Monday, November 5, 2007

paradigm change

How does my paradigm changed? Immigration-Accounting-ACIT.
After living Canada for three years, my paradigm shifts. I was pushed to spend more time studying to minimize my language barrier. I found my potential ability was great. You can be the one in your own dream.
In my first summer in Vancouver, I joined a lot of volunteer activities. I benefit a lot from those work .It is my first time to find people are working for their interests, not for money.
When east met west, there must be some culture shock. But Canada is an immigration country. You can keep your own style if you want.

Learning accounting is also a shift for my paradigm. I thought accounting equals math. There is not too much critical thinking inside. But during the last two years, my critical thinking was totally involved in learning process. Accounting is more like a science to me.

In the last nine months, I was given an opportunity to challenge myself. I never connect Accounting with IT before. Actually IT course gives us more pressure than regular CGA course. Case study makes us confused .We never did these before. That’s why people don't like change in their life.
.
I started my new career today and my paradigm might be changed in the future.

Friday, October 12, 2007

PM1 BLOG WEEK2

Have you heard of karma?

“Karma is the concept of "action" or "deed" in Indian religions understood as denoting the entire cycle of cause and effect described in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies.” ------- From wikipedia

Life cycle is kind of Karma.
As we learned from chapter 2.,“If the project, product, and systems development life cycles are not integrated, the information technology cannot be kept up to date as advancements are made at a rapid pace.”Systems development life cycle (SDLC) is the integration of project and product life cycles. Basically, SDLC include ten phases:
1. Initiation
2. System Concept Development
3. Planning
4. Requirements Analysis
5. Design
6. Development
7. Integration and test
8. Implementation
9. Operation and Maintenance
10. Disposition

From the above phases, we can smell the authority and monopoly from the management control from SLDC.
In other words, some people may resist certain methodologies when they are mandated by the organization. In the article of “Investigating Determinants of Software Developers? Intentions to Follow Methodologies “, Bill Hardgrave said
“Contrary to popular belief, that an organizational mandate is not sufficient to guarantee use of the methodology in a sustained manner.” In formalized methodologies, people lack of innovation. They have to follow all the steps and their thoughtful idea was not involved.

Life cycle is now being used by various business organizations in their approach to IT projects. Organizations want to know the full cost of ownership related to IT projects including development, training, software upgrades, and maintenance costs. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is one of the best demonstrations of SLDC.DOJ spend millions of dollars on the acquisition, design, development, implementation, and maintenance of information systems.

Reference:
1. http://jmis.bentley.edu/articles/v20_n1_p123/index.html
2. http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/irm/lifecycle/ch1.htm
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma

bp1-week2

Performance measures

Every year supervisors have to fill off the evaluation form for employees. It always reminds me what happened in the last 365 days. Am I improved or stay the same level? People want to pass the evaluation, not only for the bonus or other benefits. They want to contribute to the organization. It works the same way in commercial environment.

How can performance measured? Financial statements? Customer satisfaction? Or others?
Balance scorecard gives us a good solution.
Balance scorecard is a multidimensional measurement tool aimed to capture performance measures related to accounting and finance, human resources, internal processes, and customers. It is developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton as a means to reduce the limitations of the traditional financial –based performance measures in business. There were four major sessions: customer, internal process, learning and growth, and financial performance. The balance scoreboard approach involves taking measurements in four different areas rather than focusing solely on financial performance measures.

Why does most company favor balance scorecard? Let us go back to see the traditional measures. Most company uses financial measures such as ROI .A weakness is that it omits non-financial measures such as customer service, operational quality an innovation. Calculation ROI is simple; however, deciding what number to qualify can be difficult. These intangible measures are much harder to measure, but firms such as GE Capital IT Solution are working on ways to factor intangible factors into the analysis to create a more effective and accurate measure of payback. For example, conducting customer satisfaction surveys either directly or over the Internet to learn how customers are interacting with their system.

Now we know balance scoreboard is the best known prescription of internal scorecard creation. How about external scorecards? There are numerous organizations providing scorecard services on the internet.
Watchfire GómezPro Scorecards is one of examples. It is released bi-annually and measures the quality of the online financial services offerings, with a predominant focus on ease of use, customer confidence, onsite resources, relationship services and overall cost.

Reference:
1. http://www.balancedscorecard.org/basics/bsc1.html
2. http://www.cms.daimlerchrysler.com/dccom/0,,0-5-7197-1-69285-1-0-0-69293-0-0-135-7177-0-0-0-0-0-0-0,00.html
3. http://www.watchfire.com/news/releases/6-8-04.aspx

Thursday, October 11, 2007

XBRL-Inclass Blog

In class Blog

XBRL stands for extensible business reporting language. XBRL allows company to use tag for each individual data. So it helps business analyze their financial results more efficiently.

Companies of all types and sizes can benefit from XBRL. The most significant reasons are as follows:
1. Focus on decision making and data analysis rather than mechanics work like gathering and inputting data
For examples, with XBRL, 15 percent of time is spending on data processing. 85 percent of time can be used for other process .The company can either use the time on their research of competitive competitors, or they can spend time on conduct on risk analysis.

2. Improve the efficiency of transmission on the web service
XBRL is ideal for use in web services. Since Web services are based on XML standard, the company can use XBRL, which just enhanced the standard by providing extended consistency.

3. Improve the accuracy of financial data
Automated composition and processing financial report can reduce the error occurred at any step in manual financial data aggregation process.

XBRL is used to digitally publish financial statements and other relevant accounting disclosures of companies of all makes and sizes, both public and private.

Here are the steps which show how XBRL works:
1. The company obtain the data from the client
2. Client data is converted in to XBRL
3. XBRL information flows freely across the Internet
4. XBRL-tagged data is mapped into bank’s chart of accounts
5. XBRL data is uploaded to the system of record

Accountants have to stay up to date on XBRL standard. Major accounting firms are important members of the XBRL Consortium. Training and information sessions are always held in the conference. The 16th XBRL international conference will be held in Vancouver, Canada in December 2007. KPMG provides the detailed tutorial and in-depth technical training prepared by corporate IT professionals on the aspect of XBRL. CICA also recommend as a globe standard for e-filing and e-reporting.

Reference:
1. http://www.xbrl.org/Companies/
2. http://www.xbrl.org/Business/General/SoftwareAG-CaseForXBRL.pdf

Monday, October 1, 2007

BP1---week1

BPEL---The most popular process standard

BPEL stands for” Business process execution language”. It is an XML-based language used to describe a business process that takes place across the web in a manner whereby any vendors can implement their own style s of models. It is a language for the definition and execution of business processes. Why is it so popular? Because BPEL supports both abstract process and executable process.
Abstract processes are useful for specifying expected protocols and publicly visible behaviours without too much detail. Executable process contains enough detail to fully specify execution.

Is BPEL a programming language? It is really a debate.
Most people think BPEL is definitely a programming language for specifying business processes that involve Web services. BPEL doesn’t try to be a general-purpose programming language. Instead, it is assumed that BPEL will be combined with other languages, which are used to implement business functions. The most famous combination is BPELJ, partnership with JAVA, that allows these two programming languages to be used together to build complete business process applications.
Unlike most people, David Chappell, an IT professional doesn’t think of BPEL as a programming language. He thinks unlike Java and every other mainstream programming language, BPEL is defined using XML. Accordingly, it was designed to be generated by tools, not written directly by developers. Thousands of developers are never going to work directly in a complex XML-based language.

What do people avoid Technology lock-in? Of course is reducing cost. BPEL addresses all these problems by delivering a standards-based, platform-neutral solution. The loosely coupled BPEL process eliminates vendor lock-in, reduces integration costs, Most important, companies can leverage their existing infrastructure, service-enable it, and orchestrate it using BPEL.

BPEL adopt Web services as an external communication mechanism. Web services (Sometimes called application services) are services (usually including some combination of programming and data, but possibly including human resources as well) that are made available from a business's Web server for Web users or other Web-connected programs. Providers of Web services are generally known as application service providers.


Related links:
1. http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/gDefinition/0,,sid26_gci750567,00.html
2.
http://www.davidchappell.com/blog/2006/05/why-bpel-is-like-bytecode

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Do I want a career in Project Management

WEEK1

Wow, I never think about it. I just heard PMP in August. During the last school break, I visited my aunt in Calgary. On her computer desk, I saw a book named PMP. Then she told me she was a project manager. That’s my first time to know project management. I didn’t ask what her responsibility is since it’s kind of boring questions. That’s one thing I know .Being a project manger is a tough process. You have to contribute all your energy and knowledge to your work.
After I search project management related job posting in Monster.ca, I find that the following skills are required by most jobs.


Soft skill or human relation skill
Project manager is the negotiator. You have to work with information technology professionals and their customers. A good project manager must possess effective communication and writing skills since much of the job entails communicating with the project team and key stakeholders.

Technically competent
Some people believe that to understand the technology they use in the project is the most important issue. They have to be the experts on this area to be a project manager. Actually, it is not. They should have the basic knowledge of wide area technology. More importantly, they should understand how the project they are managing would enhance the business.

General management skill
Like other managers, project manager should understand some general management skills. For example, financial management, accounting, sales, marketing, distribution, the supply chain, strategic planning, and organization behaviour, etc. A good business manager can be a project manager because they know their business well and they focus on meeting business needs .For the technology part; they can rely on other project members.

Project environment knowledge
Project environment differs from other organizations. The most frequent questions they are facing are change. They have to handle it properly. They have to understand the process of the product in the organization.

Now let’s talk about education and working experience. Which one is important? I hate to answer this kind of questions. It is like which one come first, chicken or egg?

After I searched monster.ca, I find the entry level project assistant focus on education more. A degree or diploma is desired. It is the same as other jobs. When you graduate from college, education is the only asset you have. That’s why company has to screen the candidates based on education.

When you become more experienced, no one is asking your education background anymore. They will ask have you experience the similar situation before. Experiences become more valuable. That’s why most senior project manager has at least five year related working experience. They want to know you are confident to be a team leader and to solve any kind of questions.

For my conclusion, education and experience are both important. The importance just depends on your career levels.

JOB TITLES:
Project coordinator
Project manager
Assistant project manager
Senior project manager
Program manager