Agents of Information System Development - Thesis Proposal Example

?MS PROJECT CAPSTONE The work of network system administrators have been found to have become more and more useful and important today because of the tremendous importance they serve in all information systems used across the information and communication technology world. But even as the usefulness and importance of their roles become appreciated, it has also been noted that a major hindrance to the tasks that they undertake in network monitoring is becoming more and more challenging. This is basically because there are very limited platforms for these network system administrators to carry out their duties. In cases where platforms are found through operating systems, a limitation is also seen in the number of functionalities that the monitoring systems can perform. A new application is therefore recommended with a multi-purpose functionality that combines aesthetic power with performance. This application will give a visual display of all that it taking place within the networking process including upload and download speeds, new clients that join the network, rate of highest and lowest value fluctuations and so on. Topic Statement Not long ago, most network system administrators were very limited in terms of the available operating systems with which they could use to process their system applications. This is because there was so much monopoly in the operating system market (Fielding, Teutsch and Koh, 2012). Today, the introduction of some new and somewhat advanced forms of operating systems such as the android operating system has eradicated this deficiency. But as much as the availability of new operating systems comes with their own advantages and merits, there are some key challenges that network system administrators have to face. A typical example of this is the influx of websites, servers, routers, surveillance systems and Wi-Fi management systems, all of which perfectly fit into the processing and use of a single network operation. In order to ensure that the number of applications possible to run on a single network does not become a burden, network system administrators need to have troubleshooting tools that can monitor the periodic activities that take place within these websites, servers, routers, surveillance systems, and Wi-Fi management applications. Even though there are more of such new operating systems that may effectively serve the purposes of network system administrators, there is particular emphasis on the android operating system, which comes with a number of android applications for use by network system administrators. Significance The significance section of the project capstone touches on what the researcher wants to show for the entire project at the end of the day; as well as the specific activities that will be needed to perform to make the achievement of this possible. In effect, the aim is a generalized goal whiles the objectives are a set of activities that needs to be performed to achieve the aim. Consequently, the aim of the proposed study is to design an application. To successfully achieve this, the following specific objectives must be met. 1 To identify a networking system that works best for android devices 2 To develop an application that monitors the upload and down speed per second. 3 To develop an application that can monitor the number of connection users at any present time on the network. 4 To create a network monitoring system that looks specifically at the rate of network running. 5 To create a simplified version of network monitor that works in the forms of a dashboard for easy visibility and accessibility. 6 To build a Wi-Fi network data traffic that will be responsible for monitoring the capabilities of network to be sure that these networks perform to their maximum capacities. 7 To have a warning system in place against network data traffic. Proposed Solution and Deliverable The researcher shall embark on a mixed research approach to carry out the study. By a mixed research approach, reference is being made to the fact that the researcher shall use both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research to ensure that sufficient data are gathered and adequately analyzed according to the problem statement and the research objective (Georgetown University, 2003). Generally, a qualitative approach will ensure that the researcher has the chance to collect as many secondary data as possible for onward review. These secondary data are going to come from sources such as academic journals and books from authors of high standing. These secondary data are going to be used to support the researcher’s quantitative approach through primary data collection. In the quantitative approach, which shall be carried out through a primary data collection procedure, the researcher shall ensure that personalized data are collected from the field using a number of quantitative methods that take their basis from the use of numeric indexes in analysis. It has been explained that when researchers use a mixed research approach, they are offered an advantage whereby all possible weaknesses associated with one of the approaches is catered for by the strengths of the other (Mayo Foundation, 2002). Once the research is complete, it is expected that there will be some key deliverables that will give indications of the successful completion of the research work. Most importantly, the basis of these deliverables will be in the achievement of the research objectives as has been spelt out above. For example through an action research, which identifies a problem in an immediate environment and suggests a pragmatic solution towards the problem, it is expected that a dashboard like network monitor shall be produced. The figure below gives a vivid picture of the nature of the said dashboard like network monitor. As a written research, it is not expected that the network monitor will be produced as a separate device in hand but that the study will spell out how the various stages of the monitor is going to be delivered through the various stages or phases of project management. After the technical compositions of the study and for that matter the network application has been designed, it is expected that it will be produced in a single handy dissertation that will be printed and bonded for academic presentation. Where necessary, there will be softcopy versions of the dissertation on compact discs and other soft devices. Ethical considerations are important parts of all research works such as this. This is because they ensure that standards and rules of professional and academic practices are strictly adhered to. In fact as far as ethical issues are concerned, the proposed study is not going to be an exemption as the researcher is going to ensure that all ethical provisions are followed to the latter. For example the researcher shall ensure that the involvement of the sample team is done in an atmosphere of cordial collaboration and consent. To this end, a consent form spelling out the aim and objectives of the study shall be sent to all identified respondents ahead of the data collection exercise. Through the consent form, the role of the respondents shall clearly be made known to them so that based on what each respondent is expected to do, the person will be in a best position to decide whether or not to be involved in the study. With those who are going to express willingness to be part of the study also, the researcher shall ensure that there is maximum confidentiality and anonymity of the respondents shall be ensured. There shall not be the use of any third parties in handling the data to be collected and so there shall be the save keeping of responses. Literature Reviews The need for advanced networking application There have been a number of studies that have been conducted in the area of network monitoring and these studies have been known to increase especially with the increase in the activities of network system administrators (Beth Israel Deaconess IT Center, 2004). The advancements in information systems across most sectors of academic and organizational functioning are largely responsible for the increased number of activities of network system administrators. But as these system network administrators go about their duties, studies have showed that the rate of which monitoring of networks could go on rapidly largely depends on the rate of success they can achieve in their tasks (Ameyaw, 2009). It is in this regard that a number of existing network monitoring applications have been used. But the researcher believes that most of these existing network monitoring applications fall short in their key roles to operate in a number of ways. For example in terms of operating system usability, it would be noted that there is so much limitation in the operating systems that most of these network monitoring applications work with. Once there is such limitation, there becomes a monopoly in the system such that in the absence of specific operating systems, the work of the network systems administrator is virtually grounded to a halt. Meanwhile, the operating system market is not monotonous at all (Gregory, 2009). There are several new operating systems coming up, which all need new platforms to make network monitoring possible. In the light of this, and for the need to ensure that the type of operating system available to a network system administrator, there is the need for a new forms of application that uses new technology such as the android operating system. Why the Android Platform is a recommended tool for new networking application Ever since the android operating system was introduced, most things seem to have been done so well with information systems in general (Quainoo, 2011). This is because the Android operating system comes with a more advanced provision of tools that makes modern day information and communication technology more interactive, result oriented and efficient (Mayo Foundation, 2002). For instance unlike other platforms that have been criticized for its absence of a pre functioning Java Programming Language that makes it impossible to readily access Java powered applications, the Android platform is integrated with Java Programming Language and so makes the use of Java powered applications ready to go on its platform (Georgetown University, 2003). This is a merit that the proposed study is going to enjoy to a very large extent. Indeed, it is worth mentioning that Eclipse is the integrated development environment (IDE) that is needed to support the proposed network monitoring application. Meanwhile, the Android Development Tools (ADT) comes with an inbuilt Eclipse (Fielding, Teutsch and Koh, 2012), which will make the application development more enhanced and easy to go. Finally, Android platform comes with a pre-made emulator that makes application testing possible. These emulator platforms are readily available and accessible from a number of quarters including the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), which may easily use any Android Tablet to undertake testing. Application Development Process The data collection process shall be used as the major software development process, whereby a six phase program shall be followed. These six phases are planning, implementation, testing, documentation, deployment and testing phases. It is expected that each phase will be described into detail as to what exactly the researcher will do and what the outcome at each stage would be. Indeed the respondents to be selected to use and judge the network monitor would be able to undertake an effective work if there is a clear description of each of the phases of software development and what each of these phases is going to entail. The researcher shall also involve the expert involvement of software technicians who will be expected to undertake the actual construction of the network monitor. The outcome of the construction is however expected to be based on the very inputs of the software development process that the researcher builds. In effect, the network monitor that will be constructed can easily be referred to as the handiwork of the researcher. When this network monitor has been constructed, the researcher will now involve the sample size by making them use the monitor in the monitoring of their network operations including upload and down speeds. This will be compared to other monitors that they have used before to give judgment on the efficacy of the new network monitor and how it is effective in solving basic network problems that the former could not handle. Significance of the Application The proposed study is going to be of great significance and come with a number of advantages for network system administrators and operators as a whole. This is because of the multiplicity of the use of the application monitor that is to be designed by the close of the study. For instance it will be noted that the application allows for a cross-system type of connectivity whereby it allows connection to standard telnet servers running any of Windows, Linux, OS X or Cisco operating systems. For long, there has been network monitors but none that exists in literature shows competence for combining the operational capabilities of all the named operating systems. Significantly therefore, by the successful completion of the study, network system administrators who otherwise had to have a separate network monitor for every single operating system they had will now use just one of these. Secondly, it is expected that the application network would be able to allow for initial connection that enables the transferring of files by ways of using secure shell (SSH) connection protocol (Lurrent, 2012). What is more, by ways of expatiation on the scope of usage, the network monitor shall allow the viewing and management of all existing Amazon Elastic Computer Cloud, otherwise known as (EC2) if they are present for use for the end user of the application. Purpose Statement The purpose of the study is to build a network monitor that has the ability to check and regulate the upload, download speed and number of connection users that a given network is running at a time. Methodology The proposed study is going to be conducted using the action research design as it has been mentioned somewhere earlier. Notably, an action research is a type of research design that identifies a problem in an immediate environment and solves the problem with a devised intervention. In an action research, there are three major stages namely pre-intervention, intervention and post-intervention stages. At the pre-intervention stage, the researcher identifies the problems and proposes an intervention. In the proposed study, it is hypothesized that there is a problem with the rate of monitoring networks whereby network system administrators find it extremely difficult to monitor the download speed per second, number of connection users, upload and the mode of network run. Due to this, an intervention that is based on a single platform that presents all of these monitoring processes is prescribed. The research will therefore seek ways of ensuring that the processes and procedures needed to create this system monitor are outlined. At the post-intervention stage, a sample of people who have come across the new network monitor and used it in comparison with old systems will be made to give their opinions on the efficacy of the two systems. The population of the study refers to all persons with whom there is some level of possibility that the researcher is going to contact for data collection. With the nature of the proposed study, the researcher used a group of network system administrators in a situated university. These were made up of students and lecturers alike who used computer networks and systems on very regular basis. In all, there will be about twenty (20) people in the population comprising five (5) tutors and fifteen (15) students. It is expected that the experience of these people with regard to their interaction with computer network will make them just about the right group of persons to share their experience on network monitoring for their existing systems and the proposed intervention or system. But due to the nature of the study, which is going to be an academic research, the research is going to set a sample size out of the total population so that there will be a minimal group of persons to interact with. This is expected to speed up the data collection process as well as the data analysis process (Lurrent, 2012). The sample size will therefore be made up of five (5) people out of the total of twenty (20). The sampling technique employed was the random sampling technique. This is a type of sampling whereby each member of the population has an equal chance of belonging to the sample size. Random sampling has been praised by many researchers for its ability to ensuring fairness in the selection process, which eventually leads to internal validity of the study. Random sampling technique is always recommended in cases where each member of the population has showed some level of competence in producing just about the same level of ability if used in the sample. In the proposed study, it is expected that the tutors and students from the university faculty will all be knowledgeable enough provide basic information on network monitoring and so using the random sampling technique will be very advantageous and with barely no limitations or weaknesses. It is proposed that the random sampling shall be used in such a way where by the fish bowl method will be employed. In this method, the researcher shall write the names of all people in the sample size will be written in a bowl and mixed up. Then in the presence of all the people in the population, five of the names shall be selected at random without looking into the bowl. The first five (5) people whose names would come up will be included in the sample size. The research instrument is a tool that the researcher shall use in collecting data from the sample size. There are varieties of research instrument and each of them serves a different purpose depending on what a researcher wants to achieve. Generally though, the nature of the current study will make the researcher settle for the use of questionnaire. It will be noted that a questionnaire is a piece of paper that contains questions that the researcher gives to the respondents to answer in writing. The questionnaire is going to be made up of questions on the experience of the network system administrators with network monitoring before the intervention system will be introduced and the experience of the network system administrations with network monitoring after the intervention will be introduced. It is expected that the questionnaire will come with an advantage whereby the respondents will be allowed as much time as possible; and in their own free will to attend to the questions that will be posed to them. The time given to respondents will enable them undertake some detailed research towards the questions that are posed to them and this will ensure more reliable responses. It is also hoped that the questionnaire will make data analysis much easier. Data analysis is going to be a very stage of the proposed research whereby the researcher is going to offer the opportunity to critically subjecting the performance and efficiency of the network monitor to be designed to scrutiny. In reality though, it is the responses that will be collected from respondents by use of the questionnaire that will be analyzed. As part of the plan to ensure that the data analysis is reliable and valid and free from all forms of biases in judgment, the researcher shall use a mixed analysis approach. This means that the researcher shall use quantitative analysis as much as there shall be the use of qualitative analysis (Ameyaw, 2009). As part of the quantitative analysis, data shall be analyzed using numeric indexes, which are empirical enough to allow for public scrutiny. This means that the analysis that the researcher undertakes quantitatively can easily be studied by all people with some level of mathematical understanding of the facts to be presented and so it will not be possible for the researcher to show any forms of biases and go with it. Various quantitative analysis software such as SPSS and MS Excel shall also be used to make analysis easier and professional. As far as qualitative analysis is concerned, reliability shall be achieved by ensuring that interpretations given to data are based on reliable literature. Project Timeline or Schedule START DATE END DATE TASK January 18, 2013 February 14, 2013 appraisal of proposal March 10, 2013 March 13, 2013 sharing of Questionnaires March 26, 2013 April 01, 2013 compilation of Questionnaires April 18, 2013 April 24, 2013 Interviews with Committee Stakeholders April 26, 2013 May 08, 2013 Continuation of Data Collection Process May 15, 2013 May 26, 2013 Analysis of data collected June 03,2013 June16, 2013 Designing of first draft June 20,2013 June31, 2013 evaluation of first draft July 03, 2013 July 20, 2013 Making of final draft July 25, 2013 July 30, 2013 Research Review August 01, 2013 August 14, 2013 Final addition and amendments August 19, 2013 Jul 26, 2013 Review August 20, 2013 Jul 31, 2013 Submission of Deliverables Conclusion The proposed study is going to be undertaken with create collaboration between faculty committee members and the researcher. Even though this is the researcher’s personalized project, the committee is expected to play a number of roles and responsibilities, all aimed at achieving a successful project. First of these would be the formation of a resource personality team among the committee to approach the research topic and aim. Contributions shall also be sought from these people with regards to amendment of the topic and the research objectives where necessary. At the literature review stage, the result of the literature log to be designed shall be given to the committee to approve or reject specific sources, depending on their opinion about these sources. The consent form to be prepared is also expected to have the endorsement of the faculty committee so as to give it a formal backing for use outside of the university premises. What is more, it is expected that a mock data collection exercise shall be conducted using the team members so that the researcher shall use it as a means of rehearsal even before approaching the main data collection field. Above all, all draft chapters of the work shall be submitted to the team for vetting before final chapters shall be put together. REFERENCE LIST Ameyaw, John. Technology Renaissance and the impact of Globalisation. Durban: PrintMark Publications Limited. 2009. Print. Beth Israel Deaconess IT Center (2004). Beth Israel Deaconess IT Center Manual. Retrieved March 13, 2013 from http://mycourses.med.harvard.edu/ec_res/nt/71892383-6722-4b2a-a7e9-24ce21ae356d/adm04new.pdf Fielding, James. E., Teutsch, Samuel., & Koh, Henry. 2012. Information Networking Reform. American Journal of Information Health, 102(1), 30-33. Georgetown University. Protection of Information Policies and Procedures Manual. University Press: Georgetown. 2003. Print. Gregory Thomas. A. Agents of Information System Growth and Development. Washington: Miracle Press Incorporated. 2009. Print. Lurrent, Dorcas. “Winning the Fight against Cyber Crimes.” Journal of International Cyber Securities. August 2012: 15 - 20. Print. Mayo Foundation. Developing Policies, Procedures, and Practices. CPRI Toolkit: Managing Information Security in Healthcare. 2002. Print. Quainoo, Robert. T. Organs of Organizational Growth and Strategic Development. London: Alpha Press Limited. 2011. Print. Read More