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What is a Derived Attribute

What is a derived attribute? Give an example. Derived attributes are those whose values are created from other attributes.  These values are generated with the help of algorithms, calculations and other relevant procedures. The specifications established for calculating these derived attributes is a concern with respect to the processing aspects of the particular information system. These attributes may be integrated with the data model only in the condition that the attribute value calculation rules would be lost in the absence of the derived attributes. Database designers preferring to maintain the elegance of their designs prefer to avoid storing the derived attributes in their databases. They try to execute these derived attributes through appropriate algorithms so that they are called only when a specific query for them is made. In this manner the design elegance of the database is maintained. The most appropriate example of the usage of derived attributes is the calcu...

Action When MultiValued Attributes Encountered

What two courses of action are available to a designer when a multivalued attribute is encountered? When a multivalued attribute is encountered, the designer has two alternatives which can be followed. The multivalued components can be split into its components and kept in the same entity. But the only condition with the usage of this approach is that only single entries are stored at each level. For example, CUSTOMER_TELEPHONE can be decomposed into CUST_HOMEPHN, CUST_MOBILE AND CUST_FAX_NUMBER. If the customer has more than one mobile number, then this structure will not be able to store more than a single value. Hence for each component, only a single value will be stored. The second approach involves the creation of a new entity which would comprise of the components of the multivalued components. This new entity can be linked to the entity in which the multivalued attributes were originally present. This method is most favorable and desirable when the total number of result...

Database Design and Normalization Principles

The “right” database design can rarely be decided on the basis of normalization principles alone. Do you agree or disagree with this assertion? The Right Database and Normalization A database is a collection of information formatted into a table, chart, or file. Data tables are generally collections of information inputted into columns, rows and fields. Columns in each table can be selected through a primary sorting key and there may be unique keys to assist in data retrieval and input. You may have columns that are fixed in length or vary depending on the type of data that is being input. At the same time, records can also be fixed or varied. You can restrict column names and keep your column and table names case sensitive. You can develop a database in any form you desire as long as it is "normal." Normalization Characteristics There are many way to construct a database which includes the rational database plus the principles of normalization. One example include...

Top-Down and Bottom Up Processes

The process of starting with world objects and modeling using entity-relationship diagrams is referred to as a top-down process. Starting with one large table and functional dependencies using normalization is referred to as bottom-up development. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method? Are there any inherit dangers with either method? Which would you prefer to use? Is it really an either-or situation? Top-Down and Bottom Up Processes Top Down Top-Down is deductive reasoning. It can be used in conjunctions with analysis and decomposition. Breaking down a system to gain insight into different elements is the top-down approach. First a total system is developed, and then subsystems are detailed. There may be many different levels until everything is reduced to a whole. To put it in simple terms, top-down approaches start with the big picture. This concept is broken down into smaller segments for ease of understanding and learning. In business top down can be ill...

Developing Accurate Cost Estimates

What is the Biggest Problem in Developing Accurate Cost Estimations? Why? Cost Estimation Methods   Developing the estimated cost of a project, can be the variance between completing projects on time and being able to complete the project on budget. Techniques for cost estimations are very important and particularly if you are the project manager. Estimating what processes cost and how they work to provide a finished product should be a part of the project proposal. Study the techniques that that you feel will give you the most accurate estimation method. Types of Cost Estimation Methods Analogous estimating is learning from precedents.  Read though past projects and determine how the cost estimating was based. Analogous estimating can provide a continuous basis for developing estimates based on past learning. Project parameters that can be estimated include costs, budget, scope, and duration. Use analogous estimation to determine the complexity plus the size of the ...

Instance of Project Termination

Describe one instance of project termination you have experienced? What steps were undertaken to close-out the project. By and large, projects are terminated due to two fundamental reasons: project success or project failure. Project success signifies that the project has encountered its cost, agenda, and technical operation goals and has been incorporated into the organization of customers to play a role to their mission. Project failure indicates that the project has failed to fulfill its cost, agenda, and technical operation goals, or it is incompetent or unfit in the organization's prospect. Besides, following are the two broad categories of project termination: Natural termination Unnatural termination Young (2003) draws the attention to some of the causes of project termination: The project domino effect have been delivered to the customer The project has spilled over its cost and agenda goals The project owner's tactic has altered The project's backer has...

Project Plan Enhancements

What enhancements would you make to the outline we're using for the project plan in this class? What would you recommend? Justify your additions. Project plan is a standard official document that is utilized to direct both project implementation as well as project control. The chief uses of the project plan are to document planning suppositions and decisions, smooth the progress of communication between stakeholders, and document agreed scope, cost, and calendar baselines. In addition to this, a project plan might be abridged or comprehensive. To keep the plan up to date is an imperative job of the project manager (Lewis, 2000). Project updates concentrate on the following three constrictions of project management: Cost Time Scope An efficient project manager fully understands that an amendment in one of the above domains consequences in changes in the rest two. An up to date project plan will exhibit the upshot of these changes on the entire project (Lewis, 2000). Costs ...

Perception of Project Management

Consider how your perception of project management has changed during these past eight weeks Mind, thoughts as well as perception usually changes with the passage of time and the level of knowledge. Everyone possesses a diverse notion about what project management stands for. For some individuals, it is considered on the top of a plain mutual to-do list. While other considering it as arranging a huge set of resources to generate an extensive deliverable. During the past 8 weeks, my perception about project management has changed and I have come to know that project management is the approach by which business goals are attained. It is regarding being structured from the start of the job to the closing stages.  It is about having an efficient and well-organized team with a leader that can promote collaboration and stimulate to obtain domino effect.  At present, project managers around the world synchronize the hard work of individual resources to fulfill tasks along with de...

The Chaos Report

The Chaos report lists a variety of success factors that affect project management. This includes user involvement, executive management support, proper planning, clear statement of requirements, realistic expectations, ownership, hard-working and focused staff. Pick one of these, or research an alternative, and assess how this success factor would impact your particular project. The project managers always search for clandestine formula which will make the projects booming. There are some vital items that need to be considered and ensured in a proactive manner. One searches for those intangible significant success factors that can be handled to make an atmosphere favorable for the accomplishment of the project. According to the Chaos report (2009) the success factors involve User Involvement, Executive Support, Clear Business Objectives, Emotional Maturity, Optimization, Agile Process, Project Management Expertise, Skilled Resources, Execution, Tools and Infrastructure. User Invo...

Possible Outcomes for Component Replacement

Discuss why savings in cost from reusing existing software is not simply proportional to the size of the components that are used. What other factors affect the cost? Principles of Component Independence and Possible Outcomes for Component Replacement There is a general agreement in the software engineering industry that a component is an independent software unit which can be composed with other independent units in order to create a software system (Sommerville, 1989). Another commonly accepted definition is that a component can be independently deployed and composed without modification according to a composition standard (Councill and Heineman, 2001). In any system, software or hardware, in order to determine its reliability it is important to firstly establish component independence. This is typically achieved through independent component analysis (ICA), which is a computational technique for revealing hidden factors that underlie sets of measurements or signals (Oja, 2001...

Phishing for Romance

Phishing is a type of online fraud that tries to trick you into revealing personal financial information, passwords, credit card numbers, etc. In most cases, phishing takes the form of an e-mail message claiming to come from a bank, credit card company, online retailer or some other legitimate source. Take the SonicWALL Phishing and Spam IQ Quiz (available at http://www.sonicwall.com/phishing/ ) Phishing for Romance Phishing is a form of social engineering in which an attacker, also known as a phisher, attempts to deceptively repossess genuine users’ private or sensitive qualifications by mimicking electronic connections from a trustworthy or public organization in an automated fashion (Jakobsson, 2007). Phishing techniques circumvent an organization or individual’s security measure. It nullifies any firewalls, authentication software, and encryption due to the fact that most “phisers” nowadays uses social engineering to entice possible targets. Attackers can use different methods...

Reuse in Component Based Software Engineering

Discuss why savings in cost from reusing existing software is not simply proportional to the size of the components that are used. What other factors affect the cost? Reuse in Component Based Software Engineering Software reuse is the process through which an organization designates a set of operating procedures to specify, produce, classify, retrieve, and adapt software components with the purpose of using them in development activities (Parnas, 1994). One of the main reasons organizations have adopted component based software engineering (CBSE), a system which has highly reusable qualities, in their software development process is the reduction in development costs and increase in productivity.   Software reuse represents reusing an asset, or a component, in a different system that the one in which it was initially used (Frakes and Fox, 1995). The term software reuse might be, at first glance, somewhat misleading, but it is by no means something that can be achieved free of cos...

Cyberspace Censorship or Lawlessness

For this discussion, we will talk about “freedom of speech in cyberspace”. Please let us know any of the recent events (one event) from the news that illustrate a positive or negative implication of the impact of the Internet on the actual protection of the freedom of speech. What is your opinion on the event? Cyberspace: Censorship or Lawlessness Freedom of speech is the right to express opinion without censorship or restraint. Freedom of speech in cyberspace is a highly debated topic in the advent of the Internet. Cyberspace is a lawless zone where the weak are prey to the strong. Due to the surge of fraudulent and unscrupulous entities attacking websites and sensitive data theft, governments are taking action in censoring/limiting the usage or access to certain sites. In revolt to these actions, citizens of the Internet made uproars in response to this. Social media site users retorted by using black backgrounds as profile pictures, creation of hate pages, and viral commentar...

Goals And Techniques Of Process Analysis

Discuss the goals and techniques of Process Analysis Process analysis involves the series of events that result in an achievement. It tells you how this series of events occurred. Process analysis is of two types, informational and directional. Informational analysis asks the question,” How is this done?” This analysis tells you how a certain thing was done or achieved. Directional analysis, on the other hand, asks the question, “How can you do this?” Here you examine how you can do a certain thing so that the process can be repeated. Directional analysis gives directions to a certain process. The purpose of performing a process analysis is to understand how to do a certain thing or how it works, to ascertain how effective a process is or to argue about its significance. The goals of performing a process analysis are, to evaluate completeness, to identify the factors that make maps difficult to use, to isolate bottlenecks, to measure process time, to find redundancies, and to examin...

Process Metrics Effectiveness

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Choose a process metrics to discuss. How effective would it be to help process improvement? How easy is it to use? Process metrics are used to measure the components of processes which are used to obtain software. (Singh et al. 2011) Process metrics are measurements that deal with a specific project or program and enable organizations to obtain, evaluate, and communicate excellent results of process improvement. Time is the key element that effect process metrics, as it plays a big role in the quantitative analysis of projects. Therefore, comparing the time delta between proposed time and increased time is a significant component for project completions. Hence, process metrics are very useful to assess the improvement of a process (Zelkowitz, 2009). Process metrics are the means for the software developmental project to be sustained throughout its life cycle. These metrics are collected in order to form strategic decisions about long-term process improvements. There are several pr...

Overlooked Risks In Software Development

What software risks are most commonly overlooked or not managed well within your organization? What mitigation strategies would you recommend to lessen the severity of the risks? Do you have any suggestions for how these risks may be prevented/ avoided in the future? Risk management is vital for software development projects. Software risk management is needed during project execution for control purposes and project planning. It helps to reduce the chances of project failure. The first step in software project risk management is to identify a set of risks and record then in a checklist (Arnuphaptrairong 2011). Installing mapping system and other large software projects have proved beneficial to organizations. However, the risks involved in such an implementation are huge. The threat of a risk establishes the need for a systematic and aggressive risk management process to make sure the project is a success. The risk management process should address three main risks linked to impleme...

Legacy System And Client-Server System

Some of you have lived through the conversion of a legacy system into a client-server or distributed system. Others have tangentially been involved, while others may have just heard about it. With the information you have read in this lecture and the text, and/or your own experiences, discuss some possible problems that might arise in the conversion. Software and applications that function according to old technology even though there are newer technologies available are known as legacy systems. Because the costs of replacement are usually high, not to forget the efforts, legacy systems generally are left as they are (Burke 2011).Thus, in most cases bequest system is utilized for the reason that the system where effort and time is needed in understanding it in order to change it and put a better and newer technology in its place.  The incentive behind developing a web browser system by replacing the bequest system is to use a sole client for every platform. Here a single set of cod...

Where Not To Use SOA

Giving reasons for your answer, suggest two types of applications where you would not recommend the use of service-oriented architecture and why. SOA or Service Oriented Architecture is an architectural concept where components of systems depict data and functionality in the form of services. These services are accessible by various other components with the help of certain standard-based technologies (Thomson 2008). With SOA one can create new applications by mix-and-match. The first step is to choose on the application needed, next identify the present components that can aid in building up the application, and lastly mix them all together (Gralla 2003). Although SOA seems to be increasingly popular in the present day, it is not a new concept at all. It exists since the 1980s. However, the idea didn’t take root as there was no application programming interface or standard middleware that could enable it to do so. With the development of Web services, SOA has resurfaced. The und...

Risk Management Deliverers

List two or three risk management deliverers that you have seen or produced during a past or current project (such as: risk list, risk status report, risk management plan, expected value report, risk monitoring report, risk response form, etc.). Describe their effectiveness.                                                         When during the project life cycle were they developed? How much training did those involved in the related processes receive? Risks are part of every project. For a project to be successful, the key is not to avoid risks, but to know and understand them. A risk is the probability of occurrence of a condition or event that would negatively affect the project development process. R...

Possible Risks and their Impacts on Software Projects

Discuss three possible risks that may arise on software projects. Determine what would be their impact and how can they be addressed   Possible Risks and their Impacts on Software Projects Risks are uncertain events of the future with a probability for occurrence and a potential for loss. For software projects, risk identification and management are primary concerns. Proper analysis of these risks will help in effectively planning and assigning work for the project.  One of the major reasons for project failures is the presence of multiple risks in the software project environment. Software projects are a collection of larger programs that have several dependencies and interactions. The projects involve creating something that has not been previously done, even though the developmental process may be similar to some other projects. Therefore, software developmental projects have a variety of quality and usability problems, amongst others (Kwak & Stoddard 2004). ...

Dependability in Open Source Development

Open Source development involves making the source code of a system publicly available. This means that many people can propose changes and improvements to the software. Analyze the dependability issues surrounding the process of Open Source development. Dependability Issues Surrounding the Process of Open Source Development   ‘Open Source’ is a term used to describe software development projects (Arief et al. 2002). Projects that are significantly different and possess different characteristics are called open source projects (Lawrie et al. 2002). Some examples of projects that are open source are operating systems, web and mail servers, and developmental tools. These examples point towards the formation of a community that can create software that is claimed to be very dependable (Lawrie and Gacek 2002).  Because Open Source development involves sharing the source code of a system, there have been issues regarding its dependability. Dependability is a relativel...