Team 5 Individual Assignments

 

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Richard Thompson -

 

Objective Set 1.0:

 

Task 1.0: Chapter 11: Supporting Decision Making, pp. 463-497

Review Question: 9 on p. 495

What is agent-based modeling?

Agent-based modeling is the simulation technology which studies the actions and interactions of emergent behavior. Agent-based modeling is built on the concept of neural networks which incorporates decisions that an individual would make in the real world. This type of modeling can be utilized to forecast results based on emergent behavior. Emergence refers to the way complex systems and patterns arise out of multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.

 

Text-Based Case Analysis:

 

 

What is the main problem in the case that reflects the hurt and the pain that led the organization to design the system or search for the solution?

 There were several factors that reflected the “hurt and pain” that led Boeing-Rocketdyne to explore a better solution for the production of satellite communication launchers. One of the hurdles that Boeing had to overcome was cost. Boeing faced firm competition and price demands from Eastern European companies. The cost related issues included a manufacturing cost of $20 million dollars, development cost of 4.5 million per engine, and the heap of parts required to manufacture the engine’s thrust changer.

 

Another factor involved in the hurt and pain of Boeing was the short life span of the rocket engines. The company desired to increase the life span of the rocket by 300%. Boeing also sought to market the engine 10 times faster than the Space shuttle’s main engine.

 

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Paul Nodine -

 

Objective Set 2.0:

 

Task 2.0: Chapter 12: Supporting Collaboration, pp. 498-528.

Question: 11 on p. 526.

 

What sorts of motivators should managers of virtual organizations adapt from the open source movement, according to Markus et al.?

Markus, Manville, and Agres believe that virtual organization managers should "put in place motivators that reinforce each other." They specify the following motivators that should be adapted from the open source movement.

1. Doing something they love (eg. building software) 

2. Gaining of a higher reputation among peers

3. Taking pride in contributions, helping others, and giving something back to society

4. Being able to improve and use high-quality software (for personal use)

 

 

Internet Task 1:

 

http://www2.sys-con.com/webinararchive.cfm?skip=on&pid=14®id=25242

This webinar by Steve Benfield of ClearNova titled “AJAX & Rich Internet Applications: Bringing Interactivity  & Intuitiveness Into Web Applications” explains the differences between standard web applications and Ajax based web applications, as well as tools for rapid Ajax application development.

 

Internet Task 2:

 

What do you see as the value of Ajax patterns as far as a CIO is concerned?

Ajax Pattersn brings significant improvement to web design and web applications due to their reusability and proven desing principles.  It also allows for asynchronous (the "A" in Ajax) webpage updates, where page content can be loaded or changed withoug having to reload  the entire page.  This reduces the time needed for pages to appear on screen for the end user.  This is a much needed change for companies with online retail sites, who lose millions of dollars annually in sales due to potential customers not completing online transactions due to slow web page load times.

For a more in depth explanation and business use cases regarding AJAX, I found an informative article titled “10 Business Reasons to Use AJAX” at http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2006/05/10_business_rea.html

 

Indicate a way in which your organization could use the ideas in this article.

My organization, a public county library, relies exclusively on its website for performing catalog searches of our book inventory.  Therefore, our website is the primary interface for patrons conducting business with us.  By implementing Ajax patterns into our website, we could create a richer, more dynamic experience for our customers.  Load time isn’t an issue given the proximity of the workstations to the web server, but providing a better overall experience for the patron would be better customer service.

 

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Daniela Tynan -

 

Objective Set 4.0:   Review Question 5 pg 606

 

According to Kelly, what were the three rules given to computer generated bats in Batman Returns?  What was the effect of these rules?

The three rules were:

1) Do not bump into another bat

2) Keep up with your neighbors

3) Do not stray too far away

 

 

The effect was that the computer generated bats acted just like live bats, meaning that he had found the flocking rules for bats.  This also means that order can be achieved from chaos, we just have to learn the rules.

 

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Marty Moseley -

 

Reading Review Task 1:

 

Kumaraswamy, M., Palaneeswaran, E., Ng, T., & Rahman,  M. (2006, May). Towards an integrated management support system for large clients. ITcon, 11, 197-210.

 

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Management support systems (MSS) have existed in some form since the mid-1960s.  Their primary purpose being to help management teams facilitate and administer project decisions based on “data collected from a wide range of sources” (Kumaraswamy, Palaneeswaran, Ng, & Rahman, 2006).  The dilemma associated with these systems, however, is that many times projects become so large and complex, that they become too difficult to manage.  Due to the massive infrastructure of activities involved, mega projects involve numerous, often complex, clusters of interacting activities.  Failure to transfer pertinent knowledge (information) between the principal stakeholders of a project tends to compromise the integrity of the project.  Additionally, misuse and lack of knowledge of MSS routinely results in project waste.   Waste, generally in the form of unnecessary work and material overruns, is especially true of the larger construction projects.  When management support systems are compromised, the results usually generate poor contractor selection, low productivity, poor product quality, compromised safety, and clashes between management and labor.