Point to Point Network ? Broad cast network ?

Exchange of information is required in many situations between two users. In such situations, data communication is needed. A computer network is a collection of computers and peripheral devices (the network components) connected by communication links that allow the network components to work together.  

Computer networks can be defined as an interconnected collection of autonomous computers. Network can be defined into two categories : point to point and broadcast network.

A point-to-point connection refers to a communications connection between two communication endpoints or nodes. A simple Point to Point Network is a permanent link between two endpoints. A point-to-point connection provides a dedicated link between two devices. The entire capacity of the link is reserved for transmission between those two devices.

Broadcasting is a method of transferring a message to all recipients simultaneously. Broadcasting can be performed as a high-level operation in a program. A point-to-point transmission with one sender and one receiver is called unicasting. Broadcast links is in contrast a communication channel that is shared by all the computers in the network.

A broadcast network avoids the complex routing procedures of a switched network by ensuring that each node's transmissions are received by all other nodes in the network. Therefore, a broadcast network has only a single communications channel.

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Importance of Citations and its uses

A citation is a reference to the source of information used in your research. Any time you directly quote, paraphrase, or summarize the essential elements of someone else's idea in your work, an in-text citation should follow. ... You do not have to cite your own ideas unless they have been published. A citation should be used when content that did not originate with you is used to support your writing. Content includes words (quotations, phrases, sayings, etc.) thoughts, or ideas (summarisations and paraphrases).

Citing or documenting the sources used in your research serves three purposes: It gives proper credit to the authors of the words or ideas that you incorporated into your paper. It allows those who are reading your work to locate your sources, in order to learn more about the ideas that you include in your paper. Impact factors should not be used as a standard of comparison between disciplines. Citation practice depends very much on the subject area, with the result that a high impact factor for one discipline may look extremely low in comparison with another.

Doesn't citing make my work seem less original?

Not at all. On the contrary, citing sources actually, helps your reader distinguish your ideas from those of your sources. This will actually emphasize the originality of your own work.

When do I need to cite?

Whenever you borrow words or ideas, you need to acknowledge their source. The following situations almost always require citation:

• whenever you use quotes
• whenever you paraphrase
• whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed
• whenever you make specific reference to the work of another
• whenever someone else's work has been critical in developing your own ideas.

Top Three Points to Remember

1. Citation counts are not a measure of quality as articles may be cited for both negative as well as positive reasons. Why something is being cited must always be considered in the assessment.
2. Citation behavior varies from subject area to subject area depending on many disparate factors such as the preferred document type (books vs journal articles vs conference papers vs patents), authors and audience (practitioners vs researchers), and environment (industry vs academic). Consequently, raw citation counts cannot be compared across subject areas, even for those subjects that may seem closely related.
3. Although many indexing or abstracting services provide citation counts, each source only counts what's in its own database, so citation counts will be different. Note that:
• Many services are counting the same sources (ex. all the well-known journals within the field). This duplication prevents a simple addition of scores across the services to get a total citation count. If you add counts obtained from different services, you must remove the duplicates in order to have a realistic total.
• As some services focus on the literature in one subject area (ex. PubMed databases covers health sciences) they are looking at fewer sources for citation data than the large multidisciplinary databases (ex. Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar). This can lead to the incorrect conclusion that searching these disciplinary databases is unnecessary. However, these disciplinary databases may pick up citations from specialized journals and non-journal literature for a given subject that are not included in the larger databases.

Best Uses:

• Finding out who is citing your publications and why. Have your publications proved beneficial to research outside of the expected subject areas and/or in unexpected ways?
• Comparing citation counts within the same, focused subject area or within the same journal; in each comparison the articles must have been published in the same timeframe.
• Some citation benchmark metrics may be used for comparisons across subject areas.

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Interactive Systems and User Interface

INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS AND USER INTERFACE 

In interactive systems the user and system exchange information regularly and dynamically. Norman’s evaluation/execution model is a useful approach of understanding the nature of interaction: 

* User has a goal ( something to achieve)

* User looks at the system and attempts to exercises how he would perform a series of tasks to accomplish the goal. 

* User carries out several events (providing input to the system by touching a screen, pressing buttons, speaking words, etc) 

* User looks at the results of his action and attempts to assess whether or not the goals have been achieved. 

A good interactive system is one where: 

• Users can effortlessly work out how to control the system in an attempt to accomplish his goals. 
• The user can simply assess the results of his action on the system.

What interactive systems do we use in our day-to-day life? However, the term interactive system can be applied to a greatly broader collection of devices, such as: 

• The World Wide Web
  
• Mobile phones
  
• Cash dispensing machines
  
• Windows operating systems
  
• Car navigation systems
  
• Data entry systems
  
• Video recorders 
• Machines driven call centre (e.g. for telephone banking) 
• †Workflow system to coordinate a team’s work-efforts.
  

The original interactive systems were command-line systems, which strongly controlled the interaction between the human and the computer. The user was compulsory to know the commands that might be issued and how the arguments were to be controlled. UNIX operating system and DOS (Disk Operating System) are classic examples of this category. Users were mandatory to enter data in a particular sequence. The options for the output of data were also strongly controlled and usually limited. Such systems normally put a high demand on the user to memorize commands and the syntax for issuing these commands. 

Command-line systems progressively gave way to the second generation of menu-based systems, form-based systems, and dialog-based systems that eased some of the load on memory. An automatic teller machine (ATM) is a good example of a form-based system where users are given a tightly controlled setol of promising actions. Data entry systems commonly form or dialog-oriented systems offer the user a limited set of choices but deeply relieving the memory demands of the earlier command-line systems.

Next, the third generation of interactive computing was introduced by Xerox Corporation in 1980. The Xerox Star was the outcome of a half dozen years of research and development through which the desktop metaphor, mouse, windows, icons, and bit-mapped displays were all brought together and completed to function. The Xerox Star was simulated in the Lisa and Macintosh first presented by Apple Computer Inc. in the mid-1980s. The windows, icon, menu, and pointer (WIMP) approach was made worldwide by Microsoft in the Windows family of operating systems introduced in the 1990s. With the maturation of WIMP interfaces, also known as graphical user interfaces (GUIs), interaction moved from command-based to direct manipulation. 

In command-based systems, the user specifies an action and then an object on which that action is to be performed. In a direct manipulation system, an object is selected, and then the user specifies the action to be performed on that object. The most recent developments in interactive systems have focused on visualization, virtualization, and agents. During the 1980s and 1990s, there were many efforts to take benefit of the human capability to process information visually. At the simplest level, consider that a human looking at a picture on a television screen has no problem in sharp a pattern that consists of millions of individual pixels per second, changing in both time and space. Visualization systems manipulate information at high levels of aggregation, making the information additional reachable to users.

In the 1990s, researchers began to experiment with extending interactive systems from symbolic interaction such as: mice, icons, and pointers - to virtual systems. In these systems, every effort was made to allow the user to explore a virtual world with small or no translation to symbolic form. Thus, using visualization techniques and novel forms of input devices, such as data gloves, hand movements could be used to manipulate virtual objects represented graphically in a virtual world. This virtual environment was presented to the user using two display screens, each of which provided a somewhat different perspective, giving the user a stereoscopic view of a virtual space that appeared to have strength. Work on virtual and artificial realism continues on a number of particular fronts, including a field known as telemedicine. 

The next generation of interactive systems, represented by agents in embedded systems, will yet again change how humans and computers interact. Direct manipulation environments will still be around for many years to come. At the same time, we have begun to see both agents and embedded systems make their manifestation. Embedded systems can be as easy as the analog sensor systems that open a department store door, or turn on lights when someone enters a room. At a more complex level, most cars being built today include air bag deployment systems and antilock brakes that operate invisibly by gathering data from the environment and inserting computer control between our actions and the environment. As air bag deployment systems become more difficult, they react based not simply on acceleration data, but also based on the weight of the individuals occupying the seat and their relative position (leaning forward or back) on the seat.

The basic programming paradigm had to change from the process-driven approach to an event-driven perspective. In earlier systems, the program’s main process would control what the user could do. Now, it was possible for the user to initiate a broad series of actions by selecting an object - a window, an icon, a text box. This required some method for collecting events and handling them. The X Window System on UNIX was one of the early famous systems for doing this. Each graphical component of the interface was able of producing one or more events. For example a window might be opened or closed generating an event. Similarly, a button might be pressed, or the text in a text box might be changed. The programmer’s task is to show a coordinated set of components that can generate events. The programmer is also required to write code that will start some action when an event occurs. These code fragments are called event handling functions. In object-based and object-oriented programming (OOP) environments, this task of handling events is made easier through object classes that associate default event handling methods with specific classes of objects. For example: The code for how the look of a button is changed when it is pressed may be provided as a default method of the button objects. 

The user interface (UI), in the software industrial design field of human-computer interaction, is the area where interactions between humans and systems occur. The aim of this interaction is to agree to effective operation and control of the system from the human end, whilst the system simultaneously feeds back information that aids the operator’s decision-making process. Examples of this wide concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of computer operating systems, heavy machinery operator controls, hand tools, and process controls. The design considerations applicable when creating user interfaces are related to or occupy such disciplines as ergonomics and psychology. Usually, the goal of user interface design is to produce a user interface that makes it easy (self-explanatory), enjoyable (user friendly), and efficient to operate a system in the way which produces the preferred result. This generally means that the operator needs to give minimal input to achieve the desired output, and also that the system minimizes undesired outputs to the human. 

With the increased use of personal computers and the relative decline in a common awareness of heavy machinery, the term user interface is generally assumed to mean the graphical user interface, while industrial control panel and machinery control design discussions more commonly refer to human-machine interfaces. The next terms for user interface are man-machine interface (MMI) and when the machine in question is a computer human-computer interface. All effective interfaces share eight quality or characteristics: 

1. Clarity: The interface avoids uncertainty by making everything clear through language, hierarchy, flow, and metaphors for visual elements. 
2. Concision: It’s easy to make the interface obvious by over clarifying and labeling everything, but this leads to interface bloat, where there is just too much stuff on the screen at the same moment. If too many things are on the screen, finding what you’re looking for is tricky, and so the interface becomes dull to use. The real challenge in making a good interface is to make it concise and clear at the same time. 
3. Consistency: Keeping your interface consistent across your application is vital because it allows users to recognize usage patterns. 
4. Efficiency: Time is money and a good interface should make the user more productive through shortcuts and good design. 
5. Familiarity: Even if someone uses an interface for the first time, certain elements can still be familiar. Real life similes can be used to communicate meaning.
   Responsiveness: A good interface should not experience slow. This means that the interface should provide good feedback to the user about what’s happening and whether the user’s input is being successfully processed. 
6. Responsiveness: A good interface should not experience slow. This means that the interface should provide good feedback to the user about what’s happening and whether the user’s input is being successfully processed. 
7. Aesthetics: While we don’t need to make an interface attractive for it to do its work, making something look good will make the time users spend using the application more enjoyable; and happier users can only be a good thing. 
8. Forgiveness: A good interface should not punish users for their mistakes but should instead provide the resource to cure them . 

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Reference : Brijendra Singh and Shikha Gautam, "Systems and Software Process", Published by Narosa Publication House,  Delhi 2020, ISBN: 978-81-8487-661-1

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Project Risk Management

A risk is anything that could potentially impact your project’s timeline, performance or budget. Risk can be either positive or negative, though most people assume risks are inherently the latter. Where negative risk implies something unwanted that has the potential to irreparably damage a project, positive risks are opportunities that can affect the project in beneficial ways.

Project risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to any risk that arises over the life cycle of a project to help the project remain on track and meet its goal.

What Is Risk Identification?

You can’t resolve a risk if you don’t know what it is. There are many ways to identify risk.You can identify the risk by is brainstorming with your team, colleagues or stakeholders. Risk identification is also a process, but in this case it lists all the potential project risk and what their characteristics would be. This information will then be used for your risk analysis. Though this process starts at the beginning of the project, it’s an iterative process and continues throughout the project life cycle.

What Is Risk Analysis?

Before analysing the risk in your project, you have to acknowledge that risk is going to happen in your project. Risk analysis is the process that figures out how likely that a risk will arise in a project. It studies uncertainty and how it would impact the project in terms of schedule, quality and costs. Two ways to analyze risk is quantitative and qualitative. But it’s important to know that risk analysis is not an exact science, it’s more like an art.

Determining Impact

Through qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, you can define the potential risks by determining impacts to the following aspects of your project:

a.Activity resource estimates
b.Activity duration estimates
c.Schedule
d.Cost estimates
e.Budget
f.Quality

By implementing a risk management plan and considering the various potential risks or events before they occur, an organization can save money and protect their future.

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Project Feasibility

Project Feasibility

A feasibility study is a test of a system proposal according to its workability. Impact on organization, ability to meet user needs, and effective use of resources. Its focuses on three major questions : 

1. What are the user's demonstrable needs and how does a candidate system meet them?

2. What resources are available for a given candidate system (Information system) ? Is the problem worth solving?   

3. What is the likely impact of the candidate system on the organization? How will does it fit within the organization’s master plan?

Each of these questions must be answered carefully. They revolve around investigation and evaluation of the problem, identification and description of candidate system (Information system), specification or performance and the cost of each system and final selection of the best system. 

The objective of the feasibility study is not to solve the problem but to acquires a sense of its scope. The result of the feasibility study is a formal proposal. The proposal summarizes what is known and what is going to be done. Once the feasibility study has been compiled, it is submitted back to the approval of management along with a revised system request. The management then decides whether to approve the project, decline the project, or table it until additional information is available. 

Types of activities performed during the feasibility study are given below : 

1. Identify what the document is 
2. Description of current situation 
3. Problem description (statement of the problem) 
4. Proposed development 
• Business and financial aspects 
• Technical aspects. 
• Organizational aspects. 

1. Estimated cost 

• Development Cost. 
• Operational Cost 

1. Envisaged benefits. 
2. Recommendation 

Preliminary investigation examine project feasibility the likelihood the system will be useful to the organization. Three tests of feasibility are operational, technical and financial. All are equally important. 

1. Operational Feasibility 

Proposed projects are beneficial only if they can be turned into information system that will meet the organizations operating requirements. Questions raised by analysts during the preliminary investigation that will help test the operational feasibility of project :

1. Is there sufficient support for the project from management and users? If the current system is well liked and used to the extent that persons will not be able to see reasons for a change, these may be resistance. 
2. Are current business methods acceptable to the uses? If they are not, uses may welcome a change that will bring about a more operational and useful system. 
3. Will the proposed system cause harm? Will it produce poorer result in any respect or area? Will accessibility of information be lost? Will individual performance be poorer after implementation than before? Will customers be officiated in the undesirable way? Will the system slow performance in any areas ?  

Issues that appear to be relatively minor in the beginning have ways of growing into major problem after implementation. Therefore, all operational aspects must be considered carefully. 

1. Technical Feasibility 

Questions raised by analyst during the preliminary investigation that will help test the technical feasibility of the project : 

1. Does the necessary technologies exist to do what is suggested (and can it be acquired) ? 
2. Does the proposed equipment have the technical capacity to hold the data required to use the new system ?
3. Will the proposed system provide adequate responses to inquiries,  regardless of the number or location of users ? 
4. Can the system be expanded if developed? 
5. Are these technical guarantees of accuracy, reliability of access, and data security? 

1. Financial and Economic Feasibility 

A system that can be developed technically and that will be used installed must still be a good investment for the organization. Financially benefits must equal or exceed the costs. The financial and economic questions raised by analysts during preliminary investigations are for the purpose of estimating the following : 

(i) The cost of conduct a full system investigation. 

(ii) The cost of hardware and software for the class of application being considered. 

(iii) The cost nothing changes (i.e. the proposed system is not developed). 

The project proposed must be passed all these tests. Otherwise, it is not a feasible project. The purpose for assessing economic feasibility is the identify the financial benefits and costs associated with the development projects, economic feasibility is often referred to as cost-benefit analysis.  

Cost –benefit Analysis 

The most common way of carrying out an economic assessment of a proposed information system or software product, is by comparing the expect costs of development and operation of the system with the benefits of having it in place. 

Assessment focuses on whether the estimated income and other benefit exceed the estimated costs. Additionally, it is usually necessary to ask whether the project under consideration is the best of a number of options. There might be more candidate projects than can be undertaken at any one time and, in any case, project will need to be prioritized so that resources are allocated effectively

The standard way of evaluating the economic benefits of any project is cost-benefit analysis, comprising of two steps :- 

1. Identifying and estimating all of the costs and benefits of carrying out the project and operating the delivered application. These include the development costs, the operating costs and the benefits that are expected to accrue from the new system. Where the proposed system is replacing an existing one, these intimates should reflect the change in costs and benefits that are expected to accrue from the new system. Where the proposed system is replacing an existing one, these estimates should reflect the change in costs and benefits due to the new system. A new sales order processing system, for examples, could not claim to benefit an organization by the total value of sales – only by the increase due to the use of the new system. 
2. Expressing these costs and benefits in common units. We need to evaluate the net benefit, that is the difference between the total benefit and the total cost of creating and operating the system. To do this, we must express each cost and each benefit in some common unit, that is, as money. 

Most direct costs are relatively easy to identify and quantify in approximate momentary terms. It is helpful to categorize costs according to where they originate in the life of the project. 

• Development costs include the salaries and other employment costs of the staff involved in the development project and all associated costs. 
• Setup costs include the costs of putting the system into place. These consist mainly of the costs of any new hardware and ancillary equipment but will also include costs of file conversions recruitment and staff training. 
• Operating costs consist of the costs of operating the system once it has been installed. 

Benefits, on the other hand, are often quite difficult to quantify in monetary terms even once  they have been identified. The different types of benefits can be : 

1. quantified and valued – that is, a direct financial benefit is experienced; 
2. quantified but not valued- for example, a decrease in the number of customer complaints. 
3. Identified but not easily quantified – for example, public approval of the organization in the locality where it is based. 

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How to create a Project Management Plan

How to create a Project Management Plan

Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve goals and meet success criteria at a specified time. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints. Key components of project management are: Time, Cost, Scope and Quality. Project planning is part of project management, which relates to the use of schedules such as Gantt charts to plan and subsequently report progress within the project environment. 

A project plan, also known as the project management plan, is the   document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled, and closed. This outlines the objectives and scope of the project and serves as an official point of reference for the project team, larger company, and stakeholders. 

When articulating the project objectives you must follow the SMART rule:

• Specific – get into the details. Objectives should be specific and written in clear, concise, and under­standable terms.
• Measurable – use quantitative language. You need to know when you have successfully completed the task.
• Acceptable – agreed with the stakeholders.
• Realistic – in terms of achievement. Objectives that are impossible to accomplish are not realistic and not attainable. Objectives must be centred in reality.
• Time based – deadlines not durations. Objectives should have a time frame with an end date assigned to them.

Three components of the project management plan are :

1.Activities

2.Tasks

3.Resources

Project plan should be created during the project planning phase and is a compilation of several other documents. Project planning is at the heart of the project life cycle, and tells everyone involved where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. Project constraints such as time, scope, and costs are discussed in the project planning process, and mitigation plans are developed after the identification of potential risks.

Key elements of Project Planning are as:

1. Identify all stakeholders
2. Define roles and responsibilities
3. Hold a kickoff meeting
4. Define project scope, budget and timeline
5. Set and prioritise goals
6. Define deliverables
7. Create a project schedule
8. Do a risk assessment
9. Communicate the project plan

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