ISQA 8060 - RESEARCH IN MIS

1. (Partially adopted from Cooper, D. R. and P. S. Schindler. (2003) Business Research Methods. McGraw-Hill Irwin: Boston. Page 755)

   "Now that I write it all down, I see we have changed a lot!" mused Martha as she put the finishing touches on her annual status report. "In fact, "she went on, "the name Information Services indicates most of the changes. We used to be Information Systems."

   Martha was Information Services (IS) manager for the Sturgel Division of a major manufacturing company. Sturgel developed and manufactured (mostly small) household appliances on a 230-acre site in the southeast part of the United States.

   The late 1980s and early 1990s were a time of many changes for the information systems departments in most companies, including the Sturgel Division. The price performance of most computer equipment had improved by compound rates of perhaps 30 percent per year for several decades. This meant that many companies perceived that they no longer needed a "computer center." Individual users could simply do whatever they needed to do on a desktop computer in their own offices.

   Martha made a rough list of the major influences she'd dealt with over the last few years, calling them "IS Transitions." The new services included:

   • From running the computer to providing information services to the company.
   • From "owning" the data to consulting with user departments about use of the company's information resources.
   • From emphasizing mainframes to emphasizing terminals, personal computers, and telecommunications. Indeed, sometimes it seemed that the telephone, word processing, and clerical and library departments had all been combined.
   • From developing the company's applications to advising users on how to develop their own applications.

   Martha felt good about her department. She felt they were providing good service, but she had no regular way of knowing how her users perceived the services provided by her department. She thought she should consider a regular survey of her users and their perceptions of service received from the IS department.

   You are asked to develop an appropriate research proposal and design.

   1. What is the management problem? (10%)
   2. Present an outline of a research proposal that you would submit to Martha. Explain each section of the outline. (30%)
   3. Thoroughly discuss the research design decisions you would make. (30%)
   4. Discuss thoroughly the steps you would take to assure the scientific quality of your research. (30%)

2. Please answer all parts of this question. Clearly state and explain all assumptions in the introduction section of a proposed research project that you are planning. For this proposal, your assignment is to answer the following questions:
   1. State or define the problem under investigation. 10%
   2. Specify all concepts and explain why you consider them to be a dependent variable, independent variable(s), intervening variable(s), and moderating variable(s). 15%
   3. Based on the answers above, develop a complete theoretical framework, including a schematic diagram. 15%
   4. Develop four testable hypotheses and state each in the null and in the alternate form. 10%
   5. How would you establish the scientific quality of this research? 20%
   6. Would the research be basic or applied? Briefly state how, or under what circumstances, the very same research could become the opposite of whatever your answer is. 10%
   7. Which research design would you use? Be certain to clearly explain your reasoning. 20%

   Proposed Research Study Successful Data Warehouse Inmon (DM Review, December 2000) indicated that the spiral development methodology coupled with end-user involvement in the second or third iteration of development is related to a successful consulting contract for a data warehouse. Inmon also believes that the consultant must understand the difference between a data mart and a data warehouse and the difference between a multidimensional design and a normalized design in order to have a successful consulting contract. Knowing what approaches the consultant has used in the past for managing large volumes of data is also important. For a successful consulting contract for a data warehouse, Inmon also suggests that transformation and movement of data should be accomplished with the automated approach of ETL software followed by the development of exploration processing.

1. Identify, describe, and discuss the similarities and the differences between the CRC session when used for analysis and the CRC session when used for design. Besure to include activities, focus and products in your discussion.

2. What is information hiding? What is its value (be sure to address all phases of the software life cycle)? Discuss how information hiding is implemented in a procedural language like C.

• Some people say that no two systems development projects are the same and each has to be approached differently. In order to accommodate those differences, an organization might have different options for systems development methods. For example, a large company might be using any of the following methods: object-oriented, structured, rapid application development, prototyping, extreme programming, package selection and purchase, just to name a few of the most common approaches. With so many approaches, how do you choose the best one for a specific project? Is it better to provide a choice of different methods, or to standardize on a single method?

  Assume that you work for the CIO in a large organization that uses many different methods and allows each project manager to choose the best method for a specific systems development project. The CIO is concerned that there may be too many choices, though she believes that some flexibility is important. You have been assigned the job of writing a position paper on the pros and cons of current practice and recommendations for improvement.

  Write your take-home paper as a report to the company's CIO. The report should contain the following:

  1. Discussion of the advantages of having multiple methods from which project managers can select.
  2. Discussion of the disadvantages of multiple methods.
  3. Recommendation on a set of specific methods that you think your organization should have. Be sure that this part of your answer describes and justifies the importance of each specific method that you are recommending.
  4. A set of guidelines that project managers should use for choosing the right method for each project. Provide some citations to literature in support of your guidelines. In other words, don't just state your own opinions, but show some evidence from studies of best practices. Be sure to address how we maintain flexibility in the development approach and still fulfill the responsibilities for development and maintenance at a level which meets our organization's quality goals.
  5. Discussion of the project management implications of having multiple methods from which to choose.

  Don't forget to use summary tables where appropriate, in order to make your paper more readable.

1. TCP/IP (specifically IP) uses a protocol known as ICMP. Answer the following questions regarding ICMP and its use:
   1. What does ICMP mean, and what role does it play as part of TCP/IP? (Explain the basic purpose of ICMP.) Also, provide some examples of ICMP messages.
   2. ICMP is used as part of the ping program. Explain what ping is, how it works, and the role ICMP plays. Please be as specific as possible. (You may want to provide an example to clarify your answer.)
   3. Explain what traceroute is and how it works. ICMP can also be used as part of traceroute. Explain at least one way in which ICMP can be used. Please describe how traceroute works in its entirety, and provide an example.
   4. Explain the process of MTU path discovery. How does ICMP enable this process to occur? Please be specific.
   5. Lastly, explain how IP and ICMP are co-dependent. (HINT: This refers to the manner in which ICMP messages are sent.)

2. Designers of modern data communications systems are implementing new technologies and tools to develop new systems and upgrade their networks. Discuss the following data communications applications:
   1. Designing Web Access into E-commerce. How are designers able to incorporate web access technologies, principles, and guidelines to improve their e-commerce applications, products and services?
   2. Applications of Business to Customer Internet Applications. How are designers able to improve their customer relationships by implementing modern Internet technologies?
   3. Personalized and Customized Multimedia Internet Access. How can designers improve their products and services through customization of their Internet multimedia?

   Explain how the above technologies and tools are used to transmit voice and data through modern networks. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each in optimizing secure electronic transmissions?

1. To what extent do you believe that web services will replace such technologies as COM (and its successors), CORBA, or J2EE? Present an argument in support of your answer. Be sure to discuss the essential characteristics of these technologies sufficiently well that the reader can understand your argument. (Assume you were writing for an intelligent MS MIS student who had not yet taken ISQA 8380).

2. Although client/server and other distributed systems originated as an alternative architectural approach to the construction of new computing systems, the reality of most computing environments is that new systems are seldom created in isolation from existing systems. Under such circumstances, the integration of new systems with existing systems or of multiple existing systems has become a critical task. Discuss the issues that arise as organizations seek to integrate multiple applications. Provide some classification of the different ways in which applications may be integrated (types of integration), and discuss the kinds of middleware that may be appropriate for each.

1. The Acme Movie Theater Company has enlisted your help to design a database to support its web-based movie ticket purchasing system. Company representatives have met with you and walked through a number of web page mock-ups to give you an idea of the interface and flow of the web site. The main page (A) allows the user to choose a date and a city for which s/he would like to see moving listings. The web site then generates a second page (B), showing a table of movies showing on the specified day in the specified city. This table lists the name of the film, the countries in which the film was filmed (e.g. USA/GBR/GER), the rating (e.g. G, PG, PG-13, R, unrated), the movie theater, the screen within the theater, and possibly several show times. If the user clicks on the name of the film, then a page (C) comes up with additional data about the film. This includes the date on which the file premiered, a paragraph of description, the name of the director, the name of the screen writer, the principal actors and actresses, the length of the film, the year, and the language of the film. From the movie listing (page B), the user can also click on a particular showing time associated with a particular film. This link takes the user to a page (D) showing the total number of seats available. This page also asks the user to specify the number of tickets desired. The next page (E) shows the price of the purchase and the row and seat numbers of the tickets. This page also requests a credit card number, type and expiration date, the purchaser's name, and an e-mail address. When the user submits this information, a confirmation page (E) showing a confirmation number is generated and an e-mail is sent to the purchaser. Tickets may be picked up at the theater box office any time before the movie starts.
   1. Draw an entity-relationship diagram suitable 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) for this scenario.
   3. Based on your tables, formulate SQL queries that will do the following:
      1. Create the MOVIE table, with appropriate constraints
      2. Show the cities in which 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' is playing on October 10, 2003.
      3. For each movie showing anywhere on October 10, 2003, list the number of screens on which that movie is showing. Show only those movies being shown on more than 10 screens.
      4. Show all of the movies seen by Bob Fulkerson (Robert@Fulkerson.com) since 1/1/2003.

2. One of the important parts of systems development is the creation of models. First, describe in general terms what models are and why their creation is beneficial. Second, describe how Entity-Relationship Diagramming can be used to develop data models, being sure to discuss how E-R diagrams satisfy the characteristics of models discuss in the first part of this question. Include a description of E-R Diagramming notation. Finally, list some rules-of-thumb for creating E-R diagrams, such as the choice of primary key, etc.; and for each rule-of-thumb, explain the rationale behind it.

1. Risk management is important to project success. Present and discuss each of the five Risk Management Processes from the planning portion of the PMBOK. Describe how each process facilitates Risk Management.

2. What is the purpose of Earned Value Analysis? How would a PM interpret an SPI and CPI of .89?