Winter 2006

Contents

• General Guidelines
• Presentations
• Evaluation
• Formatting your Report
• Possible Topics

General Guidelines

• Connect the topic to material covered in class.
• Every topic should be considered from a practical perspective (e.g., How is it used? How can it help an organization? How does it affect an accountant?).
• A reader should have enough information to recognize occasions when the topic can be usefully applied in an organization.
• Every topic should include appropriate citations to source material and tell the reader how to find out more.
• Grammar, spelling, and other writing concerns will definitely have an impact.
• Written reports are due one week after your presentation.
• Each report must be submitted as both hardcopy and as a Word file (email).
  The electronic version of the report will be made available to the class for study through a link on the class syllabus.

• Have some fun. Choose a topic you are interested in.
• Get your hands dirty. We learn by doing.
• Talk to the professor. Tell me about your project as you go along. I will try to be helpful.

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Presentations

Presentation skills are critical for success. Please prepare a 15 minute presentation of your topic. Once the topics have been selected, a presentation schedule will be developed. I will score it for professionalism, clarity, content, and interestingness. Please include several concrete facts or lessons which can be included on the final exam. Please see me one week before your presentation. Bring your slides so I can go through them with you. Surprises are not a good thing in this case. Then, practice your presentation.

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Evaluation

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Report Formatting

• A sample outline:


• Title Page:
  • Project Title
  • Authors' Names
  • Course and Instructor
  • Date


• Abstract (a very brief, no more than 1/3 page, summary of the report)


• Introduction


• Various sections presenting the results of your research


• Summary of the class discussion


• Conclusion


• References
  Use the following format:
  Smith, T.J. (2001) An Overview of Systems Design; Hammersmith Publ., Ottawa, Ontario.
  Smith, T.J. (2001) System Design Methods; Journal of System Design, 12, 551-561.
  Smith, T.J. (2001) Systems Design; New Developments; Available: http://www.wherever.com/smith/hereitis.pdf.
  


• Format requirements:
  
  
  • Use headings and separate your text in logical blocks and segments.
  
  
  • Number pages (Title page has no number. First page with content has page number 1).
  
  
  • Integrate figures and tables into the text; do not add them as an appendix in the back of the report.
  
  
  • Caption figures and tables (use Microsoft Word support for this).
  
  
  • Spell check (both automatically and manually!).
  
  
  • Grammar check!
  
  
  • Peer review!!

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Topics

• IT Outsourcing: Provide an overview of the 'outsourcing' of software development phenomenon. How big a phenomenon is this? Is it growing? Why? What trends can be observed? What does it mean for the future of Western computing?


• HTTP: The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) governs the Web, but how does it work? Who invented it? Why? How is it involved when we use the Web?


• XML: Provide an overview of the concept, uses, and impacts of eXtensible Markup Language. Who invented XML? When and why? What role is XML playing in the information systems world? What sorts of tools have been developed around XML? In particular, please describe eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).


• Knowledge Management: Digital Library (DL) technology provides new ways for businesses to manage their institutional memory. Provide an overview of DL technology, some of its implementations (e.g., www.NSDL.org), meta-data, meta-data harvesting, and briefly discuss some of its best-known products (e.g., Fedora and DSpace).


• Web Services: are a new technology for data exchange between computers. Explain what web services are and how they work. Make sure you provide a brief overview of the SOAP/WSDL and UDDI protocols and that you contrast it with the REST protocol.


• Disaster Prevention and Recovery: The laws of system entropy, natural disasters, acts of terror, and computer crime are but some of the things that can destroy an organization's information flow and storage. Explore how companies are protecting themselves against these mishaps.


• RFID: For some time now, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been an up and coming wireless technology. Provide an overview of RFID technology, its promises, potential and actual uses, and some of the more controversial issues surrounding this technology.


• Wireless Standards: Wireless technology is key in making technologies available for innovative applications. Outline the current wireless standards. Why choose one over another? Why are security concerns especially important in wireless applications? Describe security techniques used to protect wireless systems. Accountants often need to have connectivity at a remote sight (hotel, conference, or customer location). Include a demonstration of how to set up a wireless network card.


• Advanced SQL: In 271 and in this class, you have been exposed to SQL. But there is much more to know. What are database transactions? How do database systems provide fault tolerance? What are stored procedures? What are the stored procedure languages for Oracle and MSSql? Create an example procedure accessing our AP dataset. Use some of the advanced commands available in MSSql. Why might a company want to use this approach in an application?


• Audit Command Language: Some accounting firms use Audit Command Language (ACL) to review data. Describe the history and purpose of ACL. Try out ACL using a setup from the instructor. Do a demo of the product and describe your experiences and conclusions.


• Virtual Private Networks: Allowing access to organizational systems from remote locations can introduce serious security problems. How do Virtual Private Networks help with this problem? How do they work? Setup a VPN connection to the university and show how it can be used to access some protected data. (i.e., the accounts payable dataset used in this class). Also describe how private/public key encryption works.


• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Even before the advent of the Internet, companies had established standards for sharing Business to Business (B2B) data transfers. These linkages have had important strategic implications in some industries. What EDI standards are out there?


• CobiT P01 -- IT strategic plans: CobiT is a framework for governing IT processes in organizations. One part of the CobiT framework considers IT strategic plans. Download strategic plans for several large organizations and analyze them using CobiT.


• Microsoft Windows Server Security: Setting up a file server as a safe and secure platform for business data is no easy task. Walk the class through the setup of Windows Server. Study Microsoft's documentation on how to configure security. What are the issues? What are the solutions? This exercise can provide you with a practical perspective on computer security.

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