Final

I really enjoyed this course and have learned a lot. I especially liked how I was given liberty to select how and when to learn, to some degree, and was allowed to be able to explore other areas of interest. It felt like a class that was tailor-fit for me, as opposed to the courses that have strict topics and deadlines, in a cookie cutter kind of way.

In this final paper, I will attempt to summarize the semester of learning. I will not only mention what I learned, but why I liked it and how it will benefit me in the future. I will touch on four main topics: information architecture, database management, event logging and system monitoring, and teamwork and communication skills.

Enterprise Architecture

1. Understand enterprise information architecture so you can articulate a rational position on when and why various supporting methodologies, tools, and protocols are helpful or not helpful in a particular business environment. Major information architecture topics you should know well include the following:

a. Enterprise application integration

This is the idea of integrating subsystems in an organization, to create one comprehensive system. This is a good idea, when implemented properly, because it will increase efficiency. I think the main reason to integrate the systems it so automate processes for convenience and efficiency. Otherwise, it is not worth it.

This is a very strategic aspect of a company. A company would really benefit from the increased efficiency if it could focus less on the systems, because they are working well together and require little human intervention, and focus more on other aspects of the business go gain a competitive advantage. If this is not the case, that is, if the integration doesn’t work toward bettering the business and increasing advantages, it probably isn’t worth it.

The key word is efficiency, and that is a difficult thing to achieve. Integration takes a lot of planning, good execution, and maintenance. But if the business benefit can be obtained, and it fits within strategy, the integration of systems can be great.

I am very interested in business process efficiency. I think I’m going into a career where my job would be to analyze a system for a company and rate it. Then, if needed, give recommendations for improvement and implement that solution. That is the kind of problem solving that I like. So learning about enterprise application integration was very interesting for me.

b. Service oriented architecture

This is the idea of having loosely coupled modules accessible and working together. An organization has different modules that provide specific services to perform a business function. These services are accessible through a network because the service and related protocols are standardized. An example is the web service, which I will talk about later.

I liked learning about this because programming is a little overwhelming for me. When I think back to Intex, and the big project we had to do, I usually decide I never want to program. But when I break applications down into functions, it seems much more manageable. Like something I can do, on task at a time, and make sure they all work together. If not, I can troubleshoot one module, and my whole application isn’t broken.

c. Model-driven architecture and executable models

This was a really cool idea, and I liked learning about it because it is something I am hoping is the future of programming. It uses software to transform human-created models, which address database relationships and business requirements, into code. I would love to create programs this way, because it would eliminate some of what I think is very tedious, because I’m not that good at it.

I looked into some of the tools that are out there for MDA, and most of it seemed like it was pretty new. It would make sense for some companies, but is not feasible for others. I would like to try this in the future and then form an opinion, but for now, it’s cool

d. Web services

I learned the most in this section of the class. It was great because I learned a lot about many different things. I learned .Net and created my first application ever using that platform, and I like It. I learned how to search, find and use published web services. I learned to create my own, and learned all about the documentation of web services in the WSDL.

I couldn’t get the weather web service to work for a while, so in the mean time, to figure out what I was doing wrong, I created multiple other services and had a blast. I finally got mine to work, and felt a great sense of accomplishment because I made it work on my own, taught others in the class how to do it, and had a cool finished product; a published web service.

My group also did our research project on implementing web services in a variety of different ways, and I learned a lot from that as well. I will address that later on in the paper.


Database Management

2. Understand t he key role of database management systems in enterprise information architecture and demonstrate the major elements of DBMS optimization, including DBMS server tuning and SQL query optimization.

This section was a little more difficult for me because I felt like I had to do a lot or catch up before I could start working on the project because I had so little exposure to SQL in the past. I fought through it and learned a lot in the process.

One thing that was difficult is that I was working on such a small scale, that the improvements I suggested were didn’t save much time. I think if the suggestions were applied to a sizable database, the improvements in efficiency would be drastic, and it would be cool to see exactly what those are.

I don’t know that any of my jobs in the future will be technical enough to get my hands on database queries, but I definitely think it will be beneficial because I might be dealing with the people who do, and now I can understand a little better their language.

Event Logging

3. Understand the importance of event logging and system monitoring within an enterprise-class system, and demonstrate how to put a logging/monitoring system in place.

This concept was pretty new to me because I had never used an event logger. The closest I had seen was some programs that use logs to document errors, access, or anything really. I see the usefulness in Java programming. Especially when there is messaging. These messages can be very useful to administrators.

I some fraud detection software recently that monitored all of the files I viewed and any changes I made to them. This could be used in court if needed. Also, I know the big ERP systems have loggers so changes to the system, and access for that matter, can be tracked. This is a control.

Since I’m not a great programmer, logging would be great for debugging. That is the most useful application for me now.

Teamwork

4. Enhance your teamwork and communication skills by delivering a solid group paper and an in-class presentation on an ISys 532 topic.

My team chose WSDL as a topic to research. But after we learned about SOA and web services in class, we wanted to broaden our scope and learn more about some aspects that weren’t taught in class. So we decided to learn about all of the different ways to implement web services. I was assigned the WSDL and SOAP sections of the paper, and learned a great deal about them that I didn’t learn in class.

My team worked well together. There was one instance when we decided to modify our topic a bit. We had a very frank discussion about what each of us would like to learn about, and were able to come to a consensus. Luckily, we divided the paper up in to three parts, and there were three group members, and each was able to write on the section that most interested him.

The group was very efficient, and honest in giving feedback. I think we ended up with a good finished product and we were happy with the effort each group member put into the project.