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Monday, July 6, 2009

Tapping in-house resources

What do you think is/are the reason why the university decided to tapped in-house resources, was it a good decision?

When I read this question, I also wonder and ask myself the reason behind this decision and if it was really a good decision to tapped in-house resources. Then I realized some of the probable reasons why the university decided to tap in-house resources. The probable reasons I think are: first reason, what one of our instructors told us, about how much money the university paid every month for the enrollment system before; second reason, they realize that our university has skilled developers who can develop an enrollment system for it; third reason that I could think of is that the difficulty in maintaining the enrollment system before; and the fourth reason is that maybe even before they really want to change the system and have our own.

The first probable reason that I could think of is about how much money the university spend every month to have an enrollment system before. This reason really talks about money. The amount of money the university spent every month is not a joke. When I knew about this, I asked to myself if the system was really worth that much and how can the university afford that amount of money considering that we are a government university. We already know that the financial status of our country is not that good. Spending this kind of amount is some kind of disappointment for me, for the reason that I think they can find someone who can develop the system (that the university can spend a lesser amount of money) and there are much bigger problems in the university that they should pay attention to. Therefore, tapping in-house resources is a way that the university can think of if they want to spend a lesser amount of money and save it for the other projects.

Second reason, the university realizes that we have skilled developers who can develop a new enrollment system. As what I have mentioned earlier, I think there is/are someone who can develop the enrollment system for our university. This is now the time I will talk about the reason behind why I think that this is one of the reasons the university chose to tap in-house resources. Knowing that there are skilled developers here in the university – Engr. Cagape and Ma’am Tammy, why not use their skills? Through this, the university can save a lot and using their skills means taking advantage of the resources that the university can give. Engr. Cagape is supposedly our instructor in the subject Software Engineering I and Ma’am Tammy is supposedly our System Analysis and Design I instructor. In exchange of making the enrollment system, Engr. Cagape and Ma’am Tammy have to give up their handled subjects so that they can focus on developing the system. From what I’ve heard, Engr. Cagape has developed a system for a certain company and until now that system still exists. Also, Ma’am Tammy has developed a certain system for the university before (I can’t remember what the system is all about). And also from what I’ve heard they have a good background in their own professions.

The third reason is about the maintenance of the system before. Maintaining the system is hard especially when the developer of the system is out of reach. In this kind of situation, having in-house resources is an advantage. For the reason that whenever there are problems in the system, it can be easily fixed because the developers who know the system are inside the university. Unlike before, whenever there are problems in the system, waiting for the developer is an option. Even though there are IT specialists, no one in the university really knows the system and has the right in configuring it.

The university wanted to change the system and have our own, is the last reason I could think of. Tapping in-house resources is a good option in having our own system and changing the system before.

Developing a system is not easy. That is what I have learned from our previous subject – System Analysis and Design I (SAD I). A long time of planning is needed to ensure that the system will be a success. Maybe this is one of the reasons why the university changes the enrollment system only this time.

Those were the reasons why the university decided to tap in-house resources. As what I have mentioned, tapping in-house resources is a good option which also can give advantages or benefits to the university. But then, in every decision we cannot avoid that there are also some disadvantages. Even though these disadvantages exist, we must not stop in finding solutions to the problems that may occur ahead of us.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

SAD Assignment 6A

your reflections/comments pls ... SAD proposal submission/consultations

When our first instructor told us about our project, our group really doesn’t have an idea on what project we will do. Until we come up of something and decided to have a project about police blotter. Our instructor approved our proposal and said to make it a web-based project. But then this project was changed when our instructor in this subject was also changed.
Sir Gamboa frankly told us that our proposed project does not satisfy what we have learned for the past years here in our course. He suggested coming up of something not as simple as the previous one. At first, we insisted not to change it, but then later on we change it and follow the advice of our instructor. Our group then think of a project that we thought would be okay. On our first and next tries the reply we got was either 'No.' or 'The other group has already proposed that idea.’. After how many tries, sir told us about a project and suggested to us that if we like, we can continue it and enhance its features. And this is why and how we came up with our system proposal ALUMNAY_SA_USEP.
Our group are really grateful to come with a system that if will be implemented will surely help the alumni. To be honest, we are really not that confident if we can do this system right but we will do our best and are hopeful to finish this with the help of our instructor, classmates and other people.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

SAD Assignment 5


Shown above is the activity diagram of USEP's enroll system. the diagram is used to show the step-by-step workflow of the university's enrollment procedures. The above figure consists of initial node (initial state), activity final node (final state), and activities. The initial node denotes the start of the diagram or the start of the procedure and the activity final node denotes the ending. the activities here is represented by rounded rectangles.

The above figure shows that:
First, the student will pay the miscellaneous fees to their respective college local council's treasurer.
Second, if the student is a scholar, he/she must go to the OSS office for the scholarship approval or scholarship renewal.
Third, student must go to their college advisers for the evaluation of grades and subjects. Here, they will know what are the subjects they can and cannot take.
Fourth, if they will enroll in ROTC / CWTS, they must go to the ROTC / CWTS office to fill out an enrollment form and be enrolled.
Fifth, after all the subjects are approved by the adviser, the student must go tot he encoder to encode it.
Sixth, go to the cashier and pay the tuition fee (non-scholars/partial scholars).
Seventh, for scholars, they will go to the bookkeeper to post their accounts.
Eighth, after everything, students go to the registrar's office for registration.
Ninth, student is now officially enrolled, and requested to go to the library for validation of their library ID card

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The picture above shows the user case diagram of the USEP's enrollment system. It shows how the process goes on.

After the student goes to the registrar's office and completed all the requirements, it means that he/she is officially enrolled, but then it is also required for the student to go to the library in order to validate their library identification card.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

SAD Assignment 3

Among the data gathering techniques used in systems analysis are interviewing, document review, observation, and use of questionnaires. Considering your personality type, which of these would you be most comfortable with and why?

Among the data gathering techniques used in systems analysis, considering my personality, I would be most comfortable in observation. I'm not the type of person who can easily interact or talk to another person whom I just met. I'd rather observe what's happening and have some information, but then observation alone cannot be used to gather much information about something or about a company.

I can also use the techniques which are the document review and use of questionnaires to get the information I don't get in the first technique I used.

SAD Assignment 2

Following the SDLC model, please discuss the acitvities/steps that you will undertake in order to achieve your objective/s in life. what approach(es) would you use, predictive/adaptive?.. your own version of SDLC pls...

For me, life is a matter of choice. So, if I would choose between the two approaches, I would choose both. We can predict what will happen in the choice we pick but not all the time. Life is more on the adaptive approach, we must adapt on the changes because that is the only way we can go on.

If I will create my own version of SDLC, it will be like this...

Reflecting
This phase will really help in achieving what I want to achieve. Reflecting on my performance in the past, whether it is positive or negative, will help in making decisions in the upcoming events. To be honest, I really don't know until now what will be my goals after graduation.

Setting Goals
After reflecting, this comes next. Here is the time when I set my real goals in life.

Planning
From the word itself, this is the time when I make plans to the goals I set.

Implementing
Here, I implement what I have reflected, the goals I set and the plans I made.

Correcting while Improving
In this phase, it is like correcting an error. I will do my best to correct what should be corrected in order to improve my performance.