The following questions were contained in the Summer 2007 Comprehensive Exam.

ISQA 8060 - RESEARCH IN MIS

1. Please answer all parts of this question. Clearly state and explain all assumptions. Appended below is a proposed research project that you are planning to conduct. To further expand this proposal, you need to answer the following questions.
   1. Please describe the phenomenon that needs to be investigated and state what you think still needs to be known about this phenomenon?.. 10%
   2. State or define the problem under investigation… 10%.
   3. What are the key concepts that need to be investigated in this study ?… 20%.
   4. Based on the answers above, describe what concepts and relationships between these concepts you would use to investigate the research problem … 20%.
   5. Please design a research project to investigate the research problem. Be sure to clearly explain your research strategy, method(s), tools and techniques … 20%.
   6. Would this be qualitative or quantitative research? Briefly describe the deliverables of this research and how, or under what circumstances, this very same research could become the opposite of whatever your answer is… 20%.

   According to the Standish Group's 2004 third quarter report, 29% of all projects succeeded (delivered on time, on budget, with required features and functions), 53% were challenged (late, over budget and/or with less than the required features and functions), and 18% failed (cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used) (Standish Group, 2005a). The CHAOS report cites User Involvement, Executive Management Support, and Clear Statement of Requirements as the top three criteria for success in IS projects. The existence of a hard working staff was considered to be least important in ensuring success of IS projects (Standish Group, 2005b).The high incidence of implementation failures has traditionally been attributed to a lack of stakeholder participation in information systems development (Markus and Robey, 1988; Franz and Robey, 1984; Land and Hirschheim, 1983; Avison and Wood-Harper, 1990). Consequently information systems development methodologies such as ISAC (Lundberg, Goldkuhl, and Nissen, 1982), ETHICS (Mumford and Weir, 1979), and techniques such as Joint Application Development (Andrews and Leventhal, 1993) include participation.

   Even current wisdom on the use of traditional information systems development methodologies such as Structured Analysis and Design, SSADM, and information engineering (Downs, Clare, and Coe, 1988; Martin and Finkelstein, 1981) are suggested as tools for participation. Arguments for participation include that it 1) is seen to allow the interests of the individuals who must use the system to be protected, 2) provides the means through which individuals can use the system as a basis for re-design of their jobs and working environment, 3) facilitates compliance with results of decision making, 4) increases motivation leading individuals identifying with the system they design towards higher productivity and more efficiency, and 5) enables the system to be constructed in such a way as to provide the best possible fit between the needs of the organization and those who work for it (Land and Hirschheim, 1983; Mumford, 1981; Montazemi, 1988; Franz and Robey, 1986). These arguments point towards the overall benefit that participation improves the prospects of developing systems that are both technically and organizationally valid (Newman and Robey, 1992).

   However, evidence supporting these benefits of participation is at best contradictory. In a study carried out by Jarvenpaa and Ives (1991) of 83 US firms, the CEO's perception of IT appeared to be a more powerful predictor of a firm's progressive use of IT rather than a CEO's personal participation. Newman and Robey (1992) report on episodes in which users rejected a system because participation had resulted in conflict between the users and the computer centre. As the development of information systems brings together people from different departments, Robey et al. (1989) suggest that the potential for conflict in systems development is great and potential disagreements are likely to become manifest under conditions of high interdependence among group members in project meetings. Further reasons for this contradiction have been attributed to reasons such as involving users in the design process may lead potential delays caused by having to deal with multiple user groups and possible sub-optimal system design because of the involvement of competing user groups (Land and Hirschheim, 1983).

2. You are asked to develop a research proposal and design for. Address the following in your presentation.
   1. What is the phenomenon you observe in this case… 10%
   2. What concepts would you use to help you understand this phenomenon? ..20%
   3. Please design a research project to investigate the problem being posed in this company… 30%
   4. Present an outline of a research proposal you would submit to Signal International. Explain each section of the outline… 30%
   5. What would be the deliverables(s) of this research project …10%

   ERP Failure at Signal International

   Signal International is a reputed multinational corporation based in Australia. Their principle offices are located in Sydney Detroit and Zurich. All transactions are primarily routed from here to their branches located all over the world. Apart from that the company has few production plants in countries as far as India and China. In addition they undertake franchising services for a number of international brands and distribute them in the local markets with their expertise. The production plants manufacture and sell goods under the banner of "Signal International". When it comes to franchising of other brands each office acts independently without necessarily associating it with another local office in a different country.

   The company decided to implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for all its offices. They hired the services of E-Systems for implementing an ERP software program called Global Lease. Their subsidiary company Tuukku was referred for consulting services. The troubles started off right from the Implementation process. The ERP software is specialized in providing services for companies that follows common practices in all its offices. However Signal international did not have such a system. In addition they have acquired few companies who have their own ways and means of working. This contradiction did lot of mishap in the organizational procedures. People in the respective offices did not use ERP properly and resorted to adopt their own style of working thereby making ERP's intervention meaningless and unproductive.

   It was then decided to ensure operational efficiency and correct the inherent errors in ERP and acclimatize it to the organization within a period of 4 months. Training programs were arranged by hiring experts from the software major. However the trainers developed software in the Polish language because they were not used to Chinese or English. When the installation process began the first process went undisturbed. The phase of installing proved to be trouble free and spic and span. The formatting of data set the next trouble. The data formats used by the company were totally unacceptable to the ERP software. This necessitated conversion to the format preferred by Global lease.

   The next problem was with the business process. The personnel from the software company could not deal with the various demands of Signal International in using the software to suit the business process. They were undoubtedly experts in handling software but could not render any assistance as far as new business practices and changes to the existing ones were concerned. Finally the company had to drop the idea of ERP in order to avoid anymore losses and damages. Signal International have asked to you to investigate the factors affecting the success of enterprise wide systems.

ISQA 8110 - MODERN SOFTWARE DESIGN

1. What are scenarios and how are they used in object-oriented analysis and in design? In your answer, address issues such as goals, participants, level of detail, and how they contribute to creating the documentation of the system (Message Trace Diagrams, and CRC cards). Be sure to compare and contrast the difference between analysis and design.
2. What is information hiding? What is its value (be sure to address the whole software life cycle)? How can it be implemented in a procedural language such as C? How is it implemented in C++ or Java? Refer to the standard language components and features in your answer.

ISQA 8210 - SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT & ISQA 8220 - SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN (take home portion)

• Suppose that you are the CIO of ApparelCo, a large apparel manufacturing firm that has been in business for many years. ApparelCo has many large-scale and complex information systems using both newer technologies and languages (such as .NET and Java) and more established platforms (such as AS400 mainframes and RPG). These systems are developed and maintained by a large department of in-house information systems professionals. For decades, your department has been using a structured systems development method that relies heavily on control, documentation, user sign-off, carefully specified processes and deliverables, and classic techniques of data flow diagramming and entity-relationship modeling.

  A recent study has determined that agile methods can outperform traditional methods of software development, particularly if the agile methods used are combined and tailored to organizational needs (Source). This has gotten you to re-think your current software development methods and you now want to use agile methods within your organization. You are considering introducing one (or more) agile development methods, but you have serious concerns about how to go about doing so and how to make the case to the CEO of the company. After all, there are sure to be training costs involved and you have no idea how this is going to affect your well-established software project management process.

  Write your take-home paper as a report to the company's executive management team. At a minimum, the report should include:

  1. Description of the agile software development method(s) that you feel would be most suited to your organization, and how it differs from your current structured systems development approach. Justify your choice of agile method(s). Make whatever assumptions you need to make about the details of that approach, as long as you make clear what those assumptions are in your paper.
  2. Advantages and disadvantages of moving to an agile software development method for your organization. Be sure your discussion of the advantages and disadvantages takes into account the nature of the organization and the likely context of systems to be developed. Again, make whatever assumptions you need to, but make clear what they are.
  3. Implications for your project management process of moving from a structured method to an agile method.
  4. Your plan to convert to your new agile development method(s).

ISQA 8310 - DATA COMMUNICATIONS

1. TCP/IP currently dominates as the standard for networking. At the transport layer, two protocols are frequently used to implement TCP/IP: TCP and UDP.
   1. Discuss the Transport layer. Include in your discussion:
      1. the purpose of the transport layer.
      2. the specific roles and tasks of the transport layer.
   2. Describe both TCP and UDP.
   3. How are they similar and how are they different?
   4. Why are two protocols needed?
2. Security has become an essential component of network management. Describe each of the following network security approaches, and give an example of how each one works. Explain how each approach provides security. Also, explain the advantages and disadvantages of each. You may draw diagrams if they help clarify your answers. (Be sure to label all diagrams clearly.):
   1. private (symmetrical) key encryption
   2. public key encryption (without digital signatures)
   3. public key encryption (with digital signatures). Explain why digital signatures are used. What are they? What advantage do they provide?
   4. digital envelope (how does it work, why use it?)
   5. digital certificates (what are they, what specific information do they contain, who creates them, how are they distributed, how are they used?) You may use an example if it helps clarify your answer.
   Also, an important component of any network security approach is the firewall. Answer the following questions regarding firewalls and their roles in network security.
   1. Two common types of firewalls are packet filtering routers and bastion hosts (proxy servers). Explain the characteristics of each type. What are they? How do they work? Advantages and disadvantages? You may give examples to clarify your answers.
   2. What is meant by the term "demilitarized zone" (DMZ) as it relates to firewalls? [HINT: This relates to the combined use of packet filtering routers and proxy servers as a composite firewall strategy.] Again, clarify your answer by providing an example (diagram) to show how this works.

ISQA 8380 - MANAGING THE DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

1. An online bank catering to young college graduates is partnering with an insurance company to offer easy to apply for automobile loans and car insurance as a discounted, package deal. To reduce the hassle, the applicant for the car loan and insurance will fill out what appears to be a single, partially-filled form. The applicant gives information about the car and seller of the car and other basic information to start the loan process and the insurance process. No duplicate information is requested. After the applicant fills out the information and submits the form, he/she receives an email thanking them for their applications for a loan and insurance policy. They will be notified on a daily basis on the status of these requests. Behind the scenes, the online banking website sends the data in an XML format to several systems listed below;
   1. Loan processing system to manage the loan process.
   2. Credit Bureau to check the credit of the loan applicant.
   3. State motor vehicle report clearinghouse to check the driving record of the applicant.
   4. Insurance processing system.
   5. Document composition system which will create a printable PDF of both the loan documents and the insurance policy.
   6. Email system to send emails updating the applicant on the status of the loan and insurance policy.
   7. Rule engine to help decide if the loan should be granted and if the policy should be issued and at what price.
   You are on a project team to develop this new offering for the online banking website. You will need to explain how you will build distributed system which integrates the systems described below and any additional software you will need to ensure that the system handle all possible situations. The systems involved include:
   1. The online banking web site is using Microsoft VB Net and a Microsoft SQL Server database.
   2. The credit bureau is a java based application and runs on a Sun server with an Oracle database. It is external to the company and can be accessed via a secure web service.
   3. The motor vehicle report clearinghouse is also external to the company and can be reached via MQ series messaging. The clearinghouse is running on an IBM AS400 and uses a DB2 database.
   4. The loan processing system is a mainframe based system that written in COBOL and uses VSAM files. It uses 3270 terminals.
   5. The insurance processing system is with a partner insurance company at a different site. It is written in Java and runs on a HP UNIX server and uses an Oracle database.
   6. Email services will be provided by a Microsoft Exchange server.
   7. Document composition system is Document Sciences xPressions software which is written Java and runs on a JBOSS server running on Linux. You communicate with this system via web services and the output is PDF files the can be printed or sent via the web.
   8. The rule engine is the Ilog rule engine ad is written in Java and runs on a JBOSS Server running on Linux. You can communicate with the rule engine through web services.
   Draw a diagram of how you would integrate these systems and accomplish the goals described above. Don't forget about security. Be sure to show all firewalls needed to protect data for this system. Show the high level integration protocols on the arrows such as "web service" "odbc sql" etc…Describe how data moves from one system to another in a paragraph and defend your approach.
2. Once approach to integrating transaction and information systems is to use a portal. Explain using diagrams what a portal is and how it works. Also explain any standards that may apply. Also explain how single sign on security can be accomplished across different applications using a portal. Explain how data can be passed between portal applications to help integrate these applications. Explain when to use a portal for integration and when a portal is not appropriate for a systems integration project.

ISQA 8410 - DATABASE MANAGEMENT

1. You have been hired to build a web site for a company, All Your Products, Inc., that allows individuals to create their own on-line shops to design and sell customized products. The products include easily customizable items such as t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, magnets, each of which can be customized by adding an image to a basic physical product. All Your Products will provide the web infrastructure to allow visitors to visit a particular shop and purchase its products. All Your Products also provides the manufacturing and logistics infrastructure to manufacture the customized products visitors purchase, ship the products.

   In order to create a shop, an individual must register as a member on the All Your Products web site. Basic registration requires specifying a valid e-mail address and password as well as a password reminder question (e.g. 'In what city were you born?') and its answer. All Your Products automatically creates a unique account identifier for each member. To create a shop, an individual must specify a shop identifier (3-15 characters, no spaces) which will be used both as a unique identifier and as part of the web address for the shop. Each shop will have a name and short description as well. The date on which the shop was created is stored also. To assist in marketing the shop, the member will specify a single category used to classify the nature of the shop. For example, in the category 'business' there may be several subcategories, like agriculture, architects, entertainment, real estate. The shop can be classified either by specifying a category, or a subcategory. When a member sets up a shop, that member must also provide some personal data so that All Your Products can send profits to the shop owner and tax records to the Internal Revenue Service. This information includes: name, address, telephone number, date of birth, and social security number.

   To create a product for the shop to sell, the owner first selects a base product. Each base product has a unique product identifier, a base price, a name, a category (e.g mugs) and a description. Some products, like shirts, have additional descriptive information, specifically, sizes available (e.g. S,M,L,XL,XXL), fabric used, and colors available. To customize a product, the member uploads an image to be placed on the base product, and indicates a price mark-up. The sale price of the product will be the base price plus the mark-up. The member also gives the product a customized name and a description. The member can design as many products as he or she wants for the shop. Each customized product is given a unique product identifier.

   As a visitor browses the All Your Products web site, or visits the site of a particular shop, s/he can add items to a shopping cart. The shopping cart indicates the quantity of each product, the product's description, product availability (e.g. "In stock, will ship in 2 days"), price, and extended price (= quantity * price). A given shopping cart may include products from a number of different All Your Products shops. Shopping cart data is not stored until an order is confirmed. When the order is confirmed, the order date, shopping cart data, an order ID, shipping and billing addresses, tax, shipping and handling, and order total are stored. In order to complete an order, a visitor must register with a username and password. In this way, all orders are associated with a specific member.

   1. Create a conceptual or logical data model for this scenario. Please feel free to make (and write down) any assumptions that do not contradict the text above.
   2. Design a set of appropriately normalized relations (tables) that is consistent with your data model. Choose one primary key that you created, and explain why your choice is a good one.
   3. Based on your tables, formulate SQL queries that will do the following:
      1. For each shop created after Jan 1, 2007, list the shop name, shop id, base product id, and the number of customized products created using that base product.
      2. For each base product, list the number of customized products created using that base product. Include all of the base products, whether or not any customized product has been created using it.
      3. List the name of the individual(s) who placed the most recent order for a product from the shop whose shop ID is 'maxiesmugs'.
      4. Create the SHOP table, creating any appropriate constraints as well.
2. Outline the steps to be taken in the design of a data warehouse. As you do so, elaborate on any design principles that should be applied, clearly indicating why this design principle exists and what can happen if the principle is violated. Contrast these steps with those that should be taken to design a set of tables for a transaction processing system.

ISQA 8420 - MANAGING THE IS FUNCTION

1. When you interviewed for the position of CIO of a medium-sized long haul trucking company, some company executives asked you to express your views about information systems strategic planning.

   You are now on board and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for this company. You have also been meet with the company officers 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.

2. You are the CIO of a publicly traded company. This year the company has decided to include the Board of Directors in the annual strategic planning conference. .Several of the board members are fairly new and do not have a thorough understanding of the company.

   In a recent staff meeting, the CEO explained that to educate the Board members, he is planning to use Porter's Five Forces Model and structure each of the five areas as a question. For example, he plans to pose the question: "What are substitute goods for our products?" and then provide a discussion of the potential substitutes.

   The CEO asks each of you as senior staff members to follow a similar format in the presentation that each of you will make to the board.

   You have been allotted 30 minutes for your presentation and the CEO has asked to see the questions you plan to present together with a justification of why you chose this question. He also asked that you help him understand better the IS function by including several key points that you will make under each question.

   You are to prepare the questions, justification, and key points detailed in the preceding paragraph.

ISQA 8810 - IT PROJECT FUNDAMENTALS

1. You have a software engineering project early in development that is challenged. How do you know it is challenged? How can you determine what is causing your project to be challenged? Assume that the budget numbers look ok. What can you do to bring your project back on track?
2. How do you integrate a software engineering lifecycle into the project management lifecycle?