Project Management (Week 12)

Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.

The triple constraint is the framework for evaluating the competing demands of cost, time and scope. The relationship between these variables means that if one of the three factors changes, at least one other factor is likely to be affected. For example, increasing the scope of a project may result in an increase in time and/or cost. 

The triple constraint is important in project management as all projects are limited by these three interdependent constraints. A project manager must make intelligent trade-offs between time, cost and scope.

Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning

Gantt chart is a simple bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar, with tasks listed vertically and the project's time frame listed horizontally.

PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart is a graphical network model that depicts a project's tasks and the relationships between those tasks. PERT charts frequently display a project's critical path; the critical path is a path from the start to the finish that passes through all the tasks that are critical to completing the project in the shortest amount of time.

Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success

To ensure success a project manager much focus on three primary areas, which are: 

• communications
• managing people
• change 

Outline 2 reasons why projects fail and two reasons why projects succeed

Two reasons why projects fail:

• Poor planning: a failure to properly plan can be detrimental to the success of a project. Good planning uses tools such as a project plan, Gnatt charts and PERT charts.
• Scope creep: the project grows beyond its intended size resulting in time delays and increased costs.

Two reasons why projects succeed:

• Change management: A project managers ability to anticipate and react appropriately to change will better position a project for success.
• Communication: good communication is essential for the success of a project. A project manager should distribute timely, accurate and meaningful information regarding project objectives that involve time, cost and scope and quality, and the status of each.

Customer Relationship Management & Business Intelligence (Week 10)

What is your understanding of CRM?


Customer Relationship Management involves the managing of all aspects of customer interactions with an organisation with the intention of increasing good customers and increasing profitability-it costs less to retain loyal customers than find new ones. CRM has become an integral component of modern business.

Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.

Operational CRM supports traditional transactional processing for day-to-day front-office operations or systems that deal directly with the customers. Analytical CRM on the other hand, supports back-office operations and strategic analysis and includes all systems that do not deal directly with the customers.

Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments

The Customer Relationship Management technologies used by marketing departments are campaign management and opportunity management. Campaign and opportunity management includes information such as costs, target audience and return on investment.

The CRM technologies used by sales departments essentially allows for the streamlining of the sales process. CRM technologies in this department are used to coordinate the sales process, by helping salespeople organise their jobs, calendars, contacts, appointments, meetings and multimedia presentations. 

How could a sales department use operational CRM technologies?

A sales department can use CRM technologies for a number of things which include:

• List generators, e.g. to find information a particular customers in a particular demographic.
• Campaign management.
• To know when and what to up-sell and cross-sell.

Describe business intelligence and its value to businesses

Business intelligence refers to technologies that provide access to data for strategic decision making. It is a long-term tool that supports decision making. It is valuable to a business as it allows managers to find patterns and trends, and better respond to change in the dynamic business environment. 

What is the Future of Business Intelligence?

Explain the problem associated with business intelligence. Describe the solution to this business problem.

The problem with business intelligence is that although businesses are data rich, their information is poor. The solution to this business problem is the use of business intelligence because it allows for better decision making to take place and also reduces latency. 

What are two possible outcomes a company could get from using data mining?

The benefits a business could get from data mining are:

• Better use of resources.
• More sales through being able to better market products based on the intelligence gained by data mining.

Operations Management & Supply Chain (Week 9)

Define the term operations management

Operations Management (OM) is the management of systems or processes that convert or transform resources into good's and services.

Explain operations management’s role in business

Operations Management ranges across the organisation and includes many interrelated activities, such as:

• Forecasting
• Capacity Planning
• Scheduling
• Managing Inventory
• Assuring Quality
• Motivating and Training Employees
• Locating Facilities

Operations Management Careers In Business

Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology

Managers use IT to heavily influence operations management decisions such as:

• WHAT:  what resources will be needed and in what amounts?
• WHEN:  When should the work be scheduled?
• WHERE: Where will the work be performed?
• HOW:  How will the work be done?
• WHO:  Who will perform the work?

Explain supply chain management and its role in a business

Supply Chain Management (SCM) involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximise total supply chain effectiveness and profitability.

A supply chain is a network of organisations and facilities that transform raw materials into products delivered to customers. Supply chain includes transportation companies, warehouses, and inventories.

SCM plays a major role in a business because it allows transmitting of messages and information among the organisations involved and ensures that each stage of the chain is being monitored in order to make the process more effective and efficient.

List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain


There are 5 basic supply chain components which include:

• Plan

A company must have a plan for managing all the resources that go toward meeting customer demand for products or services.

• Source

Companies must carefully choose reliable suppliers that will deliver goods and services required for making products. They must also develop a set of pricing, delivery, and payment processes with suppliers.

• Make

Companies manufacture their products or services. This can include scheduling the activities necessary for product testing, packaging, and preparing for delivery. This portion of the supply chain measures quality levels, production output and worker productivity.

• Deliver

The set of processes that plans for and controls the efficient and effective transportation and storage or supplies from suppliers to customers.

• Return

This is typically the most problematic step in the supply chain. Companies must create a network for receiving defective and excess products and support customers who have problems with delivered products.

Define the relationship between information technology and the supply chain.

Information technology's primary role in supply chain management (SCM) is creating the integrations or tight process and information linkages between functions within a firm (such as marketing, sales & finance), and between firms, which allow the smooth flow of both information and product between customers, suppliers and transportation providers across the supply chain.

Networks & Wireless (Week 8)

Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.


One of the benefits of wireless technology is that people can be anywhere and access information on the run. It is convenient, easy and efficient. Wireless technology is accessible with small devices such as phones, that can be easily carried around, have sufficient computing power to perform productive tasks and can communicate wirelessly with the internet and other devices. Wireless technology has enabled increased the speed of delivery to markets.  

Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP


VoIP enables phone calls, faxes, voice mail, e-mail and web conferences over digital networks. The benefits of VoIP include: 

• customers can port their numbers between carriers
• calls over the internet do not attract telecommunications charges
• VoIP runs over the existing computer network

Compare LANs and WANs


Local Area Networks (LANs) connect computers that reside in a single geographic location on the premises of the company that operates the LAN. The network itself is a way to share data to devices.


Wide Area Networks (WANs) connect computers at  a different geographic site. It is a series of LANs joined via the internet.

Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.


Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are tags that use radio waves to transmit data and are frequently used in inventory tracking. RFID technologies offer practical benefits to almost anyone who needs to keep track of physical assets. Manufacturers use this technology to improve supple chain planning , retailers use it to control theft as well as to increase efficiency in supply chain and improve demand planning. 


Unlike the commonly used barcodes, RFID tags can be read from much greater distances. If a person enters a store with a packet of gum in a handbag or pocket, the RFID reader can identify the packet of gum, time, date & place of purchase as well as how frequently the consumer comes into the store.

Identify the advantages and disadvantage of deploying mobile technology

Advantages                                                                                    

• bluetooth is able to penetrate solid objects & can operate over a distance of 10 or 100 meters.
• bluetooth is omni-directional & does not require line of sight positioning of connected device
• mobile technology is dramatically changing the potential of mobile phones

Disadvantages

• security of bluetooth devices continues to be a priority in the development of mobile phone technology

Databases and Data Warehouses (Week 7)

List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high quality information.

1. Accuracy - missing important information, example missing customers first name   
2. Completeness - incomplete information, example missing street name
3. Consistency - duplicate information, example similar names
4. Uniqueness - potentially wrong information, example are phone & fax numbers the same?
5. Timeliness - incomplete information, example missing area codes 

Define the relationship between a database and a database management system.

A database is an organised collection of data while a database management system (DBMS) is a group of programs that manipulate the database. The relationship between the two is that, the DBMS provides an interface between the database and its users as well as other application programs.


Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database.

Organisations can benefit from using databases in the following areas:

• Data Integrity - data must meet constraints (eg. student averages cannot be negative)

• Data Independence - applications and data are independent of one another, they are not linked to each other. 

• Data Security - keeping the organisation's data safe from modification, theft or destruction

Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model.


A relational database is a collection of tables from which data can be accessed in many different ways without having to reorganize the tables.

Describe the benefits of a data-driven website.

A data-driven website is an interactive website constantly updated and kept relevant to the needs of its customers through the use of a database.


The benefits of a data-driven website include:

• development
• higher efficiency
• lower production and update costs
• opportunity for future expendability
• content management
• minimisation of human error

Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouses and data marts in an organisation


A data warehouse is a logical collection of information gathered from many different operational databases, that supports business analysis activities and decision-making tasks.


It's primary purpose is to aggregate information throughout an organisation into a single repository for decision-making purposes.

Creating A Data Warehouse - Build A Better Business With Better Data

A data mart contains a subset of data warehouse information. They have focused information subsets particular to the needs of a given business unit such as operations or production for example.

Enterprise Architectures (Week 6)

What is information architecture and what is information infrastructure and how do they differ and how do they relate to each other?

Information Architecture

A general plan of how IT is to be used within an organisation. A firm decides what goods and services they will produce. 


Information Infrastructure
The implementation that will provide for effective IT systems, including hardware, software and services.


How do they differ?
IT architecture is the general plan and IT infrastructure is the implementation of the plan


How do they relate?
They are both vital parts of the implementation and change of IT systems within an organisation.

Describe how an organisation can implement a solid information architecture 


Information architecture identifies how important information, such as customer records, is secured and maintained. A solid information architecture includes 3 primary areas:

• Backup and recovery - businesses continually lose time and money due to system failures, therefore, one way to minimise the damage of a system crash is to implement a backup and recovery strategy

• Disaster recovery plan - is a detailed process for recovering information. A comprehensive disaster recovery plan considers the location of the backup information

• Information security - Identity theft and information security is on the rise, therefore managing user access to information is a critical piece of the information architecture. Ensuring up-to-date antivirus software is another way to minimise the risk of information security

List and describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture. 


Reliability - ensures all systems are functioning correctly and providing accurate information. Low accuracy puts the organisation at risk.


Scalability - is a systems ability to meet growth requirements and refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demands. Scalability involves capacity planning.


Flexibility - requires being able to meet changing business demands, systems must be flexible enough to meet all types of business changes.


Availability - high availability refers to a system or component that is continuously operational for long periods of time. Availability ensures business continuity. 


Performance - measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction. There is a growing pressure on systems to be faster.

Describe the business value in deploying a service oriented architecture 


A service oriented architecture (SOA) is a business-driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating a business as linked, repetitive tasks or services.


SOA ensures IT systems can adapt quickly, easily and economically to support rapidly changing business needs. Users are able to re-use applications multiple times for different tasks using existing applications, which makes development cheaper and more flexible. 

What is an event? 

An event is an electronic message indicating that something has happened, it detects threats and opportunities and alerts those who can act on the information. An event is repetitive, it is business procedures that happen often such as a credit check.

What is a service?

A service contains a set of related commands that can be re-used, it is more like a software product. An example of a service is a system that has a trigger that will send an email to all people in the system. 

What emerging technologies can companies use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?


VIRTUAL COMPUTING is an emerging technology that can be used to increase performance and utilise infrastructure more effectively. Virtual Computing runs multiple operating systems on a single computer and ensures enterprise applications perform with the highest availability and performance. It also reduces capital costs by increasing energy efficiency.

Ethics and Security (Week 5)

Explain the ethical issues surrounding information technology.


Privacy is one of the major ethical issues surrounding information technology. It is the right to have control over your own personal possessions and to not be observed without your consent.


Other ethical issues include:

• Intellectual Property                               
• Copyright
• Fair Use Doctrine
• Pirated Software
• Counterfeit Software

Describe a situation involving technology that is ethical but illegal.


A person who purchases a software package and makes two copies, keeping one for backup. It is illegal because they made a copy of the software but ethical because the intention is good.

Describe and explain one of the computer use policies that a company might employ


Internet Use Policy contains general principles to guide the proper use of the internet within an organisation. The policy describes available internet services, defines the purpose and restriction of internet access, describes user responsibilities and complements the ethical computer use policy.

What are the 5 main technology security risks?

1. Human Error                                                
2. Natural Disasters
3. Technical Failures
4. Deliberate Acts
5. Management Failure

Outline one way to reduce each risk.

Human Error: password policy such as changing passwords regularly

Natural Disasters: Backup data that is kept off site 

Technical Failures: Regular recovery testing

Deliberate Acts: system audits to track down malicious activity

Management Failure: Well documented procedures

What is a disaster recovery plan, what strategies might a firm employ


A disaster recovery plan is a plan that outlines processes of regaining access to computer systems and data after a disaster has occurred.  A firm could employ strategies such as communications plan, business continuity, location of back up data, well documented procedures, regular recovery testing and off site data location. 

How To Automate A Disaster Recovery Plan For Your Business