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XYZ University  (Deadline: January 26, 2015, 9am)

Enrolment Process

Enrolment in school serves as an important part in the life of a student as he enters a school.  It gives students the impression on how the institution manages and manipulates the entire body.  It forms part of the impression formation of the school as it is the first experience of all students.

As computer technology has become an important tool in human race, the student online enrolment system of XYZ university, developed by the Management Information Systems (MIS) and the Technical Services (TSO) of the university, enables their students to enrol in their subjects prior to the commencement of their semesters.  Aside from allowing students to enrol through the internet without experiencing the hassle of travelling to the campus, the system incorporated the business rules in the academic world-subject pre-requisites, student’s payment status, and other vital information about a student’s registration in the university.  It must be highligthed that one of the important things for a student must have for him to enrol in subjects for the following semester is his grades.

As a start, XYZ University and TSO headed by MR. A developed online programs which allowed teachers to submit their students’ grades online via the Academic Information System (AIS) and which allowed students to view their grades via the Student Information System (AIS).  It is also through SIS where students can choose courses to enrol in.

In essence, grading is an exercise in professional judgement on the part of the instructors and professors.  It greatly involves the collection and evaluation of students’ achievements or performance.  Through this process, various types of descriptive information and measure of students’ performance are converted into grades that summarize students’ accomplishments in class.

However, as the school opens the registration for the coming 2^nd-5^thyear students for the second semester of School Year 2011-12, several problems have been experienced by the school and of the students:

Non-enrolment of students due to late uploading of students’ grades by the teachers caused by several factors including computer literacy of senior teachers;

b. Slow updates of course and grade uploads due to slow connection and server traffic caused by the number of teachers and students using the program all at the same time, and;

c. For some reasons, the system’s database was hacked which resulted to mismatch of students’ grades and students’ identification.

Assuming you have read the entire PMBOK, please answer the questions below in no less than 3000 words. 

Question:

If given the opportunity to be the Project Manager of the programs, what quick solutions to these problems can be introduced?

If given the opportunity to be the Project manager of the programs, first, I would do my best to educate the teacher’s or the users of the said program or even giving them the right knowledge on how to operate the computer properly. Doing this to the specific users could prevent problems such as computer illiteracy or users are unknowledgeable on the program. This is a very important step in developing a program. The creator or programmers must educate the users well on all the whereabouts of the said program; so that the programs can be used at its maximum efficiency and that would all users are able to handle the program well. If the senior teachers could really not afford to learn the program or even how to use the computer itself, we could come up on another strategy to solve this particular issue, like having somebody who is knowledgeable enough on the computer and the program to encode the necessary information or data that must be uploaded. These personnel however must be a well trusted one and the information uploaded must be verified by the teacher itself to prevent unlawful acts like, changes on the data uploaded. Before implementing the program, the development team must have a testing period of the said software. In this way, preliminary issues and bugs could be detected and the users like the teachers could have a glimpse or a partial touch on the program. This would help the teachers familiarize the software, in this period also, users could raise questions or clarifications about the user. In this period also, issues met by the team are listed and is given necessary solutions. Issues or clarifications that would be mentioned by the teachers could also be given answers and be clarified. In this period also, necessary changes or desired changes on the said program could be given attention. During this testing period, feedbacks on the teachers’ side are very critical. Their feedbacks are of great value; this is because they are one of the main users of this program. As project manager I would also suggest to put a deadline on the teachers uploading of the students’ grade, and teachers who would upload grades late should have necessary disciplinary actions or like penalties be received by the late teachers. This should be a rule especially on the teachers’ side. Late uploading of grades would only mean that a certain teacher is lousy on his job, not doing his job well. If students could not enroll because their grades were not uploaded on time, this would be really creating a big problem. Not only the lousy teacher could be blamed about the situation, but also the University itself for incapability of monitoring its teaching staff if they are doing pretty well on their job. This is really unfair on the side of the student, the management, and also with the ones who are paying the teacher. The University should be the one that would primarily make this move on their teaching staffs, this is the University’s responsibility, they should be the one guiding and watching their teachers if they are really doing the right job and if they are doing great their work. Uploading of the students’ grades or any other important information that the teachers’ needed to upload must be monitored by the University or the Deans of the University. They may also be the one to monitor their own teachers if they are uploading the grades on time. In this way also, tracking of the teachers’ performance could be watched close. In this particular solution the teachers would be forced to work well, and not to be late in submitting on time. This would be a big help in preventing the issue of students that are unable enroll because their grades were not uploaded on time. This would create chaos, the students would really file complaints and this would be a problem. So, if the teachers’ could be taught or be knowledgeable enough on the computer and the whereabouts of the program, problems like, students that are unable to enroll due to the said problems would be prevented. Next, as project manager I will check if the universities Network is good enough for the program. I’ll check, is the network doing well enough for the users, If not, I will find the problems on why the program is not working well with the present network. Slow updates of course and grade uploads due to slow connection and server traffic caused by the number of teachers and students using the program all at the same time, in case like this, I would greatly propose to the University to upgrade their network. It is clear that the current Network cannot be of efficient use with the said program, the users would probably not be satisfied, and would also probably be bragging about the slow performance of the network. For the program to work efficiently a good network connection that could meet the necessary expected output of the users is needed. With this, as project manager, I would really persuade the University to upgrade their network for the program to work efficiently. With slow network connection, slow updates would really be an issue; program would also be really hard to access by the teachers or students in the University because of slow network connectivity and poor network performance. With this kind of network program will not work efficiently, and the users could not maximize its capabilities, and would probably be a result of money, time and effort. To prevent this, Network upgrade is the best option I could think of if I were to be the project manager of the program. Network upgrade that would be chosen should be just enough for the program to be used by the University and its number of users. It is not necessary to choose a very powerful or very fast network connectivity if it is not necessary. It would just be a waste of money. The network should just be right enough for the program to be efficient enough for the users, so that the users could maximize the programs capabilities. Having this upgrade will make updates of course and grade uploads to be faster which will be helpful for accommodating a large number of users and their needs. It is also advisable to have an administrator to work and monitor on the program so that the program will be monitored timely, preventing or any problems concerning the program would be easily fixed because of the continuous monitoring of the administrator. The administrator will also be the one to work on the possible solution on the issues that will be met on the program along the implementation period of the program which can possibly rise anytime. Having the administrator to monitor the program will be useful thus further complication will be avoided since there are many users of the program. Also having a team that would help the administrator will also be helpful on monitoring the program and having it stable and less with issues or bugs. This team will be the technical support team, though there is an administrator as we all know he can’t or he may not possibly accommodate all tasks very well enough because he has no support. This is big task, if lots of issues would arise the administrator would probably have a hard time solving all of them and maintaining the health of the program. The technical team will help the administrator finish the job faster and even solve the issues a lot faster. If a team would help maintain and monitor the health of the program, detection of possible bugs, and system failures would be faster and more accurate. The network administrator and his team will provide the necessary tasks to keep the system running smoothly, and solve issues effectively. Though this would cause the University another addition on the expenses and increases on financial release, on the other hand it will compensate on the money that will be lost if the system would fail or will be down. Though this will increase release of money, but this would also decrease the great amount of money, time and effort when the system would be down due to down system or failure of the program to run smoothly. This would still be very beneficial on the part of the University, because this would probably help them keep their tasks and schedules run smoothly if there are no bugs or errors on the program. In making the program, this project will yet again go to a process of self-repairing. Since it has defects all over the codes and security has been breached by those hackers, further study is necessary and I should have competent members that can solve the issue very effectively. This will take a long time but will be further reduced if we all cooperate. Having the previous team is also recommended since they created the system first and they are also vital in recovering the error of the system and will be able to direct the new team of what was the error of the system and how will it resolve back again. A good technique or strategy is needed In order to finish the project for good. There is no success if there is no strategy to conquer the lingering presence of mistakes that’s been in the project the whole time. However implementing change on a project depends on how many are the members or group that will execute the project manager’s plan. If the team is huge enough then there is no problem of assigning whether he/she will be sent there at the program section or he/she will design according to his/her specific skills and abilities. However if it is small then time is of the essence. Work until it gets the job done. Organize schedules and hold meetings as regularly as you can. It would be a pain though but it gets the project faster. As a project manager, I would reorganize the teams into tiny little bits. One would handle the design, another would determine what mistakes the system was, and also another would handle the codes and work with the programming team to implement change in the codes. The jumbled information of students and faculties must be repaired also since a hacker hacked into the database which makes the work harder than ever but I have full confidence with the assembled team as a project manager should be keen to pick the best person for the job. In account of the database, it should be either repair it by reorganizing the information stored in it or to create the information all over again by creating a temporary system that will record the data of students and transfer it to the database. Uploading files in the other hand is different. It could be that the codes is long and unorganized or it could be not clear at all or it would be the hardware that is the problem. I, as the project manager, should restructure the codes as simpler as possible. A change in hardware would be a nice addition such as this would greatly enhance the rate of uploading files to the server. A new user interface would be nice if it the current one was old therefore bringing new style for the students and faculty of the XYZ University to be proud of them.  The systems database being hacked and resulted to the student’s grades and identification getting mismatched is really a big problem. This would probably make the students angry cause mismatch of student’s grade and identification are both serious or rather very important data that must be securely kept by the University. This problem would have a big effect on the University since the database itself was the one affected by the hacking. This problem is really hard to prevent thinking that there is really a big possibility of it happening though not sooner than what is expected. There should always be a countermeasure to this problem. There is no such thing as perfect security, though we could think and have possible solutions readily made or prepared if we expect these kinds of problems in the future, thus we could lessen the damage. Having solutions ready before these problems already happened would make the problem’s damage if we could apply those solutions effectively and quick enough. Having quick solutions to these problems is very vital on maintaining the credibility and the integrity of the important data of the students that the University holds. Having the student’s data such as student’s grade or identification is a big responsibility of the University. This task is still part of the administrator’s responsibility, this is why having a network administrator and the technical support team is very important. They keep track for the possible problems that would appear from time to time at the program and one of these problems is hacking which is very dangerous especially it destroys the credibility and integrity of the data. Further information by the students is also permitted as they give great constructive criticism to the system. They are the first ones to use the system of course which makes them our great customers. There is someone who said that “The customers are always right” is always correct. We must understand the customer’s agony by fixing the codes that are in the system. Changing the system to a better one will surely give them happiness as what project managers must do. A lot of functions in the system must be implemented if this must be finished. The system must take full advantage of the current technology around us taking all the latest techniques in the internet, what they use and how to combat a threat if there is one. In this way we can safeguard the system with the necessary technology to ward of the hackers and make the system as faster as possible. There should be a full understanding of the system of course. A full understanding will make the job easier and less messy as programmers would be in confusion if this would happen. Also, further study is needed for this project. If there are more defects that stayed in the project and has not been seen or resolved then it would be wise to record it in a note or paper that will inform the future project manager on what to do or what they could succeed in times that we were not. After releasing the system to the public, there should be a testing phase so that the team can handle the old and new bugs that have been seen by the team that’s why there is a beta testing stage that will invite some of the students of the University to examine and create some opinions of the project that will make the team be aware of the problem or be proud of themselves for the compliment that the students give them.  Having continuous monitoring of the system will help lessen the possibility of the systems database to be hacked, if hackers or crackers would attempt to illegally enter the systems database or do whatever illegal and destructive things on the program, the network administrator and his team would quickly catch them and as a result they could prevent this from continuously happening by applying the necessary solutions needed when these problems be met. Since the administrator and his team has gained control and monitoring over the program then any complications can be easily identified and will be resolve with the necessary solutions needed. The University should also have a much stronger security provided for the protection of the students’ grades and students’ identification. Making the security tight will also lessen the cases of the Universities’ program database being hacked. This will also help avoid or lessen the problem wherein the student’s grades and identification will get mismatched. Thinking about the fact that the program was hacked then the previous security wasn’t proven to be strong enough and the program was not monitored enough, though the fact that there will always be a hole in every system because there is no perfect security, then the security of the database should always be monitored and controlled. As project manager I would really suggest to also upgrade the Universities network security to be upgraded and the security of the system’s database should be constantly monitored. There should also be a back-up file for the database. Having back-up files is very critical and vital on making the program running healthy and solving issues in a quick response time. We cannot always say that the network is always secure because it is constantly monitored, still we cannot prevent problems. We cannot possibly say when will the system be down, or whether the data are always in tacked in the database. So to prevent a total loss of data when the database would be compromise, having back-up is a very good solution and data loss prevention. Constant back-up is really needed so that if the current program would be down and the database would compromise we could quickly make the program running again quickly because we have back-ups. With this system I can conclude that this will be a great mark in the university that they will be proud of. What I did and my advice will become great for years to come if the project was a success. The enrollment system will become faster and will not delay the students and the faculty. It would be effective and will make the students be inspired and hopefully be more productive than ever. If anything goes as planned and executed perfectly then things will go smoothly as you can imagine. I wouldn’t worry if there are still problems that can arise from the new system. I can guarantee that if the next project manager will handle the project again then there is no need to be afraid of because we have documented the previous project of what is the problem and what should be avoided and display the strategies we used and that will be undeniably helpful to them. That will be what I will do in order to secure the future of the system in the hands of another project manager or I could be again the chosen one to modify the project again or be given the chance to create a new one if possible. Being open-minded and preventive is a good attitude for a project manager, a project manager should always expect the unexpected so that he could be prepared of what is coming and make the necessary actions and solutions to for the coming problems.