for its overwhelming cost. After that, Edmund Lee and Rojenn Ortiz from Offsourcing Inc. took over and discussed about how important a Resume is and also gave their tips and strategies on how to write a good Resume. A group activity for the graduating and junior students was conducted for a short Resume Writing workshop.

Our dean, Engr. Val A. Quimno formally opened the afternoon session and welcomed the DevCon team. An Introduction to DevCon was made by Mark Maglana that gave an understanding what DevCon community is all about. You now graduated, now what?, one great question from our Keynote speaker Edmund Lee Offsourcing Pres., which is a very inspiring talk especially for the graduating students on deciding their future careers.

Traditional DevCon sessions which are the Lightning Talks a quick and brief talks yet very informative, Birds of a Feather and Hackathon followed after. The topics of the Lightning Talks are:

· IC on Tour by Veniza Joy Macaraeg

· Turning a Passion into a Career by Tina Ortiz, Offsouring Inc.

· Umbraco, an open source ASP.NET CMS by Jong Jison

· Piclyf by Eric Su

· HTML 5/ CSS3 by Dante Michael Afrondoza

· Windows 7 Mobile Development by Rodney Hao

Freebies and prizes were given away for question-and-answer portions and in-between periods. Thanks to Microsoft, G2iX and DevCon for being our sponsors.

The wit and the arguing skills of ICEANS showed off during the Birds of a Feather face-off between Internet Browsers Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Chrome team was declared as the winner and earned DevCon shirts as prize.

BOF participants with Mark Maglana and Diane Suico of DevCon

Simultaneously with the BOF, the Hackathon activity was held. Everyone joined in the countdown and sparked up the liveliness of the Social Hall. The winners brought home flash disks and a mouse pads from G2iX.

The event ended with picture takings. The students went home with loads of new learning and smiles on their faces.

Hackathon Winners with Edmund Lee of Offsourcing Inc.

As an organizer, I could say that I’m relieved that all my preparations paid off. Thanks to all my co-officers and faculty who supported me. Also, I want to send my sincere gratitude to DevCon for gracing us with a set of fun field activities.

It was a wonderful experience putting up the whole event that I will never forget.

Visit also:

devcon.ph

Society of Information Technology Students FB Fan Page

Network Environment


Interview your university network specialist. Ask how various parts of the system communicate with each other throughout the university. (Q) Given the chance to redesign the existing setup, enumerate and discuss your keypoints for an effective and efficient network environment ideal for the university.


We can never deny that technology is growing bigger and had made a big impact in every person’s daily life. On our case, a network is everywhere and a great area for the University to communicate within. In a network, different computer workstations are connected by cabling or wireless systems. This allows them to communicate with each other, including mass electronic mail capabilities. Workstations are sometimes attached to data handling hardware such as servers, which hold a large amount of data, and distribute it as needed to other parts of the network, all of these complex systems require staff to set up, maintain and troubleshoot the entire network to make sure that the business always has the capabilities that the network was intended to support.

Network specialist is the one who is in charge on maintaining and supervising a network. A network specialist is someone who deals with computer networks professionally. The general category of network specialist professionals includes individuals who do a lot of different work with various computer networking systems. They are skilled in various kinds of computer repair and computer maintenance. They are a vital addition to an information technology department, because they can respond quickly to various network issues. When part of a network malfunctions, it can create an extreme problem for a business very quickly.

In the University of Southeastern Philippines, our University Network Specialist is Engr. Ariel Roy L. Reyes, but due to the busy schedule of Engr. Reyes he decided to just cater the student as a class rather than a one on one interview. He was given a questionnaire made by the class and distributed it after. Thus, obviously almost all of us have the same thoughts.

We have asked him how the various parts of the system in the University interact with each other. Unfortunately, he is not the right person to answer this, instead MR. Jappeht M. Fortich and Dr. Tamar Cher R. Mercado, our University Programmers were the best person to share regarding the System Development.

Another question was “What are the components involved in the system(s) in the university? (hardware, software, technology, etc.)”

Engr. Reyes have responded that, “I am not in the right position to discuss the details of the software components used as there are other assigned personnel for such job. However, talking about hardware component and technology used, basically I, assigned as the network administrator, is entrusted to maintain our different servers to run 24/7. Currently, we have our Web Server hosted here in our University in our HP ProLiant ML350 Server. Its an old but stable server set-up here in our Networks Office and has been active since Engr. Val A. Quimno , not yet a dean, was appointed as the Network Administrator. The said server has the following specification:

• Intel Xeon 3.0 GHz, 3.2 GHz, or 3.4 GHz processors (dual processor capability) with 1MB level 2 cache standard. Processors include support for Hyper-Threading and Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T)
• Intel® E7520 chipset
• 800-MHz Front Side Bus
• Integrated Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Adapter
• Smart Array 641 Controller (standard in Array Models only)
• NC7761 PCI Gigabit NIC (embedded)
• Up to 1 GB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM with Advanced ECC capabilities (Expandable to 8 GB)
• Six expansion slots: one 64-bit/133-MHz PCI-X, two 64-bit/100-MHz PCI-X, one 64-bit/66-MHz PCI-X, one x4 PCI-Express, and one x8 PCI-Express
• New HP Power Regulator for ProLiant delivering server level, policy based power management with industry leading energy efficiency and savings on system power and cooling costs
• Three USB ports: 1 front, 1 internal, 1 rear
• Support for Ultra320 SCSI hard drives (six hot plug or four non-hot plug drives supported standard, model dependent)
• Internalstorage capacity of up to 1.8TB; 2.4TB with optional 2-bay hot plug SCSI drive
• 725W Hot-Plug Power Supply (standard, most models); optional 725W Hot-Pluggable Redundant Power Supply (1+1) available. Non hot plug SCSI models include a 460W non-hot plug power supply.
• Tool-free chassis entry and component access
• Support for ROM based setup utility (RBSU) and redundant ROM
• Systems Insight Manager, SmartStart, and Automatic Server Recovery 2 (ASR-2) included
• Protected by HP Services and a worldwide network of resellers and service providers.
Three-year Next Business Day, on-site limited global warranty. Certain restrictions and exclusions apply. Pre-Failure Notification on processors, memory, and SCSI hard drives.

Aside from it, our mail server running under Compaq Proliant ML330 Server, our oldest server, is also hosted here in our Networks Office. Together with other Servers, such as Proxy and Enrollment Servers, both proxy and our enrollment servers are running in microcomputer/personal computers but with higher specifications to act as servers.


Next question is about the network connectivity, “How do these communicate with one another? (topology, network connectivity, protocols, etc.) – may include data flow/ UML diagrams to better explain.”

According to him, “All Servers are connected in a shared medium grouped as one subnetwork. In general, our network follows the extended star topology which is connected to a DUAL WAN Router that serves as the load balancer between our two Internet Service Providers. All other workstations are grouped into different subnetworks as in star topology branching out from our servers subnetwork as in extended star topology. At present, we are making use of class C IP Address for private IP address assignments. Other workstations IP assignments are configured statically (example: laboratories) while others are Dynamic (example: offices). All workstations are connected via our proxy servers that do some basic filtering/firewall to control user’s access to the internet aside from router filtering/firewall management. So, whenever any workstation has to connect to the internet, it has to pass through software and hardware based firewall.”


He was asked on what are the processes involved in the communication (each system to other systems)?

Relative to what Engr. Reyes mentioned above, all workstations are connected via a proxy server. It means that whenever a workstation is turned on, it requests for an IP address from the proxy server (for dynamically configured IP address) and connect to the network after IP address is acquired. As connection is established, each system can now communicate and share resources within the same subnetwork and to server following the concepts discuss in your Computer Network Class.

About the maintenance of the system, they go along by always checking the network servers. He said “basically, our servers are expected to be in good condition since it is required to be up 24/7. Daily, during my vacant period, monitoring on the servers are observed that includes checking logs, checking hardware performance such as CPU health, etc. If problems are observed, remedies are then and then applied. Once in a week, regular overall checkup is observed as preventive maintenance to ensure not to experience longer downtime if possible.”

In the question if the system follow specific standard, he mentioned that different networking standards was already observed such as cabling standards TIA/EIA 568A-B, different IEEE standards which have been discussed in your Computer Networks Subject, etc. Since he was appointed as the Network Administrator, everything was already in place except for some minor changes.

In terms of the security of the system, the vulnerabilities and risk are being mitigated with some process. They have implemented both software and hardware based filtering/firewall which is a part of a computer system or network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized communications. It is a device or set of devices which is configured to permit or deny computer applications based upon a set of rules and other criteria. Essentially, they have considered different mitigation techniques for the risks and vulnerabilities to increase the security in the University network. Aside from these things, constant monitoring on networks activity also increases the security of the system.

With regards to some network interferences and how it affects the business cycle of the University, is somehow unexpected in any network.

Major Interferences are normally encountered as an effect of unforeseen and beyond our control events such as black outs, and the like. The said interference would of course affect University’s day-to-day businesses for obviously this will paralyze all our activities that rely on electricity and further this might cause damage on our network devices, etc. that may later be the reason for longer downtime. Problems encountered by our providers such as connection to the National/International Gateway also affect University’s business such as correlating to University’s Business Partners outside and within the country.

University networking is precisely apparent by most colleges and universities to be one of mainly significant issues they are facing at present. A university grounds network is far more than just a physical infrastructure and planning and building a university grounds network really means mounting an entirely new information setting that will have a profound impact on almost every aspect of campus life. In building networks, campuses are engaged in a change process that is strategically essential to their very nature and existence. For me, before you design your any network setup, you need to understand the physical and logical aspects of your current environment. From a physical standpoint, your design depends on the type and integrity of your network infrastructure.

However, your hardware and software environment affects the details of how users adopt the system. So it is important to understand that network planning really means planning a whole new environment that will encompass information, communication, and entertainment on the campus. The network will provide a powerful, dynamic, new channel of access to the world of information. It will also enhance and fundamentally alter the communication mechanisms on campus. And whether we want it or not, the network will provide a wide range of new entertainment opportunities. This new environment will encompass or touch all the information technology area which will challenge, compete with, and sometimes replace existing modes of campus communications, information access, administrative work, power hierarchies, and budgeting systems.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network



Assuming you were tapped by the university president to evaluate the new enrollment system implemented this semester, enumerate your observations/comments and suggest possible areas and ways where improvements can be made. Your observations/suggestions should be properly validated with facts and literatures...(you may start with the diagrams posted in the strategic locations of the
university)...


It is now on its second year of implementation of the new enrollment system spearheaded by our department Institute of Computing. However, I must say that there are still some lapses and failures in terms of the SRMIS especially now that sometimes I was able to use the system. It was last summer S.Y. 2008-2009 when the new enrollment system was implemented. By the use of tarpaulins posted outside each department, the students are thoroughly guided.


With the non-IC students, they will not really pay attention to what kind of diagram use in illustrating the enrollment system, all that matters to them is that it will serve as steer for the enrollment. But until now, I could say that I’m still confused if they used a data flow diagram or a use case.

The New Enrollment System


Enrollment Procedure for New students and Transferees



STEP 1 – UNIVERSITY GUIDANCE AND TESTING OFFICE
o Encoding of Student Information.
o Identification No. Assignment.

STEP 2 – OFFICE OF STUDENT SERVICES (Scholars Only)
o Scholarship Application.
o Releasing of Scholarship Card.

STEP 3 – ROTC/CWTS
o Registration and Sectioning of ROTC/CWTS.
o Releasing of ROTC/CWTS slip.

STEP 4 – COLLEGE
o Present enrollment requirements.
o Advising / Pre-Registration.
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fee, Obrero Campus Student Council fee, collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.

STEP 5 – STUD ACCTS. (Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.

STEP 5 – CASHIER (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.

STEP 6 – REGISTRAR
o Submit enrollment requirements.
Form 138 (High School Card).
Photocopy of NSO Birth Certificate.
USEPAT Entrance Exam Result.
Admission Slip.
Medical Certificate.
Certificate of Good Moral (Original).
2 pcs. 2x2 recent ID picture.
Prospectus of the enrolled course.
1 pc. Long brown envelop.
Official receipt of tuition and other fees.
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.


Enrollment Procedure for Shiftees


STEP 1 – STUD ACCTS.
o Check students’ accounts.
o Check balance.
o Clearance signing.

STEP 2 – FORMER COLLEGE
o Request to shift.
o Recommendation to shift.

STEP 3 – NEW COLLEGE
o Acceptance of Shiftee
o Advising / Pre- Registration.

STEP 4 – UNIVERSITY GUIDANC
E AND TESTING OFFICE / OFFICE OF STUDENT SERVICES
o Student Profile Updating

STEP 5 – NEW COLLEGE
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fee , Obrero Campus Student Council fee, Collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.

STEP 6 – STUD ACCTS. (Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.

STEP 6 – CASHIER (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.

STEP 7 – REGISTRAR
o Present Clearance.
o Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.

Enrollment Procedure for old students














STEP 1 – STUD ACCTS.
o Check students’ accounts.
o Check balance.
o Clearance signing.

STEP 2 – COLLEGE
o Advising / Pre- Registration
o Payment of other fees (Local
Council fee , Obrero Campus Student Council fee, Collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.

STEP 3 – STUD ACCTS. (Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.

STEP 3 – CASHIER (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.

STEP 4 – REGISTRAR
o Present Clearance.
o Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.

It is very noticeable that the sizes of the arrows hold opposing views that much. There are arrows that looks big which I think not so as to essential to look that way. There is also an arrow from student accounts which are applicable for scholars only pointing to cashier when in fact after the scholars submitted their temporary COR to the bookkeeper and have been checked they will go directly to the registrar.

If I were to say, the kind of arrows shown in the pictures above was not carefully thought before being posted. Maybe it was prepared well but there is no consistency with the diagrams just by looking with these small details. There are also small and big arrows pointing on the same direction which I think are better when it is drawn with definite size.

If I may add, in consideration for the scholars, if you will see the illustration I discerned that the scholarship card validation which takes place at the office of the student’s services was not in it. For the scholars like me, could not have our Pre- Registration form (PRF) encoded unless we can have our scholarship cards (Blue cards) validated. Well in fact, almost half of the students of the university are scholars and with this small disregard may cause some problems during enrollment.

In observation, the processes portrayed by the new enrollment system do not greatly differ to that of the old enrollment system. It has the same initial steps and same manner of dealing out with the transactions.

It was not like that during the previous enrollment system, the previous enrollment system had the encoders give you four copies of the COR, one copy is yours; the others are to be handed to the university bookkeeper and registrar’s office. But before after paying to the cashier (for the non-scholar), they will give the student two copies of the COR, one for the registrar and one for the student. But now, they will only receive a receipt for what they have paid and then they will be waiting for a very long queue of line of students for registration. I thought is they don’t really need a lot of documents any more since the database is now computerized and will be found on the server somewhat on the steel cabinets.

I think it was not that easy because as I have said awhile ago this time, the student will have to wait at the university registrar longer than you needed to since it takes a lot of time to print new sets of CORs. For Old students like us, I think these kinds of diagrams may be not that important at all. Old students from the university already know how the enrollment system in the university flows. Although the system was new, as for students nothing is new, we still doing the same as what we have always do during enrollment last semester. The students will just say that though they are the customers but still they are not the one operating the system so I don’t think that the tarpaulin was really needed.
Taking the side for the new students or transferees, it is really a must to have an illustration but then again the illustration posted, I think was not that accurate enough at least for those transferees. Not all transferees have to take up ROTC/CWTS; they may have already taken it up on their previous school. Transferee’s needs to have their subjects taken from other school validated here if the course or subject description is the same so that he/she don’t have to take it all over again here.

Well, there is no big deal when it comes to the process because we all know as a student, we have to do all the procedures whether we like it or not. But for the convenience of the students, the University should hire or assign more personnel to accommodate a lot of students. The university should also provide electric fans around the cashier and registrar area. The area was too small; and should be relocated to a bigger area, more conducive for us students. These areas were too small for all the students from the seven colleges.

I suppose that there is still no major adjustment found in the system software that would affect to how the transactions are handled, the effectiveness of the system, and other factors. The speed to how the communications are processed still depends on the cooperation and how the people adopt the system.

USEP Pre-enrollment procedures:

USE CASE DIAGRAM for New students:

SCHEDULE FOR EXAM





  • The student first submit all examination requirements to UGTO office.
    The UGTO then accept the requirements then give pay slip to the student.
    The student then pay USEPAT fee to the Cashier, then Cashier issue official receipt.
    The student go back to UGTO then present O.R. #.
    The UGTO then gives schedule for exam.



EXAMINATION SCHEDULE



  • The student take USEPAT exam with english proficiency test.
    The student will wait for results.
    The student who passed will automatically secure an admission slip and then take medical examination.
    The student who failed will take English Bridge Program then after secure admission slip, have a medical examination and be ready for enrollment.

OLD STUDENTS:



  • The student should get all his grades.
    The student process his clearance and have it all sign.
    The student pays all the local and miscellaneous fees.
    The student go to adviser for subject advising and be ready for enrollment.

STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR INFORMATION SYSTEM

fast forward ..., you were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company. The company officers have extended an invitation for you to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company. Before this meeting, they have asked that you provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting.

Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question.

These are the list of questions:

  • Does your company use Modeling techniques to facilitate IT planning? Why?
In a Strategic planning, it is important to create a reference model and methodologies because it captures and characterize the enterprise which shortens the response cycle form Information Systems employment and deployment. This is in order to achieve competitiveness among other companies. It also establishes the relationship between the overall organizational

plan and the IT plan.


  • Why do you think that strategic planning for information systems is essential to your organization?
Strategic planning is essential because it process your organization to establish priorities that a company would use in its future endeavor. For organizational success, strategic planning is moreover very important especially in times of increasingly rapid change in technology. Also the organization must also consider that Strategic Plans cannot succeed without people, time, money, and other key resources



  • Does your company identify tools and methodology for your Information Technology planning? Why?
During strategic planning, several tools and methodologies have been used to ease the development of Information Technology planning within the organization. Thus, methods existed to help the organizations to align their business strategies with the organizational strategies. It is an aid to identify the opportunities for the company to utilize Information Technology for competitive advantage. And in analyzing the internal processes of an organization, these methodologies start with the evaluation of the strategies that check the industry, competition and competitiveness. Other methodologies have been used to help create and rationalize the new uses of Information Technology to the company.


  • Does your organization prepare for an approach for Critical Success Factors? Why?
Critical Success Factors is an approach to Information Technology Planning that has been developed to help identify the information needs of managers. It is a must to be used in order to ensure the organization’s survival and success across its very competitive marketplace. There also a lot of basic statement that an every organization shall possess which are the three to six factors that will eventually result to an organization’s success if only been used very well. Therefore, through Critical Success Factors approach, the company could continuously determine their performance in different areas especially during the stage of strategic IT planning.


  • What is the mission, vision, goals of your company? Does it support your business needs? Why?
In every strategic planning, it is important for an organization to identify their vision, mission and goals. An organization should assure that the plan they have been establishing aligns what the organization really need. These capture the essence why an organization still exists. This also has a reference to the organization company profile. It also explains fundamental needs of the organization need to suffice. It basically conveys the core values of an organization towards its clients. It tries to express the unique nature of your company among others. On the other hand, a vision of an organization wanted to perceive what would be their organization look like in the future. How successful they would be someday. It is use to show the desire of the organization towards an end state. It definitely challenges every people in the company to reach something higher and something significant for the success of everyone in the compelling future. Since every organization has this vision, it affords a long-term focus for the entire organization to achieve. The goals and objectives of the company also describe the desired outcome of the organization that mainly sympathize the company’s mission and vision. It is very needed to clear the choices of the organizations about the future. All of these things should be flexible enough to easily adopt form the fast-emerging changes of technology towards the environment.


  • What are the principles and values does your company have been using? Why is it necessary?
It is very important for an organization to be guided with a standard set of values and belief in order for their company to follow certain viewpoint in life that could be use for the success of the company. They provide an underlying structure for the decision making of the company which later on is a part of the organization’s culture. These values and beliefs should be applicable to the entire organization for them to understand each other within the organization. Values may be appropriate for the sake of the management, for the quality of service and for the customer’s exceptional treatment.


  • Does your company develop an Action Plan? Why?
An action plan is an immediate stroke from the organizations goals and objectives. It is very important for a strategic planning to identify the explicit steps that should be followed to achieve the initiatives and strategic objectives for the plan. Each step just before the strategic planning has been associated with these action plans that geared towards the organizations processes, operations and procedures that been aligned to its business. The action plans illustrated who does what, when does a strategic planning be completed and how will an organization know that the steps they are doing are already completed. Action plans require the supervision of the progress of the objectives for evaluating the performance needed just like what initiatives does.


These are the following questions that I would like to us if ever I would be hired and be invited to develop an organization strategic planning for information systems.
JOHN JUAN or PETER PEDRO?


a.Obviously these two workers have different views on how the systems analysis phase should be conducted. Comment on whose position you sympathize with the most.
b.What method would you propose they take? Why?

Consider the following dialogue between a systems professional, John Juan, and a manager of a department targeted for a new information system, Peter Pedro:

Juan: The way to go about the analysis is to first examine the old system, such as reviewing key documents and observing the workers perform their tasks. Then we can determine which aspects are working well and which should be preserved.

Pedro: We have been through these types of projects before and what always ends up happening is that we do not get the new system we are promised; we get a modified version of the old system.

Juan: Well, I can assure you that will not happen this time. We just want a thorough understanding of what is working well and what isn’t.

Pedro: I would feel much more comfortable if we first started with a list of our requirements. We should spend some time up-front determining exactly what we want the system to do for my department. Then you systems people can come in and determine what portions to salvage if you wish. Just don’t constrain us to the old system.


On the conversation of Peter Pedro the manager and John Juan, a systems professional, I must likely agree on what John Juan trying to say. I understand that John Juan is basically concerned on how really the old system operates and how efficient its performance towards the users until the company decided to change. Although Peter Pedro had also the point of not dealing too much with the old system since they are afraid of just getting the same old system but with just little modifications.

As the Requirement Elicitation Principle is concern, Peter Juan must consider that the systems professional have more knowledge than him. Not that he doesn’t know anything but the aim of requirements elicitation is to understand the problem clearly. Given that system development is determined by a problem.

By reviewing the key documents and observing the workers perform their tasks, the problem could be literally understood. From there on they would already know what is really needed to be change and which should remain. It is right that a thorough understanding with the old system must be the first objective for with this they could already identify and elicit requirements needed for the project.


The analysis stage is the front-end phase of the development process of computer-supported learning systems. This phase constitutes an essential step of the development process and one of the critical issues that determines the quality of the final product. The analysis phase sets the stage for the whole project. The necessary groundwork for understanding what the project is all about is completed in this phase. I believe that they take the strong position that the more effort you put into planning, the smoother the rest of the project will go and the better the quality will be of your final product.

In Analyzing the problem, a system developer must first identify the goal of the system itself. And as John Juan insisted, old system must be examine first to see if there is something wrong with this. An example is the current information is costly to maintain. By then, John Juan could suggest that the next goal would be to reduce maintenance cost. Determining the goals are really a very high requirements for any projects. Next, is to identify the constraints on the solution. An example would be the requirements towards the Operating System look and feel and deciding if they would preserve it or change it.

The goals and constraints should be perceptible in order for the developer and the client have it access at the end of the project management. All of John Juan point’s of view is on evaluating the old system to ascertain the boundary of the system, whether it is on the internal or external environment of the project.

Peter Juan must be right on saying that they should start on listing of the requirements needed. But, he must know that evaluating the old system is not constraining them from the old one, instead giving them a clear picture of a more perfect system.

Because as I have read, doing software requirements specification is not an easy one. That if you finish the software requirements specification in a single time, its already perfect. But, this should undergo revisions in order to be closer on the idea of the client.

The scenario is just somehow related to software prototyping. It has two kinds which are the Evolutionary prototyping and the other is the throw-away prototyping. With the Evolutionary prototyping, the developer must create the prototype of the system that is created for demonstration and requirements elaboration. The reason for this is that the Evolutionary prototype, when built, forms the heart of the new system, and the improvements and further requirements will be. Simply means that this should be made to expect revisions from the old system to the new one.

While throw-away prototyping is a model that eventually be discarded and would not be used for the new system. But throw-away prototyping can be done quickly, so it is much advantage for the system developer. If the users can get quick feedback on their requirements, they may be able to refine them early in the development of the software.


Analysis is the stage by which the needs and conditions of the problem are determined in order to specify the characteristics of the system under development.

This also includes on identifying the requirements resources. Such as the Stakeholders
The domain, the operational environment, the organizational environment , the organizational environment and the application domain.

Next, is to elicit the necessary requirements for the project. So by assessing the old system based on John Juan’s perception, the system developer could actually find out what the users really need. It is not about on what the stakeholders say or opinion. Because not all of the stockholder’s requirements is realistic. Not all information from them would be useful. So before spending too much on doing a non directional system, it is better if they study first the current system leading to specifications to the new system.

Basically, if you just think like a Systems Analyst, obviously you would also choose the side of John Juan.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_prototyping
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4052801/Introduction-to-System-Analysis-and-Design




GOOGLE Business Model



As we have witness for today, World Wide Web have contributed a lot to the lives of many people not just the simple things we do but has come to affect our daily life. Since internet is used for a lot of things like chatting, for research and many more. And one of the most popular corporation that specialized Internet search is Google.

As I first use the internet and have signed up for an e-mail account, honestly, I haven’t thought of using Google since I’m not familiar of it. But just came in my second year in college I observe that Google have more exciting services in my opinion than the other one I used before.

But before Google reached its highest peak of achievement towards the very competitive environment, let just go back first from its brief history.

Google began in January 1996, as a research project by Larry Page, who was soon joined by Sergey Brin, when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California.They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better ranking of results than existing techniques, which ranked results according to the number of times the search term appeared on a page.
The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of the word "googol",which refers to 10100, the number represented by a 1 followed by one hundred zeros.

Since all of us are already dependent on the internet, Google has made a part of every person using the cloud. Aside from Internet searching, it also produces profits from the advertising company through its services like free-to-user email, social networking, video-sharing services and a lot more.

Information Technology basically plays a big role on how Google works. We use Google as a search engine to obtain information in the internet. Thus, their Information Technology department would likely be responsible for storing information, protecting information, processing the information, transmitting the information as necessary, and later retrieving information as necessary. Google is a place with a very high percentage of tech-savvy people.With this, Google think of creating a technology environment where they can capture the users need and eventually get a more chance to improve the quality of management they have. And yes, acquiring additional contented and happy users. The ability of Google to build their own high-performance systems that are not that costly and can still do massive workloads is such a great IT advantage to Google.They have used it as an advantage for offering a lot of services that cater all the needs of the people using the Internet.

According to Hitwise, Google now has 64 percent of the total search market. These days, searching on google just takes between 0.12 to 0.06 seconds. We could say that it is really, really fast. Google had also build their own servers and storage systems.
Google held on to its commanding lead as the preferred search engine in the U.S. in May, processing almost 60 percent of all queries filed, way ahead of its two closest competitors Yahoo and Microsoft.
Google nabbed 59.3 percent of search queries, followed by Yahoo in a very distant second place with 22 percent and Microsoft's MSN with 12.1 percent, according to market researcher Hitwise.
With the Google huge infrastructure, it has establish a more firm barrier to its rival and maintaining a competitive attitude towards the market.

In every success of a company, competition could never be avoided. Thus, despite of all the achievements Google has, competitors would always be there.

Google Competitors :

• Yahoo!
• Ask.com
• MSN
• AOL
• Teoma
• Wisenut




This is a comparison table that simply shows how competitive Google is in the Market.


Google had been in the business for so long. A lot of services had come and go I guess. But there’s a lot of new services that brought excitement to every user of Google. The services like, several desktop applications, including Google Desktop, Picasa, SketchUp and Google Earth, an interactive mapping program powered by satellite and aerial imagery that covers the vast majority of the planet. Also the Google Docs and Google Calendar which I personally used now. Another is the Google Chrome, an open-source web browser. Just last year, Google Latitude have been launched. It is a software that allows users of mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends.

We have known Google mainly as just a promising search engine but there are some features of what made it unique form the other search engines. Like Gmail, a web-based e-mail that allows user to store up to 1Gb. Thus, letting the users to store their mails even the oldest one without thinking of deleting it worrying that the inbox would later on hit the limits of mail. We are familiar of GoogleMaps which let users to search for places and driving directions. As a search engine, it is always a plus factor for processing the information very fast. The speed of Google has also been a key factor in its success.

Google might be different from the other because they develop tools and unique applications that internally useful and it is made originally by the Google engineers and later on releases it to the World. It is not all about these tools, but how uniquely the Company unconventional IT strategy made Google different from the other.

And What makes Google so great? It sets the standard for Silicon Valley: free meals, swimming spa, and free doctors onsite. Engineers can spend 20% of time on independent projects. No wonder Google gets 1,300 resumes a day. These are just few of the services and facts that made Google more unique to its competitors.

If you are just a plain Google user, you will never bother to know on how your searches really works. But for Google Engineers, they would be require to think both insanely on how to deliver the best results to the user. As I have remembered on one of the seminar I have attended, just a simple search for “an orange” compromised about 120 bytes of data. It is not really easy to work on Google. As it founded by geeks and will also be run by geeks. A company where 650 smart people gather to develop more helpful tools to the many. And they believe that the most important thing they will always remember is to understand its user and get their attention, especially their trust.

References:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5131Z620090204
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300292
http://www.programmersparadox.com/2008/03/17/googles-unique-advantage/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google