Critical Evolution

16.08.2012

Critical Evolution

Purpose.

• Critical evolution is a same principle you need to know how do it in critical manner.
• The purpose of writing a critical review is a writing task that asks you to summarize and evaluate a text.

What is Evolution or Judgement?

• Decide the strengths and weaknesses of a text.
• Evaluating requires an understanding of not just the content of the text, but also an understanding of a text’s purpose.

What is Analysis?

• Analyzing requires separating the content and concepts of a text into their main components and then understanding how these interrelate, connect and possibly influence each other.

Lecturer show us the film called The Other and asked us to critically evaluate that film.

Learning gain of the Lecture.

Learn about how to do critical evolution.

Personal Opinion.

Interesting lesson.

Research Design - Part III

14.08.2012

Research Design - Part III

This is the third lecture of the research design.

Research.

Research is a systematic investigation and study of materials, sources in order to establish facts and reach conclusions.

These are the things that you need to identify in research design.

How do you know what to research?

- Topic need to based on the objective.

Systematic investigation and study

 - Must be plan how to achieve the user goal.

To establish facts.

- Must be from the right source(s), (Where?).

To reach conclusion.

- Must have a purpose (What?)

Types of Research.

1. Academic research.
2. Secondary research.
3. Primary research.

All of these three types of researches includes with technical research and domain research. Literature review contains with both technical and domain researches.

Technical Research.

Includes with;

• Selection of programming languages.
• Database.
• Methodology.
• Scripting languages.

Critical evaluation and justification is important in technical research.

Starts with an argument, first of all you have to establish on argument.

Domain Research.

Domain specific research conducted.

       ex: Blood Supply Chain Management System.

                 - In this project, just stick to one domain research.

Academic Research.

Secondary Research.

- Download data books and review it.

         ex: For forecasting based project need a information about the organization.

Primary Research.

- Focus on the group of the project.

- May be a group interview.

- Have several people involved in the project.

        ex: Five students talk about the issues - Beyond the scope.

Brainstorming.

- Multiple group will sort the things.

Metaphorical Analysis.

- Tools --> Mind maps, Lotus blossom.

        ex: IBM uses this when they want to metaphorical.

The Process of the Research.

1. Establish what you need to know.
2. Determine how you can get the information.
3. Find out what you need to know.

Project and You.

• Integrative.
• Independent.
• Interesting.
• Intellectually challenging.
• Innovative (Not necessary but good).

Learning gain of the Lecture.

Learn more information about the research, type of the research.

Personal Opinion.

Interesting lesson for the final year project research.

Research Design - Part II

13.08.2012

Research Design - Part II

This is the second lecture about the research design. We discussed more about the research design.

Why is the research design important?

- We can solve the below questions.

• Get to know the solution.
• How does it work.
• Uncover it through research.

Example: Identify what is the research method for following scenario.

      Intelligent Clinic Management System - Research method is survey.

Process of Doing Research.

1. Identify objectives.

According to the above example development an intelligent client management system that improves the efficiency of procedure in ABC clinic.

Reduce time consumption.

    - Identify the how to observe the current system they have.

     2.   Identify outcomes.

     3.   Aims.

- To overcome problems faced in the current system.

     4.   Literature review.

- Analyse the current system.

- Go through in the current system.

     5.   Primary research.

- Conduct interviews with employees and identify the problems.

         Questions which can ask in the interviews.

Q1: How do they maintain the patents records.

Q2: How is the billing done?

     6.   Sampling.

- Do not use the convenient sampling method.

- Do the sampling with in the available resources.

- Convenient sampling is important because it helps quick access for the work.

     7.   Data analyze methods.

- Questioners.

- Interviews.

     8.   Questioner.

- Determine the sampling size, sampling methods.

- Use the particular set of people for the sample type.

- Understand what kind of recreation activities would that sample group like.

Learning Gain and the Personal Opinion of the Lecture.

Get the idea about what are the importance of research design and the steps to do a research design.

Research Design - Part I

09.08.2012

Research Design - Part I

This is the extremely important lesson to final year project students.

Above diagram displays that in the research design for the final year project.

1. We need to clearly describe the research plan and identify what are the impact of the project plan.
2. After identifying the requirements of the project need look at the objectives of that and what are the actually achieved from the project.
3. Then identified how to solve the problems.
4. Finally primary and secondary research about the project.

              Example 1: Sathutu Uyana booking system.

            Example 2: You were selected to the Ceylon Electricity Board as a project manager. You need to solve some problems in the that organization. From the beginning you don't know anything about CEB. But you might know what is the procedure in Sathutu Uyana.

Research include both primary research that you do and secondary research that you do.

Primary Research.

Primary research is the research what you to and collect the information.

              ex: Interviews.

                   Documentation.

                   Questioners.

Secondary Research.

Research that some one has done before is the secondary research.

Literature review will fall into that category.

Processes Involved in Research Design.

1. At the end of the project what are you going to achieve.
2. Deliver documentation and system of the project.
3. Literature review - What are the other things that identified in the project.
4. Selected data collection methods.
5. Selected sampling methods.

              ex: Identify the average of a APIIT student is 20 years old.

                   We can get a snap shot to represent sample.

                   Get that part and represent it.

                   Need to get a snap shot of all the batches.

                   Sample can be generate to the entire batch.

                       - Identify the sampling size.

                       - Identify the sampling methods.

                   Sample size is equal to population size then it is senses.

                   If the sample size is large, it's hard to identify the general population.

Sampling Techniques.

There are two types of sampling techniques.

Probabilistic Sampling.

It means that everyone in the population should have equal change of getting selected to this sampling method. There are two tasks that looking in this sample techniques to complete it.

    --> If everyone is there.

    --> List of the entire population.

          Systematic Sampling.

- According to the above APIIT students example here we can use every fourth student who walks in to APIIT.

          Simple Random Sampling.

- List of the population.

- Utilize the random number table.

- Reduce personal preferences from the research side.

          Cluster Sampling.

- Divided your population in to clusters (groups).

- Cluster it based on gender.

- Can have a cluster in side one cluster

        ex: Colombo 6, Colombo 7

- Cluster also based on the age.

          Stratified Sampling.

- Different groups.

- Divided in the groups and select the particular group and that is a sample.

Non - Probabilistic Sampling.

Non - Probabilistic Sampling doesn't make sure that every one in the population is no equal to the chance of getting selected to the sample method.

          Convenient Sampling.

- In the convenient sampling generalization is the problem.

        ex: Snow ball sampling.

     6.   Selected data analysis methods.

- Utilize research tools.

• Observations.
• Interviews.
• Questioners.
• Document reviews.

- Use of the research tools that can collect the data.

Types of Researches.

• Servery.
• Case study.
• Action research.
• Experimentation.
• Ethnography.
• Longitudinal.
• Interviews.
• Document review.
• Case study.
• Action research.
• Experiments.

- We can you any of above research types for the researches.

     7.   Rationale for selected technical aspects.

     8.   Selected Design approach.

     9.   Timelines.

Learning gain of the Lecture.

Learned the process about how to research. Identify what are the primary research, secondary research, and the processes involved research design including the sampling techniques and other research tools.

Personal Opinion.

Important lecture for us. It helps to final year project search.

Final Year Project - Part II

07.08.2012

Final Year Project - Part II

This is the second lecture of the discussion about final year project.

• In final year project, not having proper optimization which means minimal wastage of the transportation of optimizing algorithms.

• All should starts with the problem.

              ex: You are planning to do a sales forecasting system to the fuel organization. The problem is the waste of fuel rate is very high. To solve this problem we need to get the sales data. It based on the sales that organization get.

• Explain the problem and what you are going to analyze it.

The Project Proposal.

How do you explain the problem.

1. Quantify the problem.

                ex: According to the above problem,

                           High fuel cost.

                           High delay.

          - Problem need to be quite clear.

          - Need evidence to prove which are like statistics.

          - What are the objectives of the project.

          - At the end of the nine months what are you going to achieve from your project.

     2.  Objectives of the problem.

          - Objective must be SMART (We discussed it previous lessons).

          - Basically what are you going to achieve end of the nine months.

          - Increase the efficiency. 54% ----> 84%

          - See weather you have achieve the your goals.

     3.  What systematic approach that you are going to use.

         - Identify what software methodology you are going to use. This methodologies are used to over come the problems.

                Examples of the methodologies.

                          - Waterfall methodology.

                          - Agile methodology.

Evolution Prototyping.

There are five items in evolution prototyping.

1. Identify initial requirements.
2. Initial prototype which is given to the users.
3. Provide new prototypes / Re vied prototype.
4. Give it to users.
5. Users will feedback. It is a final version of the project. Customers will satisfied with that new project.
6. What is going to be my problem, design structured systems analysis design methodology (SSADM) or you can look at the another methodology to use.
7. What is the structure going to use in primary methodology. It describes that what are the tangible and intangible benefits.

Project plan will be creates according to the above types of evolution prototypes. It needs to be detailed work break down structure. It is different and it is filled with level of details.

What makes a good proposal?

1. The accuracy of the title.

The title should be like this. An Investigation into _______ (research areas) to develop _______ (what type of system) for _______ (what is the company name).

      ex: An Investigation into Multiple Criteria Decision Making and Fuzzy Logic to Develop a Loan Approval System for National Development Bank. 

    2.   The clarity of the aims.

It must be need to create with an argument. It may be lots of different different opinions. Need to look at the multiple users views. SSADM is a good evolution prototype.

    3.   It is a reflection on objective. Need to analyse your data.

    4.   Probably situations with good English.

    5.   Need to justify why you use these techniques.

Academic Requirements.

It has to be something new you are using it.

          ex: In a decision support systems you need to think about what kind of model and what are the types of the that DSS. If it is a mathematical mode then how does it works for fussy logic.

Content of your project.

1. Abstract (This comes to the first in you document but it was the last thing you write).
2. Introduction.
3. Body.
4. Conclusion.
5. List the references quoted in the text.
6. Bibliography.
7. Appendices.

Learning gain of the Lecture.

Identify how to write a good project proposal, evolution prototypes, academic requirements and the contents of the project document.

Personal Opinion.

Get the perfect idea about the final year project.

Final Year Project - Part I

06.08.2012

Final Year Project - Part I

Today we discussed about really important lesson about Final Year Project. Final Year Project must be real world problem and you have to come up with software solutions for your problem. Here are the detailed information about Final Year Project lecture.

Key Aspects of Project.

This is how project should be. There five aspects which can useful to Final Year Project.

1. Feasibility.
2. Operation.
3. Social.
4. Schedule.
5. Technology.

The idea of you final year project must be a useful fact. You thick think about whether you can complete it within the nine months, the time allocates for final year project.

Ideas for Final Year Project.

1. From the following related topics you can get the idea about final year project.

• Human resources management.
• Supply chain.
• Menus for restaurant.
• Accounts.
• Event planning.
• Forecasting.

     2.  What you are interested in?

          - You must select your interest area when you going to do your project. It keep you motivate based you like it.

     3.  What are the 'flavors of the month in computing magazines'

           ex: IEEE magazine.

     4.  What area do you want to get a job in?

     5.  What module you have enjoyed?

     6.  What grade are you realistically aiming for?

     7.  Use existing skills but extend the them.

Questions to Ask?

• Data available for your proposal.
• Problem has to be quantified.
• How much time does it take for complete the project.
• Data to prove the problem.

                 ex: For the forecasting system, you need to get the data from the business organization.

The Proposal.

• For the proposal the organization should have a problem and you need to identify the area of study.
• Identify the methodologies and assumptions.
• Explain the possibilities of outcome.
• Identify weather your project is a web based system or standard system.

In BIT students among their two semesters each semester includes with three modules. They have to do their final year project with in nine months. They assigned to a supervisor and give advice and guide.

For the BIT students their final year project based on business problem need to have business aspect can not come up with hypothetical problems. They should,

        - come up with a system.

                  ex: Blood management supply chain.

                       Traffic management system.

                       Human resources management system.

Prototype for the Final Year Project.

• Document should reflect the system.
• Analyse the problem area.
• Include the literature review.

Learning gain of the Lecture.

Identify the key aspects of the final year project, ideas, questions and the proposal and the prototype of the final year project.

Personal Opinion.

Understand about the final year project, how to make a project proposal.

Scavenger Hunt

02.08.2012

Scavenger Hunt

Today we did an activity called Scavenger Hunt. Lecturer divided students in to four groups and each group with six members. He gave six questions and each one should do it using the library search. These are the questions and the answer given below. I have to do the fifth question of the following list.

1. Give a list of 10 books available in the APIIT city campus library addressing system analysis and design.

     2.  What are the titles of the books written by the following authors.

                  - C Date.

                  - Barbara Spragve.

                  - Tony Proctor.

                  - Kendall and Kendall.

                  - Jenny Preece.

                  - John Ward.

                  - Efraim Turban.

                  - Joe Peppard.

                  - Jerry Fitzgerald.

                  - Uma Sekaran.

     3.  Write down the project titles of the BIT projects.

                  - Tishani Ranathunga.

                  - Dilini Gomis.

                  - Danushka Sandanayake.

                  - Lasith Tissera.

                  - Eranjan Padumadasa.

     4.  Identify the ISBN no of the following books.

                  - E Marketing.

                  - Quantitative Methods.

                  - Key Managerial Methods.  

                  - Database Systems.

                  - Personality Development.

     5.  Write titles and give a recommendation for the following books by provide the titles and authors.

                  - Financial Accounting.

                  - Design Patterns.

                  - IELTS.

                  - Usability Engineering.

                  - Information System Strategy.

                  - Organizational Behavior.

                  - Human Resources Manager.

                  - Business Environment.

                  -  Database Management System.

                  - Agile Methodology. 

     6.  Find five news papers clippings on the following topics of authors, publication date and place.

                - Economic condition in Sri Lanka.

Answers for the question above.

1. i 

     2.  i C Date.
            - An Introducing to Database Systems.
               7th Edition.
               C. J. Date
               ISBN .81-7808-231-4
               Pearson Education, 2000, Delhi.

         ii Barbara Spragve.
            - Information System Management in Practice.
               6th Edition.
               Barbara C. McNurlin and Ralph H. Spragve.
               ISBN 81-297-0257-6
               Pearson Education, 2004, Delhi.

        iii Tony Proctor.
           - Creative Problem Solving for Managers.
              2nd Edition.
              Tony Proctor.
              ISBN 13:978-0-415-34542-2
              Routledge, 2005, Cornwall.

        iv Kendall and Kendall.
            -

         v Jenny Preece.
            - Human Computer Interaction.
               Jenny Preece.
               ISBN-0-201-62769-8
               Pearson Education, 1994, England.

        vi John Ward.
            - Strategic Planning for Information System.
               2nd Edition.
               John Ward and Pat Gri Ffiths.
               ISBN 0-471-96183-3
               John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 1996, England.

       vii Efraim Turban.
            - Information Technology for Management.
               6th Edition.
               Efraim Turban, Dorothy Mclean and James Wetherbe.
               ISBN: 978-81-265-1441-0
               John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2008, New Delhi.

      viii Joe Peppard.
           - Strategic Planning for Information Systems.
              3rd Edition.
              John Ward, Joe Pappard.
              ISBN: 13: 978-0470-8417-1
              John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2002, England.

        ix Jerry Fitzgerald.
            - Business Data Communication and Networking.
               7th Edition.
               Jerry Fitzgerald and Alan Dennis.
               ISBN 0-471-39100-X
               John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2002, USA.

         x Uma Sekaran.
            - Research Methods for Business, A Skill Building Approach.
               4th Edition.
               Uma Sekaran.
               ISBN 978-81-265-0928-7
               John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2008, New Delhi.

     3.  i Tishani Sanjeewani Ranathunga.

            - Inventory management and forecasting system for lak sathosa. 

         ii Bomiriyage Dilini Nissansala Gomis.

         - Investigation into business process re engineering and electric data interchange to develop a web     based fuel procurement system for sri lanka railway.

        iii Danushka Sandanayake.

           - An IS/IT production management and resource allocation system for sign tech advertising services.

        iv Lasith Chanaka De Tissera.

       - Credit risk management and order prioritization for Harrison Chemical Pvt Ltd using analytical hierarchy.

         v Eranjan Padumadasa.

            - Application of analytical hierarchy process model for tendering process automation.

     4.  i E Marketing.

            - ISBN 14:81-7808-944-10

         ii Quantitative Methods.

            - ISBN 34 0-273-64-694X

        iii Key Managerial Methods.

            - ISBN 24 0-273-66261-5

        iv Database Systems.

            - ISBN 12-978-81-317-2025-7

         v Personality Development.

            - ISBN 16-GE-01-141-1

     5. i Financial Accounting.
           - Harrison, W. T. Jr. & Horngern C. T. (1998). Financial Accounting. 3^rd Edition. United States of America.

        ii Design Patterns.
           - Freeman, E. et al (2007). Head First Design Patterns. Decora Printers.

       iii IELTS.
          - Black, M. & Capel, A. (2006). Objective IELTS. New York.

       iv Usability Engineering.
           - Mayhew, D. J. (1999). The Usability Engineering Lifecycle. United States of America.

        v Information System Strategy.

       vi Organizational Behavior.
           - Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. (n.d.) 7^th Edition. Organization Behavior. United Statey.

      vii Human Resources Manager.
           - Foot, M. & Hook, C. (2008). Introducing Human Resources Management. 5^th Edition. Italy.

     viii Business Environment.
          - Palmer, A. & Hartley, B. (2009). 6^th Edition. The Business Environment. Berkshire.

      ix Database Management System.
          - Ramakrishnan, R. & Gehrke, J. (2003). 3^rd Edition. Database Management System. America.

       x Agile Methodology.
       - Ambler, S. (2002). Agile Modeling: Effective Practices for eXtreme Programming & the Unified Process. Canada.

Learning gain of the Lecture

Work stick to time. Improve time management and team work skills.

Personal Opinion.

Good, but stressful activity. Since library system wasn't work properly we have to all the activity by our self.