Elevator Pitch 2

Below is the text from my final elevator pitch.

Is this the end or the beginning? Whilst these are my closing remarks pertaining to my study in this subject, I can only feel that this is a beginning more than an end as this subject has provided a good overview of a very broad range of topics pertaining to E-system infrastructure development, however they present for me the starting point, a foundation from which I can build future skills in this area. In the final few workshops I was given the opportunity to examine the deployment of a web application from an IT Manager perpsective and I have to admit, I enjoyed the second half of this course more in terms of the exercises and blog development, no doubt because there was less focus on programming. Topics such as internet security have a global applicability which makes the subject matter far more accessible for a programming numpty such as myself. With e-commerce an ever growing area and the use of online shopping increasing, this subject has certainly provided me with a greater understanding of the underlying concepts and considerations required to make an online store a reality. As a potential future IT manager I am sure what I have learned in this subject will serve me well over the coming years.

Exercise 16 - Reflective Study

The final topic is for group reflective study using the wiki tool in CSU Interact and a way for you to add a final reflective comment on systems integration and make your closing remarks to your Developer’s blog.

1. Choose ONE of the four ways to manage and develop integrated systems as listed below;

2. Summarise your understanding and describe its relevance (250 words max) in either your study at university or in your work environment;

3. Edit TWO similar versions (include bibliography) of that summary to CSU Interact:

a. post version A as a wiki page contribution;

I have posted a version of the below post on the wiki page at the following link:

http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/ITC594_201030_W_D/page/6d759d71-73ac-4a65-8047-d7a3e38c1953

b. add version B as a final entry to close your developer’s blog.

I have chosen Business Process Analysis (BPA) to examine as one of the ways to manage and develop integrated systems. A business process is a set of logically related business activities that combine to deliver something of value to a customer. Increasingly, organisations are realising that the first step in almost any major project is to analyse and define their business processes, and then communicate those processes to those who need them whether the project involves integrating standalone IT systems; using Web Services to connect partners and suppliers or making best use of the new Business Process Management tools (Pedrinaci, Domingue and Medeiros, 2008). As stated by Cousins and Stewart (2002) the aim of BPA is to understand how the processes of a business function and interact. The functions of BPA are as follows:

• understand the organisation and its purpose or “mission” and relate this to the organisation’s current business processes.

• identify and analyse the collection of processes and activities currently operational within the organisation, and ascertain how far they achieve the business’s objectives.

Clearly, by employing BPA a company can define their business processes. This is a crucial step required to understand how an organisation works, how that organisation wants or needs to work, and how to go about bridging the gap between the two (Pedrinaci, Domingue and Medeiros, 2008). From a systems integration perspective, BPA is a process which can assist in mapping out all present operational processes which can assist with enabling selection of an ERP vendor whose standard modules are most closely aligned with the established organisation, or alternatively inform the development of a new integrated system to support those operational processes. This is certainly what has occurred in Defence recently with Joint Project 2077 which attempts to integrate all Logistics Support Systems under one single system provided my MINCOM. In order to shape this integrated solution a detailed BPA was required to ensure that the integrated solution was able to support the operational processes within Defence.

In terms of closing remarks for this blog, noting that this is the final exercise (although I still have one elevator pitch to complete) I have captured most of my comments under Workshop 8 in terms on some thoughts on the subject and what to improve. Unfortunately I have had to complete the exrecises and and workshops ahead of time due to an up and coming work committment. In most cases I would have liked to have taken more time in completing these exercises, but unfortunately time has caught up with me and I have no real choice but to submit now, although if I am able, I will go back and edit some of my posts in order to improve this. My work and personal circumstances aside, I have found this subject very interesting and extremely useful. I particularly liked how the workshops were geared such that everyone started as a developer, and then the option was presented to change roles to an IT Manager. For me, this was a Godsend as I would have seriously struggled from the developers perspective as I have a very limited programming background. Further, given that I am studying this subject under an MBA, my area of interest is more IT management, rather than development. I trrust that, for those who read this blog, that it was useful and interesting. I have certainly enjoyed putting it together, depsite my compressed timeframe, and various challenges in wrestling with programming.

Cheers

Ricko

Elevator Pitch 1

Below is the text to my first elevator.

Ruby on Rails killed th Easter bunny, or at least it did for me, as I wrestled my way though the Ruby on Rails workshops over the Easter long weekend. I have to admit, the first half of this subject has presented great challenges for me. Given my limited programming and IT background the Ruby on Rails workshops took a great deal of research and application to complete. It is a Godsend that Ruby on Rails is a fairly easy to learn and somewhat intuitive web application framework. This meant I was able to pick up some basic programming very quickly and provided a great insight into the developers world, if only at the novice level. I feel that this knoweldge will place me in good stead for my future as a potential IT Manager. In terms of the completion of exercises for the blog, many of these were also quite time consuming and at times challenging. Starting from fairly benign beginnings with an overview of e-commerce and distributed applications on the internet, the blog then examined clients, servers, distributed paradigms and database servers which saw me battle and wrestle with Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008. The blog then entered more challenging territory with programming of web servers, looking at languages of the web, html and Java included. Building on this knowledge the blog examined web technologies and frameworks such as XML and Ruby on Rails and examined distributed objects through RMI and CORBA. So whilst the easter bunny didn’t visit this year, I am at least wiser in the ways E-systems Infrastructure development, and perhaps a little healtier from the distinct lack of Easter eggs. Besides, the Easter bunny will be next year.

References

This blog is simply a list of References I have utilsed in my posts to date. I will amend this and update as I work through the final few exercises.

Bidgoli, H. (2008). Global Perspectives In Information Security: Legal, Social, and International Issues. New York: Willey.

Boer, P. d., & Pels, M. (2005). Host Based Intrusion Detection Systems: University of Amsterdam.

Burman, F., Fox, G., & Hey, A. (2003). Grid Computing: Making Global Infrstructure Reality. San Franscisco: Wiley.

Costello, R. (2009). Building Web Services the REST Way.

Cousins, J., & Stewart, T. (2002). What is Business Process Design and Why should I Care? Rivcom.

Eustace, K. (2009). ITC 594 - E-systems Infrastructure Development Study Guide. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University.

Fasli, M. (2007). Agent Technology for E-commerce. New York: Wiley.

Flanagan, D. (2005). Java in a Nutshell. California: O'Reily Media.

Hartl, M., & Prochazka, A. (2008). RailsSpace: Building a Social Networking Website with Ruby on Rails: Pearson Education.

Holzner, S. (2006). Beginning Ruby on Rails. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing.

Ince, D. (2004). Developing Distributed and E-Commerce Applications (2nd ed.). Essex: Pearson Education.

Jain, R., Chandrasekaran, A., & Erol, O. (2009). A systems integration framework for process analysis and improvement. Systems Engineering, Aug 2009.

Kneiling, J. (2002). Choosing the Right Web Services Framework Retrieved 18 April, 2010, from http://www.technologytransfer.eu/article/21/2002/12/.NET_or_J2EE_-_Choosing_the_Right_Web_Services_Framework.html

MSDN (2010). Waitable Timer Object (Windows) Retrieved 4 April, 2010, from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms687012%28VS.85%29.aspx

Pedrinaci, C., Domingue, J., & Medeiros, A. K. A. d. (2008). A Core Ontology for Business Process Analysis. The Open University.

Reynolds, G. W. (2010). Information Technology for Managers. Boston: Course Technology.

Selvam, R. (2004). Thread Synchonization for Beginner Retrieved 4 April, 2010, from http://www.codeproject.com/KB/threads/Synchronization.aspx

Webopedia (2010). DHCP Retrieved 12 Mar 2010, from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DHCP.html

Webopedia (2010, 6 Jan 2010). Phishing Retrieved 4 April 2010, from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/phishing.html

Whatis.com (2010). What is Cloud Computing Retrieved 15 Mar, 2010, from http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid201_gci1287881,00.html

Whatis.com (2010). What is peer to peer Retrieved 20 Mar, 2010, from http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci212769,00.html

Wikipedia (2010). AJAX (programming) Retrieved 23 Mar, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29

Wikipedia (2010). Client-server Retrieved 20 Mar, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Client-server

Wikipedia (2010). Deadlock Retrieved 4 April, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlock

Wikipedia (2010). Domain Name System Retrieved 12 Mar 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System

Wikipedia (2010). Event (computing) Retrieved 4 April, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_%28computing%29

Wikipedia (2010, 29 Mar). HTTP Cookies Retrieved 3 April, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

Wikipedia (2010). Location-based service Retrieved 17 April 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location-based_service

Wikipedia (2010, 26 Mar). Locl (Computer Science) Retrieved 4 April, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_%28computer_science%29

Wikipedia (2010). Model View Controller Retrieved 23 Mar, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller

Wikipedia (2010). Mutual Exclusion Retrieved 4 April, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_exclusion

Wikipedia (2010). Online Community Retrieved 16 Mar, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community

Wikipedia (2010). Price Comparison Service Retrieved 17 Mar 2010, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_comparison_service

Wikipedia (2010, 3 April ). RSA Retrieved 4 April 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA

Wikipedia (2010, 4 April). Secure Electronic Transaction Retrieved 4 April 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Electronic_Transaction

Wikipedia (2010). Semaphore (programming) Retrieved 4 April, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_%28programming%29

Wikipedia (2010). Thread (computer science) Retrieved 4 April, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_%28computer_science%29

Wikipedia (2010). Wireless Mesh Network Retrieved 17 March, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network

Workshop 8 Ruby on Rails Workshops Report and Evaluation

Workshop 8 - Ruby on Rails Workshops Report and Evaluation

Topic objectives

Upon the completion of this workshop, developers or managers should be able to:

• Identify and evaluate the Ruby on Rails workshop series
• Think critically and analytically about what you knew before and after the experiences
• Share and post your Report and Evaluation with peers via the subject forum.

Evaluation and Report

Please answer each question in this evaluation section. In your answer, please consider content/topics presented and the technologies and teaching strategies used during the Ruby on Rails Workshops. Results will be collated and used to modify the workshop series.

This form is just a format guide to you evaluation and report. Thank you for your time to complete workshop 8.

1. List what you consider to be the three strengths of Ruby on Rails workshop series

1. Providing in experience in developing / managing the introudtcion a web application was by far the biggest positive for this workshop series.

2. Allowing students to adopt either a developer or IT manager role was a strength, but does require some refining in how this is done. This allowed someone like myself, with limited programming background, to still gain an appreciation of web application development, but also provide some exposure to IT management considerations.

3. Using a Web application that iis relatively easy to learn is a strength. This allows students, irrepsective of their programming background, to get their feet wet and do some programming, however basic.

2. List what you consider to be the three weaknesses of Ruby on Rails workshop series:

1. Some of the questions were either repeated or were quite ambiguos. Some question weren't even phrased as questions, but rather as statements, making it difficult to determine what was being asked. I believe the content needs to be reviewed. Removed the "To Do", "Challenge Questions", "Focus Questions" and hidden questions in the discussion text and replace with clear, unambiguos exercises for each student.

2. I dont believe that there was another coverage on the IT Managers side for role play. Given I was studying this subject as part of an MBA, my main interest is the IT managers part. I would like to see these roles adopted from teh very first workshop, as opposed to introducing at workshop 5.

3. The files for this subject should be provided on a CD as part of the student materials. Not all students have access to high speed broadband. Some people are still on dialup, or 3G type connections with realtively small download limits and expensive charges. For me, I live in an area where I cannot get a broadband port, and I have 3G internet, but connectivity is sporadic. As such, I wasted valuable hours simply trying to download applications, especially Microsoct SQL Server Express 2008.

3. List what aspects of Ruby on Rails workshop series that you found to be most difficult.

For me, the actual programming was the most difficult, even though Ruby on Rails is relatively easy to learn and navigate. I am somewhat lucky that I am IT savy and was able to figure most things out without too much fuss, however some programming, especially in workshops 3 and 4 had me pulling my hair out for a while..

The actual completion of these workshops is quite time consuming. This, on top of the 16 exercises to complete presents quite a full on work load. Given my full time employment, trying to do exercises on a weekly basis in problematic. I wouyld prefer to see two dedicated assignements rather than the requirement for weekly bloggs. By way of example, I spent my entire Easter weekend completing the Workshops alone.

4. List what improvements could be made to the Ruby on Rails workshop series:

As alluded to above, I would like to see the number of Workshops or questions reduced, and the questions themselves made clearer and less Ambiguos. I would also prefer to see this run as a walkthough tutorial rather than an assessed workshop.

Free response and reflective questions:

5. Reflect on your experiences with the other Web framework used in this subject: Was it effective? How can it be improved? Should other Web frameworks be used as well or instead of Ruby on Rails?

I think that the actual web framework used in these workshops was great. Ruby on Rails is easy to use and well documented and there is a raft of information on the internet to help numpties like me when you get stuck. I think a great improvement would be to run this series as a tutorial, where students are wlakedthrough programming. This would help level the playing field in terms of programming experience, or lack thereof. I believe other web frameworks should also be introuduced. From what I have read, Django is also relatively easy to use, but exposes that student to python. Not sure how this would be done, as time seemed pretty compressed just working with Ruby, Perhaps you could offer a choice of a number of workshops for different frameworks.

6. Did the Developer’s or IT managers Team that you joined after workshop 4 have a preference towards using other tools to facilitate collaboration? Comment on the differences between these use of the sub-forum or Interact wiki tools from your experiences in this subject.

I think this aspect was a waste of time for the Distance component of this course. It is difficult to organise teams and find suitable time to work with people in order to develop a product such as a deployment or maintenance plan. These should be conducted as individual assignment. By way of example, for me, I have been away with work 4 out of the first 6 weeks of this course, making it impossible to complete any sort of collaborative effort. This may be a great feature for those who have time, but not practical for those who are busy. Whilst I can see what is trying to be achieved in using blogs and wikis and forums, I think it also adds an additional level of complexity to what is an already pretty full on course. I prefer the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid).

7. Further comments to add?

All in all I enjoyed the Workshop series however I do think that the workload was excessive and I had to kiss my social life goodbye whilst completing these workshops. I would like to see them scaled back and simplified somewhat. I think if the ambiguity in a lot of the exercises was removed, this would probably reduced the workload, as I did spent a lot of time actually trying to work out what was being asked (and I'm still not 100% sure that I have actually answered some questions properly!!!). However, all in all, I believe the Workshop series achieved what it set out to, which was to provide students exposure to web application development and management, but there is definitely room for improvement.