Film Break: Office Space (1999)

Instructions:
Moftech students, register at the ISR on the viewing date, watch the movie, and give your reactions to the questions below for merit points in the Moftech class. Post your reactions not later than Aug 28, 6pm Manila time.

Movie Details:
Office Space (1999), written and directed by Mike Judge
Stars Ron Livingston and Jennifer Anniston

1. Give at least two major implications of downsizing to employees in a company?

2. What's the metaphor (choose one item you want to react on)

> of the red stapler
> of the cubicle
> of the fax machine
> of Milton

3. Do you think this 90s trend of office culture is still happening in most of the IT organizations now? If not, describe the current practices? If yes, why do you think the culture has not changed?

4. The movie is considered a satire by some, a parody by others. Did you enjoy watching the movie? In what way?

An Example of a Case Study: STARBUCKS

Please read the link - http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=201085

What's your opinion on this?

Goals of the New Work Environment

McNurlin and Sprague cited four goals in the new work environment--(1)leverage globally, (2)organize for complexity, (3)work electronically, and (4)handle continuous and discontinuous change.

The first one deals with tapping the tacity knowledge of the workforce, nurturing the workforce with knowledge and prmoting a culture of sharing knowledge. Briefly I felt like the enterprise is wishing to go back to the university if that's the case..

Organize for complexity

The second one in my perception tells us that the enterprise move all the decisions to the consumers that made their work now a lot complex. It's like consumers now have so much freedom that the enterprise has to work well to satisfy the wants of the consumers. Do you think the consumer or the customer always know what is best for her?

Work electronically

Third, work electronically. The small workspace or spacious, private cubicle now becomes secondary concern to the internet bandwidth, the fast machine processor and the e-mail and web access restrictions/policies. The workforce nowadays cannot survive if electronically illiterate.

Continuous and Discontinuous Change

Managing change, whether for improvement or thru reengineering should be dealt objectively, and should be anticipated by the enterprise.

Welcome to 2nd term, MGMTTEC Students

Welcome to my blog!

This blog hopes to complement our course on Management of Technology.

Dates of the requirements will be adjusted according to this terms' schedule. Feel free to give also your comments on some of the related topics that will be posted from this month to Dec. Hope to hear from you.. :)

Please leave also the link to your group's wiki in this posting.

Guten Tag! :)

THE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT WORKFLOW PROJECT

The DMW project is a meaningful activity that entails a proof of management of technology. Everyday different forms, different kinds and different faces of documents are generated. Some are consciously organized, some are not. Examples of these documents are:
o A feature article contributed by a reader and is routed to and from the editorsA thesis abstract
o A birth or marriage certificateA criminal case filed against a person
o A cover page of magazine with various images and layouts
o A project evaluation form
The DMW Project as the culminating requirement in the Moftech course entails the following
1. Finding a small size office that manages documents manually or semi-electronically;
2. Identifying possible shift from manual to digital and/or electronic form of data/image capturing, organizing, storing and retrieving and inclusion of other possible management activities;
3. The document involved requires a routing process to several users;
4. The other management activities involved may be versioning of the document or involved a workflow process/changes or involved archiving;
5. The output requires a process flow analysis of the existing and the proposed, new document workflow using process flow diagrams (everyone is encouraged to use UML);
6. The output is also expected to exhibit proposed screen designs to further appreciate the workflow process;
7. The output should explain the method of file repository, how to capture the digital and printed form of the documents and the online method of storing/viewing of the document;
8. The study groups may refer to the following as web references:

Workflow reference

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=workflow&i=54851,00.asp

Document imaging

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=document+imaging&i=41646,00.asp

DMS demo

http://ccdemo.ademero.com/Search/Search.aspx

9. The study groups may confine their final project to the management of text documents. Management of image or audio documents will be optional.

10. The study groups are expected to present and discuss the merits of their design and the proposed workflow automation.

MOFTECH Reporting Schedule

MOFTECH Reporting Schedule as of July 16

1. Outsourcing Business/IS Functions –Jul 26
2. Managing Information Resources – Jul 17
3. Distributed Systems – Jul 19
4. Disaster Recovery in Distributed Systems – Jul 19
5. Managing Telecommunications – Jul 24
6. Systems for Supporting Knowledge Work – Jul 24
7. Knowledge Management – Jul 31
8. Intelligent Multimedia & Robotics – Jul 31
9. Network Service Level Agreement – Aug 2

Students are required to make a 15-20minutes presentation in video or Powerpoint reporting format. As junior students, please include relevant examples or case studies.

Another Dilbert wisdom

from Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook.

Moftech slides

At last, the slides are available. Please go to mavic pineda's webcave--http://mysite.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty/pinedam/moftech.html

Your First Wiki Posting

Briefly discuss the four trends under the Technology environment in your wiki page. This is going to be your first posting. Please leave a link here to your wiki page. :)

You may want to likewise predict what could be a possible new trend in this environment. Why did you consider this? - mavic pineda

Notes on the External Business Environment

On Business Ecosystem

“The point about ecosystems is that they appear to follow biological rules rather than machine-like rules. They require flexibility because relationships change more frequently; they are more organic. Relationships and coevolution require a different corporate mindset from the command-and-control mindset of the past.”

This is a good insight from McNurlin and Sprague. Business lives are becoming a simbiotic thing. Businesses have to look after each other more than kill each other.

What do you think of this?...

On Decapitalization

The knowledge in people’s heads---
“ without talent, ideas dwindle, the new-product pipeline shrivels up, and the company becomes less competitive”

Take the case of Starbucks Phils. In Starbucks, they hire most of these baristas not for the love of coffee but how they can think of more ways to improve, mix and match these coffees. They even give exams to test how good the barista is. So if a barista wears a black apron, she or he is a coffee master.

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I just hope Rustan and Starbucks Phils give Barako a chance in their menu. For the information of everyone, Barako is not a robusta, it's a Liberica, the big bean with strong scent, originally believed from Spain. And my personal opinion, Barako is not a gourmet coffee, it's better as an everyday coffee. :)

Foreword

As ICTM students, try to see the opportunity of gaining more from the various resources that this topic or course has to offer. Develop sensitivity to be adept on what's happening in our environment, cultural changes that affect our way of life and how technology can be used to improve our way of life. Don't lose sight of what is practical, what is rational and what works for us.

Let's also find wisdom in humour. It's when we laugh at our mistakes and rise from our failures that we get to keep our feet on the ground. (It sounds good but not so logical.. :) Hmmm..

Let's learn and have fun in this course..

mavic pineda

Food for the Thoughts and the Heart

From the Seven Years of Highly Defective People by Scott Adams (1999).

Useful References

Prepared by Mavic Pineda for the MOFTECH course.

This WEEK in TECH. http://www.twit.tv - This is an internet radio led by Leo Laporte, has relevant discussions of current technology trends and happenings.

CNET Podcast Central. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11455_7-6333605-1.html - This is another site with a bountiful source of podcasts on the latest technology and mobile devices. The show is hosted by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont.

ZDnet. http://podcasts.zdnet.com/ - This is another site with useful podcasts on current technology trends.

Find any book of Scott Adams, a famous cartoonist. Get to learn of his characters like Dilbert, an engineer and his dog, Dogbert.

Information Systems Management in Practice (2002) International Edition. Barbara McNurlin and Ralph H. Sprague. Prentice-hall.

Cases on Strategic Management in the Philippine Setting (2003). Emerlinda Roman (Editor). UP Press.

Management Information Systems (2002) International Edition). James o'Brien. McGraw-Hill.

Major Course Requirements

MIDTERM PROJECT (20%) - A Case Study on the Management of Technology

This case study is a comprehensive analysis of how technology was used (or misused) in a given organizational situation. The study should include how the firm underwent planning, who are the people involved in the planning and decision-making, and the impact to the target users and/or beneficiaries of the system.

The midterm requirement entails looking for a company that recently engaged or was involved in the use or introduction of a new technology or system or set of applications.

Schedule of Deliverables

Sep 25 - submission of company material and contact persons.
Oct 2 - draft of the paper
Oct 9-11 - class case study presentation in podcast format and submission of the podcast.

Midterm paper specs to follow.

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FINAL PROJECT (20%) - A Proposed Document Management Workflow

Document Management System or EDMS is one of the relevant, progressive use of technology to handle information resources. In this regard that the focus of the final project is the development of a DMW model/design with an accompanying set of screen deaigns.

The Final Project is focused on one of the most important activity in the organization, management of information resources. And this can be done through document management in a firm. In this project, the study groups are required to look for a unit or an office that is in need of a document management system. The group may opt to use the same office they have used in the midterm requirement.

The study group will have to model the existing and proposed, new workflow (using UML) and create the necessary screen designs.

Please go to this link for a free copy of Visual-Paradigm UML - http://www.visual-paradigm.com/.

Schedule of Deliverables

Nov 6 - submission of company material.
Nov 13 - submission of DMS model diagram.
*consultation schedule to be arranged.
Nov 27 - start of project demo in class.

Project Demo prescribes smart casual attire. Project demo takes place from 10-12mins.

Final Project Specs

I. Background of the Unit/Office
II. Existing Document Workflow Process
III. Proposed Document WorkflowProcess
include the diagram/s
IV. Proposed Screen Flow
V. Conclusion/Recommendation

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Midterm Project Requirement

DOCUMENT OUTLINE

I. The Company
1. Brief Profile of the Company
2. Vision/Mission
3. Short History
4. Products and Services

II. The Company Case Study
1. Business Function in Focus – describe the set of functions involved in the case study; the work unit and the workforce involved and their process involvement
2. The Planning Approach of the Firm– include the method, cycle and how the plans are formalized
3. Key players in Planning – include the level of accountability of the key players in the decision-making process
4. Present Problems/ Changes – describe the recent technological or process or business changes, issues or problems faced by the work unit.
5. System/Technology Solutions and Issues- describe the application or system or technology employed by the office as a solution to the problems/changes.

Include the major issues faced by the office in the initial implementation of the new system?

6. Assessment of Impact to the Firm – discuss the prevailing perceptions and views of the members of the work unit.

Does the existing planning approach match the current process of decision-making?
Is the solution beneficial to the company or its prospective beneficiaries?
Does the company and the users/beneficiaries have the same or almost the same perceived rewards and benefits with the new system/technologies?
Can the return on investment be covered at an earlier or scheduled time?

PODCAST

Each group is required to come up with a 7-10minute podcast ( including intro music, bloopers, sponsors and closing remarks) in MP3 format. The podcast should discuss the case study in focus following an internet radio or netcast format. The outcome may come as a summarized broadcast assessment or a panel discussion. Listen to TWIT or ZDNet podcasts to have an idea.

The study groups are recommended to use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/), a free audio editor and recorder.

The podcast is 50% of the midterm grade requirement and the basis of the class open forum. No podcast on the deadline means no class case presentation. The podcast may be loaded in your music player or cellphone and should be in MP3 format, labeled properly. The whole class will listen to the podcast. Clarity of the output is important and will allow other people to understand the discussion better. Use of Filipino statements are allowed to give emphasis to a point in the discussion or to entice listeners.

Schedule of Deliverables

June 7 - submission of company material and contact persons.
June 21 - draft of the paper
July 10 - class case study presentation in podcast format and submission of the podcast.

The Wiki Page Requirement

All groups are required to create a Wiki page about a relevant, contemporary information management resource, technology or tool RELATED to your REPORTING TOPIC. Each member of the group is accountable on researching a recent study or application of the given topic and posting a summarized of what she or he has researched on. Appropriate references and/or links to relevant sites may be included.

The objective of this requirement is to encourage research on various IM solutions and analytical group discussions on relevant IM resource trend. This wiki page will also serve as a reference to the other Moftech groups. Please use http://www.wikispaces.com/ for your page. You may set your wiki page as public or exclusive to registered users.

The group wiki page should be up by May 31, 2007.

Please post also the group paper on the topic--Open Source vs. Windows in your page.

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