Can Phones Really Replace the Wallet?

In the article, "Your Phone Will Replace Your Wallet at the ATM, Too", the idea of mobile phones becoming the most common form of payment and banking is discussed. Already phone innovations have been made where consumers can upload their credit and debit cards onto their phones and pay for items at different vendors by simply tapping their phone against the card reader. For many Americans this form of payment is still considered foreign, but soon consumers will be able to use their uploaded debit cards at their bank's ATM as well. Already in China this is considered quite normal. It is actually more uncommon for someone to use a physical card than to use their phone for all financial transactions.

This type of innovation is a huge project for the different phone designers and programmers. As discussed in class if new projects are not executed at high levels they are very likely to fail. If phone companies are hoping for American consumers to adopt this form of payment, they need to make sure that the software and technology on the phone as well as the card readers are working efficiently and seem secure. This is where MIS workers are extremely important. Companies need to hire MIS individuals to analyze and work on the security of this entire process both during production and while the transactions are being made. By being able to ensure security for consumers this project is less likely to fail.

Although banks want to roll out cardless banking very soon, there are many possible bumps along the road, that hopefully they have planned for in their project planning. If they have done this I feel that this will be a huge movement in the technology world and will open up many different areas of future technology use.

Citation:
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/cardless-atms/

DevOps in the Multisourcing Sector

DevOps is a project management strategy beyond normal Agile development that focuses on operations and developers working together throughout the entire project life cycle and beyond. According to research by Garner, this DevOps will evolve to be a mainstream strategy of 25% of Global 2000 Organizations. Evolving to this project management method will provide companies many benefits, including "Results and outcomes driven, quicker delivery, smarter more collaborative methodology, end-to-end capabilities and cross-silo functionality." Adaption of DevOps strategies are especially important to the multisourcing sectors of the industry since it requires companies to work extremely closely with their outside partners while implementing these strategies.

This article is an interesting extension of what we have been discussing in class regarding Agile development. Changing from traditional development to Agile seems challenging enough, and to extend that to multisourcing companies can exponentially increase the potential issues with implementing these strategies. However, a company that is able to successfully participate and work with other companies in implementing DevOps strategies will have an incredible advantage within their industry.

Very few companies these days work entirely independently within the industry. As we learn more about Agile project management I think it is important to keep this in mind and I hope that as an MIS professional I will be able to apply what I learn in this class not only to single project management teams but also to multisourcing development. Having such a mindset is not just a benefit, it is becoming the standard to compete in the rapidly changing industry.

Citation:
http://www.projectaccelerator.co.uk/devops-the-biggest-challenge-for-the-multisourcing-sector-in-the-next-24-months-is-also-its-biggest-opportunity-for-growth/4705

Gartner Says By 2016, DevOps Will Evolve From a Niche to a Mainstream Strategy Employed by 25 Percent of Global 2000 Organizations

Build, Measure, Learn

Lean start-up development has long since been based on a model of 'build, measure, learn.' In this model, companies create their minimally viable product (MVP) and then use that as their baseline as they collect user feedback to improve upon their product. This model was developed to avoid drawn out research phases that resulted in companies losing their ability to be first to market, which cost them significant market share despite being a superior product. The author, Amanda Stockwell, instead suggests that a stronger prototype could and should be developed by a brief learning phase before beginning the building phase of the cycle. This shortened research phase could consist of nothing more than light customer interaction which would limit guesswork and could easily improve the direction and purpose of your product.

While efficiency is key in project management, that does not always mean that being the first to produce a certain product is the best course of action. Project managers must always keep the the short and long term success of the project in mind, as we see in this article. A great project manager will understand which phases will add the greatest value and do their best to prioritize those efforts. While the lean start-up model is a classic example of the iterative approach, this also goes to show that no single model is perfect.

In today's evolving world, it's important to understand that no single framework will ever be the solution to all problems. Technology has grown in so many directions and at such a rapid pace that its impossible to attack every problem in the same way. This article should be a lesson to all developing professionals to keep an open mind. Adhering to a single mindset will limit your capabilities, while those who embrace and adapt to today's ever-changing environment push forward.

Citation:
Stockwell, Amanda. "Build, Measure, Learn Is Not Enough." Agile Alliance, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2016

Spotlight on Project Management as a Recruitment Hotspot

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/2016/01/27/project-management-recruitment-jobs-careers-ireland

Recruitment for project management is increasing rapidly. With the economy recovering strongly, the global business community has become more confident, and now they want to hire more project managers. Because so many years were spent in fear of spending too much, companies were not updating their systems as potentially necessary. Now, behind in technology, companies want project managers to move them into the next digital steps.

Established businesses do not want to outsource project management, so they have increased hires in this field. Also, with the increasing market of start-up businesses, there is an increased need for project managers and professionals with project delivery skills in order to drive these new businesses towards success. Many of the project management roles being filled require niche skills and specialization. It is important to build these skills, and we can begin to develop these skills through MIS 441.

For me, hoping to pursue a career in MIS, this is a great piece of knowledge to have because I can begin developing project management skills pre-graduation. MIS students can also use this information to expand the categories of jobs that they are looking to apply for post-graduation. With a greater need for project managers with niche skills, MIS majors can build and develop specializations in order to better serve the global business community.

Just-in-Time Awareness Training and Behavioral Analytics

The article that I read is "Behavioral Analytics: The future of Just-in-Time Awareness Training?" Just-in-time awareness training is a new method of training employees through the use of behavioral analytics. Behavioral analytics seeks to gather information on the actions of employees to assign a probability of risk which an employee poses to an organization While this recent trend of data usage is able to identify the risky employees, it can also be used to, through training, target specific areas for improvement. Recently organizations have begun to monitor the behaviors of their employees. When the system observes a risky behavior by an employee, it will prompt the employee to immediately begin watching a training video on their mistakes. One example given is when an employee compromises data, either accidentally or purposefully, into a public cloud server such as Google Drive; the system will then halt the system and pop up a 20-second video for the employee to watch. If the offense continues, a second video will show that is 5-minutes while the third will be 30 minutes. The videos get exponentially longer with each subsequent violation. This almost adaptive negative reinforcement along with data analytics will start to become a major trend within organizations in the near future.

This topic relates to class because as organizations begin to implement this new method of training, it will not only be used to train IT professionals, but also operations staff. As we are aware, there has always been an antagonistic relationship between those in operations and those in security; one aims at achieving efficiency while the other is security. If this method were to be implemented for those who work in operations, however, employees would be stopped on the job for possibly inconsequential mistakes. This would increase tact time and the production cycle because if employees who are working on building a car needs to keep stopping their work to watch videos, it makes it extremely hard to be productive or for operations managers to plan the cycle time and the critical path.

This new method of training and behavioral analytics is important for MIS professionals to know because MIS professionals are the link between operations and IT. As a result, they must be able to effectively understand both the viewpoints of these departments and be able to properly translate these departments’ unique language to the other. Furthermore, within organizations systems analysts are segregated from the actual usage of their developed applications. As a result, system analysts, which is a role that many MIS professionals go into, need to be able to distill down a system to only the required components and adding only the security that is deemed to be necessary to achieve the optimal efficiency.

Project Management and the VW Emissions Scandal

The Volkswagen emissions scandals is one of the largest and most expensive scandals in our history. When VW was unable to get their cars to meet emission standards, they decided to take a shortcut that may have cost billions. This failure can be traced back to poor project management within the company.

VW created a device that connected to the emission device that would help “massage” the emission readouts during tests. This device would return a vehicle to lower emissions when it was being tested so that the car would receive better emission standards. The problem with this is that it was not only misleading, but it also covered up the fact that Volkswagen Diesel cars were putting more than 40 times the nitrogen oxide rate than the national standard. So why did VW decide the implement this device?

The head of the project that created these vehicles decided something early on in the project life cycle: the device that would reduce emissions was too expensive for the budget allotted for the project. So instead of trying to allocate money from other parts of the project (or simply scrapping the project altogether), they decided to create a shortcut that wrong from both an ethical and legal standpoint. The fallout from this disaster was not only historically expensive being estimated at over $25 billion dollars in fees, but it has also potentially caused permanent damage to the company’s image as well.

A lot can be learned from this case that can help project managers. A budget is a budget no matter what. Ask for an increased budget may be necessary in some cases, but more often than not a project manager will need to get creative to solve budget issues. This story is an example of a project manager who was lazy, and simply wanted to cut cost no matter what ethical or legal issues stood in the way of the project. A project manager must be able to balance the scope, time, and cost in a way that sees that project to completion.

The project manager also did not take into account all of the stakeholders affected by this project. They acknowledged the companies need to stay within the budget, but they did not acknowledge the public's response to the outcome of the project. The result of not acknowledging this has led to a public backlash against the company, and losing public support has lead to a damaged company image. This will dissuade new/potential customers, and may result in Volkswagen losing existing customers as well.

Citation:
Volkswagen . N.p., Oct. 2015. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.
http://calleam.com/WTPF/?p=7666.

Tech Musing - Project Mgmt. Related to NASA News Update

Introduction

Humans face the greatest threat for a prolonged future of life from the dramatic effects of climate change which can be felt anywhere in the world. Plant life is critical for the survival of virtually every organism on the planet. NASA has reported positive news for possible plant cultivation in space¹. Although the blossoming of a zinnia flower aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is significant, plants have been grown in space vehicles for longer than a decade¹. NASA astronauts are planning to develop tomato plants in 2018. With a mission to Mars in the near future and the current condition of food produce on Earth, food producers should acknowledge this update. For a manager using the agile methodology the software delivery is highest priority.

Project Managers’ Role

Aside from the societal prominence of extending life outside Earth, the project managers of businesses involved within the food industry predominantly must notify employees of any alterations in tasks moving forward. The first step the manager takes is evident to conceiving and initiating a project’s plan. To further elaborate on this subject, take a farming corporation into consideration for the remaining cycle of a project manager.

Business Management Methods

The agile method is one of several fundamental methods a manager chooses to take with future business projections. Another main method would be the waterfall method which indicates how most actions are explored for outer space missions as everything is documented formally without brisk changes. Agile is almost the opposite in this case as the employees conducting software development for these missions would be monotonous to meet safety conditions for people and/or vehicles venturing along with cost and time for example. The food corporation’s head project manager chooses to plan a vegetable operation to sell to consumers in current grocery stores. After determining reasons for his proposal, he notifies employees of changes the corporation must take regarding this plan after their approval.

Core Processes

Once the manager informs workers about a new organization mission, he evaluates a problem in the industry and attempts to reach approval from others and manage a new task. Second, the farming corporation project manager establishes a business environment and plan involving the work to be completed and those held responsible while discussing new findings and consulting others. Following the activity’s planning, researchers report to other teams on the project that the zinnia plant has strict light and environmental parameters for it to grow.¹ Tomatoes, which the manager placed on the list of agricultural products to produce on the mission, would need a broad amount of days before collecting for market. This update influences other parts of the mission recalling there is an estimated system completion time.²

Conclusion

Managing projects is imperative to every business and as students we must comprehend each of the core processes, which only two out of five are described above. The project manager identifies the problem to be approved, plans and monitors the project, discovers/understands details, designs system components, builds/tests/integrates system components and finally completes system testing before deployment.  For the food production project manager to use the agile method, scope, time, cost, risk and quality would require consistent monitoring for project success. In other words, the manager specifies actions taken following past estimation accuracy.²

References:

1. Shektman, L. (2016, January 18). NASA has officially grown the first zinnia flower in space. Retrieved January 27, 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-has-officially-grown-the-first-zinnia-flower-in-space-2016-1

2. Satzinger, J. W., Jackson, R. B., & Burd, S. D. (2012). Systems analysis and design in a changing world (6th ed.). Cambridge, MA: Course Technology.