CS507


Assignment No. 01 
SEMESTER Fall 2010
CS507- Information Systems

Total Marks: 10

Due Date: 01/11/2010
Instructions
Please read the following instructions carefully before solving & submitting assignment:
It should be clear that your assignment will get zero marks if:
o  The assignment is submitted after due date.
o  The submitted assignment does not open or file is corrupt.
o  The assignment is copied (from other student or ditto copy from handouts or internet).
o  Student ID is not mentioned in the assignment File or name of file is other than student ID.

Note:
   Your answer must follow the below given specifications. You will be assigned zero marks if you do not
follow these instructions.

• Font style: “Times New Roman”
• Font color: “Black” 
• Font size: “12” 
•  Bold for heading only. 
• Font in Italic is not allowed at all.

Do not put any query at MDB about this assignment, if you have any query then contact at
cs507@vu.edu.pk


Lectures Covered: This assignment covers Lecture # 01-08


Deadline
Your assignment must be uploaded/submitted at or before Monday, November 01, 2010.



   Marks: 10

Question 1:
 What are the organization, management and technology dimensions of information systems?  [3 marks]

Question 2:
 Describe some of the major changes that information systems are bringing to organizations. [3 marks]

Question 3:
Describe the two factors that explain why organizations adopt information systems.  [4 marks]
 
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Assignment No.1
     Information System (CS507)
MC080402554
Kashif Ali Qazi


Q.No.1
What are the organization, management and technology dimensions of information system?
Answer

Organization Dimensions of Information System:
          Information system is an integral part of any organization. Indeed, some companies like credit reporting firms can not survive without information system management. All the organizations have a structure that is composed of different levels and specialties.
Seniors Management is to make long term planes and decisions regarding the product and service as well as ensure the financial growth of the firm.
Middle Level Managers are responsible for carrying out the planes made by the top level management.
Operational managers are responsible for monitoring the daily tasks and activities of the organization.
Knowledge Workers like scientists, engineers, designers, etc are responsible for new product designing and exploring the new knowledge for the organization.
Data workers are responsible for the clerical jobs.
Production workers are responsible for manufacturing and delivering a product or rendering a service.
        
                     Experts are employed and trained for the different business functions like sales & Marketing, accounting and finance, production and operations and HR professionals. Information system automates the business processes and makes it convenient for the massagers to perform this business functions.e.g. How a customer receives credits and how a customer is billed?  This is often done by using information system.

Management Dimensions of Information System;
                         Management s’ job is to make sense out of the many situations faced by the business organization, make decisions , formulating the strategies and solve the problems faced by the organization. The management is also supposed to allocate the resources to achieve the organizational goals. But managers have also do an other job of developing new products. All these managerial functions can not be done with out a proper support of information system.

Technology Dimensions of Information System;
          Information technology is a major tool the managers use to cope with change. Computer hardwares, sofwares, data management technology, networking and communication devices are the components of information system. The most important is the World Wide Web (WWW). All these technologies along with well trained and skilled people to make use to these represent resources that could be shared through out the organization and constitutes a firm s’ IT Infrastructure. IT infrastructure provides the milestone on which a firm builds its IT infrastructure.
                          Each organization must care fully design its’ IT infrastructure which can fulfill its needs adequately.

Q.No.2
Describe some of the major changes that information systems are bringing to the organization?
Answer
Information Systems and Technologies are affecting the business organization in the following way;
  1. Improved Operational Performance:
  2. Improved Response to Customer
  3. Improved Accounting and Inventory Management
  4. Improved internal & External Communication
  5. Improved customer satisfaction by better and quick response.
  6. Competitive advances over the competitors.



Q.No.3

Describe two factors that explain why the organizations adopt information system?
Answer

The business firms adopt information system to achieve the following advantages;
  1. Operational Excellence
  2. New Product, Services and Business Models
  3. Customers and Suppliers Intimacy
  4. Improved Decision Making
  5. Competitive Advantages
  6. Survival
  
             Now let us discuss only two factors in detail because the instructor asked to discuss only two factors to be discussed.

  1. Operational Excellence;
    1. Business continuously seeks to improve the efficiency of their operations in order to achieve higher profitability. Information system and technologies are the some of the most important tools available to managers for achieving higher levels of efficiency and productivity in business operations, especially when coupled with change in the business practices and management behavior.
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer on the earth, exemplifies the power of information system coupled with brilliant business practices and supportive management to shelf. Wal-Mart is the most efficient retail store in the industry, achieving sales of more than $28 per square foot, compared to its competitor, target, at $23 a square foot, within other retail firms producing less than $12 a square foot.

  1. Improved Decision Making;
    1. Many business managers operate in an information fog bank, never really having the right information at right time to make an informed decision. Instead, managers rely on forecasts, best guesses and good luck. The result is over production or underproduction of good/services, misallocation of resources and poor response time. These poor outcomes raise cost and lose customers. In the last 10years, information system and technologies have made it possible for the managers to use the real-time data from the marketplace when making decision.
                For instance, Verizon Corporation, one of the largest regional Bell operating companies in the US, uses web-based digital dashboard to provide managers with precise real-time information on customer complaints, network performance for each locality server and line outages or strom-diamged lines. Using this information, managers can immediately allocate repair resources to the affected areas, inform consumers of repair efforts and restore service fact.

CS610

CS 610 Computer Networks, Fall 2010
Assignment # 01

Deadline
Your assignment must be uploaded / submitted before or on November 01, 2010.
Marks = 20
Upload Instructions
Please view the assignment submission process document provided to you by the
Virtual University to upload the assignment.
Rules for Marking
Please note that your assignment will not be graded if: 
•  It is submitted after due date
•  The file you uploaded does not open
•  The file you uploaded is copied from some one else or from internet
•  It is in some format other than .doc

Objective
The assignment has been designed to enable you:
•  Understanding of CSMA/CD and Data Stuffing. 

Assignment Statements:
Question # 1: Explain CSMA/CD with a real example in your own
words?
Question # 2: What do you mean by data stuffing, Can you differentiate
the control characters from frame delimiters?
Important Note: It is better to write your own understanding rather than
coping from any source.  

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It is Collision Detection for Ethernet. Basically if two devices try to communicate with the same third device at the same time they will fail. Then they will start a random algorithm in which it will count down to retransmit.


• Short for Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection, a set of rules determining how network devices respond when two devices attempt to use a data channel simultaneously (called a collision). Standard Ethernet networks use CSMA/CD to physically monitor the traffic on the line at participating stations. If no transmission is taking place at the time, the particular station can transmit. If two stations attempt to transmit simultaneously, this causes a collision, which is detected by all participating stations. After a random time interval, the stations that collided attempt to transmit again. If another collision occurs, the time intervals from which the random waiting time is selected are increased step by step. This is known as exponential back off.
• CSMA/CD is a type of contention protocol. Networks using the CSMA/CD procedure are simple to implement but do not have deterministic transmission characteristics. The CSMA/CD method is internationally standardized in IEEE 802.3 and ISO 8802.3.


 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------






CS 610 Idea Solution:
Question # 1: Explain CSMA/CD with a real example in your own
words?
Solution:
The CSMA/CD protocol functions somewhat like a conference in a dark room. Everyone
has same priority to speak something. Everyone around the table must listen for a period
of quiet before speaking (Carrier Sense). Once  a space o ccurs ever yone has an equal
chance to say something (Multiple Access). It two people start talking at the same time
no one can understand what they speak and th ey detect that fact and quit speaking
(Collision Detection).
To translate this into Ethernet terms, each interface must wait until there is no signal on
the channel, and then it can begin transmitting. If some other interface is transmitting
there will be a signal on the channel, which is called carrier. All other interfaces must
wait until carrier ceases before trying to transmit, and this process is called Carrier Sense.
All Ethernet interfaces are equal in their ability to send frames onto the network. No one
gets a higher priority than anyone else, and democracy reigns. This is what is meant by
Multiple Access. Since signals take a finite time to travel from one end of an Ethernet
system to the other, the first bits of a transmitted frame do not reach all parts of the
network simultaneously. Therefore, it's possible for two interfaces to sense that the
network is idle and to start transmitting their frames simultaneously. When this happens,
the Ethernet system has a way to sense the "collision" of signals and to stop the
transmission and resend the frames. This is called Collision Detect.
The CSMA/CD protocol is designed to provide fair access to the shared channel so that
all stations get a chance to use the network. After  every packet transmission all stations
use the CSMA/CD protocol to determine which station gets to use the Ethernet channel
next.
Note:
Solve it by yourself


CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection) is the protocol used in
Ethernet networks to ensure that only on e network node is transmitting on the network
wire at any one time.
OR
Carrier Sense
means that every Ethernet device listens to the Ethernet wire before it
attempts to transmit.  If the Ethernet device senses that another device is transmitting, it
will wait to transmit.
Multiple Access
means that more than one Ethernet device can be sensing (listening and
waiting to transmit) at a time.
Collision Detection
means that when multiple Ethernet devices accidentally transmit at
the same time, they are able to detect this erro r.
Question # 2: What do you mean by data stuffing, Can you differentiate
the control characters from frame delimiters?
Solution:
Whenever a system sends data to another system it sends it through frames. It uses
control characters soh (start of header) and eot (end of header) to indicate the start and
end of a data frame. They actually play management role in frames. Sometimes the
control characters may appear in data  and as a par t of data they will be misinterpreted as
framing data.
In general to distinguish between data being sent and control information such as frame
delimiters network systems arrange for the sending side to change the d ata  slightly before
it is sent because systems usually insert data or b ytes to change data for transmission, the
technique is known as Data Stuffing.
The benefit of Data Stuffing is that the confusion of control characters in the data is
removed.
Control characters are used as frame delimiters. For e.g. the fr ame used the control
character soh in the start of frame to tell the  receiver that the frame is start from there and
the control character eot is used at the end of the  frame to tell the receiver that the frame
is ended. These control characters are called frame delimiters.
Note:
Solve it by yourself



CS615

Software Project Management
Assignment # 01
Fall 2010
                                                               Marks: 20
Due Date
Your assignment must be uploaded before or on 29th
 October 2010.

Uploading instructions:
Please view the Assignment Submission Process document provided to you by
the Virtual University for uploading assignments.
•  Assignment should be in .doc format.
•  Save your assignment with your ID (e.g. bx020200786.doc).
•  Assignment submission through email is highly discouraged.

Rules for Marking:
It should be clear that your assignment will not get any credit if:
•  The assignment is submitted after due date.
•  The submitted assignment file is corrupted.
•  The assignment is copied.
Note:
Your answer must follow the below given specifications. You will be assigned zero
marks if you do not follow these instructions.
•   Font style: “Times New Roman”
•   Font color: “Black”
•   Font size: “12”
•  Bold for heading only.
•  Font in Italic is not allowed at all.
•  No formatting or bullets are allowed to use.

Assignment:

Q. 01  Choice elements are found in the theory and practice of strategic management and
provide the performance standard by which enterprise resources are identified,
selected, committed for the growth and survival of the organizational process and
future products. Discuss the key choice  elements for the strategic management
that are important building blocks in the design and implementation of the
strategies for the enterprise’s future.

Q. 02  Discuss the planning limitations in formal strategic planning?  (At least five)

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Limitations of Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning should not be viewed as a guarantee to future success. Strategic Planning has limitations, such as following:

1. Strategic Planning is not a way of making future decisions. There is no way anyone can predictfuture. Strategic Planning provides overall guidance and direction based on what we think will happen.

2. Strategic Planning is not a blueprint forfuture. There are too many changes taking place - marketplace is changing, customer preferences are changing, new competition, new technologies, new opportunities, declining financial condition, etc. Strategic Planning is a dynamic process, which is receptive to change.

3. Strategic Planning cannot resolve critical situations threatening organization. Strategic Planning will not get you out of a crisis. Organization should be stable before engaging in strategic planning.

4. Strategic Planning should not replace good intuitive judgments. If an organization is lucky enough to have good intuitive thinkers, then exercise extreme care before embarking on formal strategic planning. You do not want to destroy intuitive thinking within organization.


*Here are some of the choice elements of an organization.*
*
*
*Please try to look these element into some strategic management notes or
books.*
*I know these might confuse you that what are these doing with project
managements but these are the basic fundamentals. *
*
*
*Try to write few lines on these topics.*
*

*vision*
*mission*
*Goals*
*objectives*
*Strategies*
*Projects*
*operational plans* 
 
  

Assignment CS507

Software Project Management
Assignment # 01
Fall 2010
                                                               Marks: 20
Due Date
Your assignment must be uploaded before or on 29th
 October 2010.

Uploading instructions:
Please view the Assignment Submission Process document provided to you by
the Virtual University for uploading assignments.
•  Assignment should be in .doc format.
•  Save your assignment with your ID (e.g. bx020200786.doc).
•  Assignment submission through email is highly discouraged.

Rules for Marking:
It should be clear that your assignment will not get any credit if:
•  The assignment is submitted after due date.
•  The submitted assignment file is corrupted.
•  The assignment is copied.
Note:
Your answer must follow the below given specifications. You will be assigned zero
marks if you do not follow these instructions.
•   Font style: “Times New Roman”
•   Font color: “Black”
•   Font size: “12”
•  Bold for heading only.
•  Font in Italic is not allowed at all.
•  No formatting or bullets are allowed to use.

Assignment:

Q. 01  Choice elements are found in the theory and practice of strategic management and
provide the performance standard by which enterprise resources are identified,
selected, committed for the growth and survival of the organizational process and
future products. Discuss the key choice  elements for the strategic management
that are important building blocks in the design and implementation of the
strategies for the enterprise’s future.

Q. 02  Discuss the planning limitations in formal strategic planning?  (At least five)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Question 1:What are the organization, management and technology dimensions of information systems? [3 marks]

Answer:

An information system represents a combination of management, organization, and technology elements. The management dimension of information system involves leadership, strategy, and management behavior. The technology dimension consists of computer hardware, software, data management technology, and networking/telecommunication technology (including the internet). The Organization dimension of information system involves the organization’s hierarchy, functional specialties, business processes, culture, political interest groups.

Question 2: Describe some of the major changes that information systems are bringing to organizations. [3 marks]


Answer:

The flattening of organizations is probably one that students will cite, particularly with the concern over downsizing. The parallel increase in information and in the decision power of line workers (empowerment), and their corresponding increase in work satisfaction, is often missed in media reports of downsizing. The flexibility of organizations in operations, for example, custom manufacturing and in linking customers and suppliers (thus reducing order time) are some of the major changes

Question 3: Describe the two factors that explain why organizations adopt information systems. [4 marks]


Answer:
• Customers now prefer to execute transaction in an electronic environment through online-trading. Also the establishment of customer services centers has also removed the inconvenience to access vendor’s physical locations. • Due to absence of physical contact, companies are curious to keep a soft touch in an efficient manner. This requires keeping a customer-wise online track of past correspondence and transactions.

University of Punjab Admission in MBA Offer

ACADEMIC CALENDAR (Year 2010)

ACADEMIC CALENDAR (Year 2010)

fall 2010
Course Selection Open (Fall 2010) for existing students Sept 29-Oct 14, 2010
Commencement of Fall 2010:
Ist Day of classes & Orientation for newly admit students
October 4, 2010
Allama Muhammad Iqbal Day (Holiday) November 9, 2010
Eid ul-Azha* (Feast of the Sacrifice)-Holidays November 17-19, 2010
Mid Term Exam (Fall 2010) December 1,  2010
Ashura* (Holidays) December 16-17, 2010
Resumption of classes after Mid Term Exam (Fall 2010) December 20, 2010
Kashmir Day (Holiday) February 5, 2011
Final Term Exam (Fall 2010) February 11, 2011
Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi* (Birth of the Prophet) - Holiday February 17, 2011
Commencement of Spring semester 2011 March 21, 2011
*subject to moon appearance 

Change of Study Program: MBA (3½ year)


Published On:  Monday, October 04, 2010
All existing and previous VU MBA students/graduates are allowed to continue/ to take admission towards MBA (3½ year) w.e.f. fall 2010. Interested students should submit their request for change of degree program/admission to studyprogramchange@vu.edu.pk on or before October 08, 2010.

Admitted students will be required to complete following remaining courses (minimum 24 credit hours) in at least three semesters with minimum CGPA 2.30 for the award of MBA (3½ year).  Tuition fee and other university dues will be charged as per new MBA (3½ year) program.  

Semester wise courses detail is as under:


Semester No. 5


Course  code & Title
  Cr. Hrs.

MGT610: Business Ethics
3

ACC501: Business Finance
3

MCM301: Communication skills
3




Semester No. 6


MGT401: Financial Accounting II
3

MGT211: Introduction To Business
3

MGT601: SME Management
3




Semester No. 7


STA301: Statistics and Probability
3

MGMT629: Crisis Management
(for Management Specialization)
OR
MGT510: Total Quality Management
(for all others)                                                             
3


3