Tae Kwon Do: Black Belt Test

Prajwal Shrestha        

Michael Jenkins                                                                                                                                  

CISS 280

April 29, 2010.

Tae Kwon Do: Black Belt Test

Overview:

            Tae Kwon Do is one of the most popular martial art. Tae means “to strike or break with foot”; kwon means “to strike or break with hands”; and Do means “a way, method or art”. It is widely used as a means of self-defense, sports, exercise, meditation and philosophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taekwondo).

Executive Summary: Black Belt Test at Eaglecrest High School:

      On April 24^th 2010, black belt test was performed at Eaglecrest High School which I really enjoyed as this game and its processes were so new to me. As a project manager, I would give 85% positive feedback about how it was organized. I still have 15% of the processes that they could have implemented, would have made them even better. I will discuss about this 15% of the process that could have been organized on the later part of the report.

      The students were asked to line up according to the color of the tae kwon do dress they were wearing. They did the introduction and welcomed the guests. They introduced the judges who were responsible to see the students and give them their degree. Then, the display with music started in groups which were so perfect. The displays they performed were:

1.      Front Punch

2.      Low block reverse punch

3.      High block high punch

4.      Outside block reverse punch

5.      Back leg front kick

6.      Right leg side click

7.      Back leg round click

8.      Turning back kick

9.      Combination kick

10.  Black belt specialty kick

11.  Corner positions

12.  Running jump front kick

13.  Flying side kick punch

14.  Running jump spilt kick

 After the display, they announced the case about a student who was suffering from breast cancer and asked the viewers to donate money to help. They also informed about the t-shirt purchase for $15 which would directly go to help the student who is suffering from breast cancer. People went in to buy the t-shirt and the place was full of so many people interested to buy the t-shirt including myself. Using small kids to get the donation box to all the viewers was a good move which result them to collect $8950 including t-shirt sales of $1500.

There was a break for some time and then the testing started in groups and in single. A girl was hurt during a brick break test and was bleeding her hands. After the test is over and the result were about to be published, all the parents were called to lined up with their kids. Then the host of the show publishes the results with respective belt and grade by sharing personal and emotional moments with him and his academy. The show ends about 12:45 pm which was supposed to be ending at 12:00pm. Overall, the management was good and the show was a success.

The black belt testing process was successful. But, some of the events could have been organized more systematically. During the initial phase of the show when they students were displaying their tricks, the music played vital role in encouraging people to enjoy. But, later on when the testing phase started for groups and individuals, there were no music at all; and, I felt that a mild sound on the background would have grabbed more attention of the viewers and added flavor to their show. The collection of donation for the student suffering from breast cancer was a success. It was organized really well. A girl got hurt when she tried to break the brick with her hands and there was no good management to look after her for first aid help even though she got attention later on. When it was time to present the result of the test, all the parents were asked to line up with respect to their children that went little mesh and time consuming. The judge giving the respective earned new belts to the candidates was processed efficiently and emotionally but could have been done faster.  

The new alternative process for the black belt testing is better than what happened in the Eaglecrest High School because it would have ended the program on time which is very vital for an event to be called successful. The break given at the time of result announcement would have been used to organize the parents lining next to their kids and it would not have looked mesh as it did in the event. Soft background music at the time of testing would have motivated the performers as well as the viewers and would have made the event more exciting and fun. This is a risky arts and first aid kit were supposed to be very actively available if someone would get hurt during the process. But, I could sense as a viewer that the management was not up to the mark for this process which could have lengthened the time of the event. But, luckily, it didn’t affect much of the event’s time by the incident.

          Even though, there were some portions of the processes that could have been implemented to make the event more efficient, the overall process for black belt testing was quite impressive and well managed. I enjoyed every moment of the event and I felt like if I could have won that free training, than I would make the most of it. I’m motivated to teach my-self the arts of Tae Kwon Do.

Case Study: New Century Health Clinic (Chapter 2)

Prajwal Shrestha
Michael Jenkins
CISS 280
April 08, 2010.

Case Study: New Century Health Clinic (Chapter 2)

1.       Dr. Jones has arranged an introductory meeting between the associates of New Century Health Clinic and you to determine if mutual interests exists in pursuing the project. What should the associates try to learn about you? What should you try to learn about in this meeting?
          Since, the computerized system would reduce the paperwork as well as the load of work done by all the associates of New Century Health Clinic; there exists a strong business case in pursuing the project. The associates are the one who would be actually using the system that I would be developing, hence, they should look in to the system that I propose and the way I communicate with people. They should make sure that I can communicate with them very well and they understand what I say. They should be able to provide me with every tiny detail of the processes in the business so that I could make an efficient system for them which would make their work easier.
          In this meeting, I would try to learn all about the business. The mission, objectives and vision of the businesses are very important for me to feel them so that I could design the system that would match those needs. I should talk to each associate and their tasks in details so that I can convert them in to computerized system. Since, none of the member of the staff has computer experience; I should avoid using jargons while I talk to them or while I teach them to use the applications. I should also consider the budget provided by the company and the rough feasibility study. I should figure out if the system could be built within the budget separated by the company. I have to think about the risks involved in re-engineering the system. I should also consider the future growth of the company and my system being capable of supporting the possible changes in the business processes.
          Basically, we need to have a very good, two way communication and the support of management in every aspect.

                                                                 

2.      Does the proposed system present a strong business case? Why or why not?

          In my opinion, the proposed system presents a very strong business case and they should re-engineer their system completely in to a digital system which would increase their profit, market share, decision making capabilities, faster services and efficiency.

          Since, the clinic is busier than ever and more profitable than ever the current manual system would be inefficient to handle the growing business. If the clinic would use the digital system to perform its business processes then the efficiency would increase and more application softwares could come handy for the manager and decision makers to see the graphical representation of current business and make decisions based on the digital information. They could use marketing tools to promote the business and so many things which would be next to impossible if they would continue with the same manual system.

3.      For each type of feasibility, prepare at least two questions that will help you reach a feasibility determination.
 Operational Feasibility:
         1. Will the new digital system would ease the current and future work overload, due to company’s increasing market share?

          2. Will the new digital system be user friendly as none of the member of the staff has computer experience?

Technical Feasibility:
          1. Will the company have the necessary hardware, software, and network resources which supports the system that I’m going to built for the business? If not, can those resources be acquired within the budget the company is setting to separate for the re-engineering?

          2. Will the system be able to handle future transaction volume and company growth?

Economic Feasibility:
          1. Does the projected benefits of the proposed system outweigh the estimated costs usually considered the total cost of ownership (TCO)?

          2. Does the budget provided by the company to build the new system to make profit in long run be supported by the tangible and intangible benefits the system would provide to the company?
Schedule Feasibility:
          1. Can the project be completed within the timeframe the company wants us to finish? If not, are they willing to increase the budget to finish it on that particular time frame?
          2. Will the project management techniques be available to coordinate and control the project?


You begin the preliminary investigation. What information is needed? From whom will you obtain it? What techniques will you use in your fact-finding?
          I would need the information as current business process, problems, opportunities, project scope and constraints, project benefits, and estimated development time and costs. I would obtain this information from the manager of the clinic and the staff working for her.
          To gather data about project usability, costs, benefits, and schedules different techniques are used. I would prefer to analyze the organizational chart and conduct a user survey to perform fact-finding for the clinic. I would get the understanding of the business processes of the clinic and I could decide whom do I inquire to collect the data that I need for the development the new system for the clinic.    

  

                                                                                                                                                                                                

Case Study: New Century Health Clinic

Prajwal Shrestha
Michael Jenkins
CISS 280
March 31, 2010.

Case Study: New Century Health Clinic

1.       An organization chart of the office.

1.      Identify at least three business processes that New Century performs, and explain who is responsible for the specific tasks.

          A business processes is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process).

          Basically, New Century performs its business processes mainly with the management of Anita Davenport. She manages Fried Brown who handles office payroll, tax reporting, and profit distribution among the associates. She makes sure that Susan Gifford, performs her job of maintaining the patient records for future references, as well as, Tom Capaletti, handling most of the paperwork  concerning to insurance reporting and accounting for New Century. Also, she has to make sure that the reminder calls to patients and daily appointment list are prepared by Lisa Sung. Finally, as a manager, she has to keep track of supply chain and motivate Carla Herrera performs this job efficiently for her four doctors, three registered nurses and four physical therapist so that, they won’t have any problem in performing their practices.

          Hence, New Century Health Clinic has five business processes if we look at it from its management’s perspective.

2.       Explain how New Century might use a transaction processing system, a business support system, and user productivity system. For each type of system, provide a specific example, and explain how the system would benefit the clinic.

          Since, we need to develop a system for New Century for its operation and future growth we have option of choosing one of the following information systems:-

a.       Transaction Processing System
          Transaction processing systems process data generated by day-to-day business operation. It is a good system which protects the integrity of data in our organization and therefore if single element of a transaction fails, the system doesn’t process the rest of the transaction. (System Analysis and Design [Eighth Edition], Page 12).
          A simple example of such kind of system would be company who sells products and services online. E-bay, where a buyer bids for the item they want to purchase must bid higher than other buyers who are also bidding for the same item. Also, the system would not confirm its sale unless the buyer confirms the payment by check, credit card or PayPal.
          One of the many ways transaction processing system would help New Century Health Clinic would be to set up an appointment or take the patients for the checkups after confirming that the doctors are free and the clinic supplies are enough to perform the checkups of the individual patients.

b.      Business Support System
          Business Support System provides job-related information support to users at all levels of a company. They help replace manual tasks as payroll processing (System Analysis and Design [Eighth Edition], Page 13). We need to collect all the information from every process and enter them in to our system to get valuable information about our business which helps make decisions for our company’s growth.
          We can have all the available information of 3,500 patients and their history of transactions with our business to analyze and make important decisions and increase the sales in future. Susan Gifford could perform her job more efficiently with recording patient’s information in the system which could be used efficiently by the manager for efficient decision making in future. Lisa Sung would be equally benefited by this system to make appointments lists daily and to make reminder calls to the patients. Hence, the system would benefit New Century Health Clinic in being efficient in the daily tasks that they have to perform and also would help better decision making for future growth of the business.
          One of the best examples of business support system is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips that Wal-Mart and other large businesses are using to keep tract of the inventories in and out and set up a decision making system for the profit/loss, sales growth, most frequently used inventory by customers and other decisions that a system would make it for us and we can make decision based on the system’s results.

c.       User Productivity System
          User Productivity Systems include all the levels of technology that improves productivity which include e-mail, voicemail, video conferencing, database management, desktop publishing, high speed internet, and company intranets (System Analysis and Design [Eighth Edition], Page 14).
          If the clinic would expand its business in future and would have different branches, company intranet would be nearly mandatory for effective data processing and would be very helpful. The processes and system could be shared by all other branches which would decrease the cost of investment for the clinic to expand. Also, the patient information could be retrieved from any other locations of the clinic. They could have a facility of having their checkups in any of the branches of the clinic. The database and video conferencing would help managers and the doctors make decisions on the processes and operation of the clinic respectively. All the user productivity systems are very important. These days, these productivity systems are becoming mandatory for any forms of business as everything we process and perform is going digital.
          Most of the organizations that have branches at different locations, uses company intranet to use the corporate data to perform their jobs are the best examples of User Productivity System. One of the specific examples would be UN (United Nations) that uses the internet to access corporate data from every branch in the world to perform its operations.

3.      During the systems development processes, should New Century consider any of the following: B2B, vertical and horizontal system packages, or Internet-based solutions? Explain your answers.
          System development processes includes the following steps:-
a. System Planning
b. System Analysis
c. System Design
d. System Implementation
e. System Support and Security
          New Century should consider mostly the Internet-based solutions among B2B and vertical and horizontal system packages. The reason behind selecting internet-based solutions in the system development processes is that most of, the users, who are one of the important key components of information systems are accessible to internet and they demand the services as appointment setting and paying bills online. They would want to have their medical history online and it is convenient for them to remember when their next visit is due if they get alert in emails or from the website of the company. They can check out the updates of the company and available time frame they can visit the clinic. Also, many prospective patients would be exposed to the company promotions online and the company could substantially increase the growth in the market by taking many new patients. Therefore, if I were an IT consultant for New Century Health Clinic then I would most definitely consider internet-based solutions in the system development processes.

System Analysis and Design I CISS 280

This is the blog for my class in System Analysis and Design I, CISS 280 taught by Michael Jenkins.
With Best Regards,
Prajwal Shrestha