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For most weeks of the term (starting in week 2) you will be required to post an entry to your blog in response to specific questions. The weekly questions are described below.
Your response to a weekly set of questions must be dated no later than midnight on the Sunday before the start of the following week. That means that a post answering the questions for week 2 (9 to 13 March, 2009) must appear by midnight on the Sunday before the start of week 3 (16 March, 2009). Some campuses may modify this due date. Refer to the lead lecturer at your campus for more information.
You can post your responses as early as you like. You do not have to wait until the specific week to do this. However, you should ensure that you have covered the course content for the given week before posting to the blog.
Note:
1. The subject line of your post must include the phrase "Week X" where you replace X with the number of the week. For example, for week 2 you must include "Week 2" in the subject line of your post.
For assignment 1 and assignment 2 you will be required to help the Pacific Tuna Watch organisation analyse and model the Pacific Tuna Watch Information System. The purpose of this blog post is to ensure that you have started reading the case study material and get you working on assignment 1.
Based on your reading of the case study material and other resources, answer the following questions.
In order to create the academic essay required by assignment 2, it is necessary for you to have answers to questions such as:
During week 3 (e.g. pp 106-121 of the textbook) you will be introduced to a range of methods for finding out the answers to these types of questions. For example, pages 114 to 121 of the textbook describe the following fact-finding techniques: document review, observation, questionnaires and surveys, sampling and research.
Post an entry to your blog that explains how you could use each of these techniques to answer the above questions. You should NOT attempt to answer these questions. You should explain how document review, observation, questionnaires and surveys, sampling and research might be used to answer these questions. It may be possible that some of these approaches might not help answer these questions. If so, explain why.
Data flow diagrams (pp 148-166 of the textbook) are one of the many graphical techniques used to describe an information system. For assignment 1 you are required to develop a set of data-flow diagrams (DFDs) for the new Pacific Tuna Watch Information System (PTWIS).
On page 178 the textbook talks about the four-model approach, which has the advantage of ensuring that you have a clear picture of the existing system. In this week's blog entry you are asked to practice drawing DFDs to help you prepare for assignment 1.
Create a context DFD and Diagram 0 DFD of the processes you need to complete when borrowing a DVD from a video rental shop. Upload the diagrams as images to your blog and include links to them in this week's entry. What software to use and the instructions on how to upload the diagrams are available on the resources page for assignment 3.
As part of assignment 1 you are required to develop two Data Dictionary entries (pp 167-173 of the textbook) for processes identified in the Zero DFD for the PTWIS. This question is designed to give you practice at developing Data Dictionary entries.
Post to your blog a Data Dictionary entry for a process from the Diagram 0 DFD that you drew in week 4. Use the following headings:
You do not need to post anything to your blog this week. Instead you should be working to complete your first assignment.
As part of the academic essay you are writing for Part B of assignment 2 it is necessary to compare and contrast the traditional and object-oriented approaches to information systems development. When comparing two things you describe how they are similiar or alike. When contrasting two things you explain how they are different. You should now make use of some of the techniques you identified in your Week 3 blog post to help you identify how traditional and object-oriented approaches to information systems development are similar and how they are different.
Your blog post for this week should answer the following questions:
As part of writing your academic essay Part B of assignment 2 you will need to draw on some literature - textbooks, journal articles and websites that define traditional and object-oriented approaches to information systems development and describe their similarities and differences.
Any textbooks, articles and websites that provide information cited in your essay should be included in the reference list of your essay.
This week you should begin an annotated bibliography in your post to the blog for this week. The resources page for assignment 3 contains a description of what an annotated bibliography is and what it should contain.
It is expected that you will list two or three textbooks, articles and/or websites. For each textbook, article or website you should write a paragraph or two briefly summarising it and explaining how it will support the arguments that you are making in your academic essay.
Your annotated bibliography must be started by the end of this week. It does not need to be completed this week. I suggest that you add information to your annotated bibliography as you add references to the reference list of your essay.
On pages 482 - 485 the textbook discusses four possible approaches to changing from one information system to another. Post an entry to your blog that explains the implications of using each of these approaches at Pacific Tuna Watch organisation to change from the existing manaual system to the new PTWIS you have been modelling and designing in assignments 1 and 2. Your post should include discussion of the benefits and problems associated with each approach.
The example blog contains an example of what is expected with this blog post. Do NOT copy any part of the example blog and place it in your own blog.
On pages 512 - 514 the textbook identifies and discusses four types of maintenance tasks. Post an entry to your blog that gives one example of each type of maintenance task that might be needed once the Pacific Tuna Watch Information System (the system you have modelled and designed the data for in assignments 1 and 2) is in operation.
The example blog contains an example of what is expected with this blog post. Do NOT copy any part of the example blog and place it in your own blog.
There is no blog post to make this week. You should be working on your second assignment.
Post an entry to your blog that answers the following questions: