ADVANCED ELECTRONIC-BUSINESS ENGINEERING
Course Syllabus
INSTRUCTOR'S NAME AND CONTACT INFORMATION
LING Zong (凌棕), Ph. D.
Senior Engineer/Scientist, IBM Almaden Research Center/Software Group, San Jose, California, U.S.A.
Course-Email:
Personal-Email:
IBM-Email:
Web Page:
Teaching Assistant (TA)
ZHENG GuiFeng (郑贵锋), Ph. D.
COURSE-Email:
WORDS OF WELCOME
Welcome to the course of Advanced Electronic Business Engineering!
First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your decision to take this course! I've been affiliated with the e-business related classes for years over the world to IBM professionals.This is a good chance for me to bring my industry experience to you -- the bright college students, with such a hot topic. I believe that you have made a wise choice to explore this colorful world and I am excited about the opportunity I've been given to work with you during the course period. Please use OUR valuable time together well through this course period, and ask for more information or for help when you are struggling. My hope is that ALL of you will pass this course with flyingcolors!
READING MATERIALS
For completing this course, the basic requirement of the reading materials is the set of lecture notes (PowerPoint and MS word files) that are available through the course period.
Optionally, for preparing to take IBM 817 certification test, the standard textbook for further reading is an IBMRedbook (ISBN: 0738493864, IBM Form Number: SG24-6248-02) "The Solution Designer’s Guide to IBM On Demand Business Solutions”, by Mike Ransom and etc. It is downloadable from the website:
You are encouraged, also, to visit the links of references (in the bottom of this document).
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Electronic business or e-business has been dramatically changing the way today’s businesses operate and compete in the global marketplace. Nevertheless, most people including the businessmen are focusing on how to utilize the e-Business system as a tool to effectively implement traditional business strategies, few cares about the engineering construction of those systems. This course provides an overview of e-business ENGINEERING from an architectural perspective, and introduces the fundamental concepts and frameworks of IBM patterns for e-business with which to examine the existing e-business models, the prevalent enabling technologies, and the strategic issues confronting the legacy firms. The efficiency, performance, capacity, and practical design of e-Business engineering systems will be covered with the best practice of IBM experience.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The objective of this course is to provide a foundation to prepare students, as future IT engineers, system architects, or project managers, to play leading roles in the application and management of e-business system construction. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Understand the current status of e-business concepts and follow its development;
- Recognize the key implementation issues along with the e-business system design;
- Design the e-business engineering solution using the e-Business patterns;
- Describe the best practices in e-business engineering system development;
- Catch the enterprise data storage technology and management issues for e-Business systems;
- Evaluate the existing e-business system with an architectural vision and performance perspective;
- Appreciate the criticalness of performance, service-level-agreement, and latest IT technology to e-business solutions;
- Build up baseline knowledge for further study and research in Electronic Business and Information Technology fields.
COURSE OUTLINE
This course is composed of four portions: 1) Classroom lectures; 2) Reading materials; 3) Lab and homework assignments; and 4) Questions and Answers (Q&A). All of above will provide you with the concepts, skills, and knowledge necessary to design, develop, and analyze the e-Business systems.
According to the requirement of the college administration, the classroom lectures should be delivered mainly in English, although it might be practically smoother in Chinese. I may observe the reactions among audience to optimize the effectiveness and balance the demand between English and Chinese.
Timely, in the first part of this course, we will study the basic concepts of e-Business, IT services, and IBM e-Business strategy. The lectures will review the history of Internet and e-Business, identify the difference between e-Business and e-Commerce, and demonstrate the infrastructure of conventional e-Business models. Some advanced topics may be briefly covered to demonstrate the state-of-art in e-Business fields, such as Web Service, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Service Science Management Engineering (SSME).
Then, we will discuss IBM e-Business pattern theory. The lectures will guide you through the process of selecting the application and runtime topology, and provide a set of guidelines for building your e-Business application. These guidelines include performance considerations, technology options, application design, application development, and systems management.
Several deeper issues will be selectively covered, such as wireless e-Business with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), e-Business data storage management, and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).
Finally, we will focus on the practical e-Business implementation. The lectures and lab experiments will lead you through examples on how to implement and analyze an e-commerce application. You will have a chance to analyze, evaluate, and criticize the selected websites, using the e-Business knowledge that you have just learned.
Everyday we will communicate via Q&A processes. You are expected to ask questions on any e-Business topics while you are attending the lectures, reading the materials, or working on the homework/lab assignments. The best way for our communication is email exchanging. However, raising hands in the classroom or making appointments at other time slots are also welcome.
WORKING TOGETHER AS TEAMS
During this course period, you will be asked to work in teams for the lab assignment. Teams will be established prior to the beginning of team assignments. Each team may have 5-15 people. Since the teamwork is the cornerstone of practical e-Business world, it is important that you experience being a member of a virtual team in this collaborative learning environment, for your further adventure in the real e-Business world. Each team will discuss and work on their team assignments, which your team will then share the results with entire class.
For the small group activities, I will monitor individual contributions to the team exercise. Work in the teams will be individually assessed. I mention this for clarity because, as those of you who are familiar with teamwork may know, there is always a question about whether all members of a learning team will automatically receive the same grades or whether individual scores may differ. In this class, not everyone in each learning team will receive the same assessment for the assignment -- in this case, part of the assessment will depend on individual effort. I will be looking at individual contributionsto the team assignment as a whole, as well as the ability of each team to work together well as a team and not as individuals simply combining separate answers to the assignment.
ASSIGNMENTS and EXAMINATION
The daily assignments are listed in the Daily Objectives and Assignments section of this document. The deadlines are always the End Of the Day (EOD) on the local time zone.
Please note, for each of the questions/topics in the assignment, the answers or discussions should be limited within 200 words, unless you do have a convincible explanation for longer echoes. Your answers could be in either English or Chinese. However, English is strongly encouraged for your practice purpose.
Please respond to the questions of daily assignment to the COURSE-Emails of BOTH Instructor and TA. In the subject area of your response, it is better to specify your student number, your full name, and the assignment index or whatever identifiable easily. TA will be reporting grades to the daily assignments. I may selectively send you a private note, addressing what you have mastered and indicating in what areas you might still need to make improvement.
During this course, we will also have a team assignment to evaluate the online websites of e-business systems.
At the end of this course, we will have an examination, which may take about two hours for answering fifty questions from multiple-choice solutions. It will be the exam in close-book (English-Chinese dictionary may be allowed).
COURSE GRADE PRINCIPLES
Activities / Score / RequirementIndividual Assignment
/ 20 / Submitting (14)Effort (6)
Team Assignment / 25 / Observation (10)
Links to Course (10)
Participation (5)
Examination / 50 / Answer 50 Questions (50)
Final Individual Report / 5 / Constructiveness (5)
Total / 100
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Although this should not be an issue during this course session, I include this information as a way of emphasizing to you the importance of academic honesty and the fact that you are expected to practice.
Academic honesty is highly valued just as it is. A student must always submit work that represents his or her original words or ideas. If any words or ideas are used that do not represent the student's original words or ideas, the student must cite all relevant sources. The student should also make clear the extent to which such sources were used. Words or ideas that require citations include, but are not limited to, all hardcopy or electronic publications, whether copyrighted or not, and all verbal or visual communication when the content of such communication clearly originates from an identifiable source. At this course, all submissions to any public meeting or private mailbox fall within the scope of words and ideas that require citations if used by someone other than the original author.
Academic dishonesty could involve:
- Having someone else complete a portion of YOUR assignments;
- Copying work submitted by others;
- Using information from online information services without proper citation.
CONFIDENTIALITY
One of the cornerstones of the learning model in this course is the practical application of theoretical concepts and we may share our personal and professional experiences as a means to integrate the knowledge through reflecting on its application. Also, some of the practical case study may have the restriction for distributing the information. Therefore, it is important to note that we all are bound by confidentiality in this class. In order to assure that we can have a free and open discussion in which we may elect to discuss experience, policies, and procedures as they apply to the course materials, I expect each person to respect the confidentiality of what you have learned in this class and what we (me and your classmates) are willing to share among us. While at the same time I ask that each of you exercise good judgment in what you choose to share, avoiding non-public or competitively sensitive information.
If you have questions about any of the information contained in this syllabus, or about other aspect of the course, please don’t hesitate to ask!
Daily Objectives and Assignments
Unit 1: Course Introduction and Overview of e-Business Concepts, Histories, and Characterizations
Objective:
To list the contents and requirements of this course
To review the essential facts around the e-Business fields
Required reading
Course Syllabus.doc, Course Introduction.ppt, e-Business Fundamentals.ppt
Assignments for Unit 1
- Read this Course Syllabus.
This is the document you will refer to throughout this course so please be sure you read it and refer to it often.
- Please prepare a brief autobiography and send it to Instructor’s COURSE-Email by EOD.
Write the autobiography in the first person (I) with an emphasis on your educational background, achievements or professional experience, and further expectations, balanced with personal information that helps create the tone you desire.
- Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)What are the difference between traditionalbusiness and electronic business?
2)What you can advise about the pros and cons of an e-business system in general to someone working in non-IT fields?
3)What are the drivers to push e-business forward?
4)How does On Demand Business differ from e-Business?
Unit 2: e-Business Processes and Systems
Objectives:
To walk through the operational processes and system construction of e-Business
Required Reading
e-Business Processes.ppt, e-Business Systems.ppt, Web Development Technologies.doc
Assignments for Unit 2
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)What is the innovation of the “Long Tail” theory in e-Business?
2)What is the role of ERP (EnterpriseResourcePlanning) in an e-Business system?
3)How do you evaluate the value of an e-Business system?
4)How many e-Business security technologies are available today? Which one is most critical for e-Business systems?
Unit 3: IT Architecture Vision and Patterns for Designing e-Business Systems
Objectives:
To explore the IT Architecture thinking approach
To study the pattern approaches on constructing e-Business systems
To guide designing an e-Business solution with the patterns step by step
Required Reading
IT Achitecture.ppt, Patterns for e-Business.ppt, Self Service Overview.ppt
Assignments for Unit 3
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)Without architecture vision, what difficulty you may run into while designing e-Business systems?
2)How do you effectively gather and evaluate client business requirements?
3)What are the differences between application integration and process integration?
4)What are the key factors that may lead to successful business integration?
Unit 4: Self-Service Patterns in e-Business Design; Case Study
Objectives:
To detail the business patterns and runtime patterns of self-service, in e-business system design
To report the practice of applying the patterns for e-business at Ford Motor
Required Reading
Self Service Runtime.ppt, Application Integration.ppt
Custom Design.ppt, Patterns for e-Business at Ford Motor.ppt, Patterns for e-Business at Ford Motor.mp3
Assignments for Unit 4
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)Can you list one or two examples that may use Self-Service::Agent application pattern in designing the e-business solution?
2)What are the pros and cons when using Windows and Linux for product mapping in designing an e-business solution?
3)What are the key factors to enable IBM’s success in Ford Motor?
4)When trying to improve IT customer satisfaction, what questions you may ask yourself, based on IBM experience at Ford?
Unit 5: Design e-Business with Performance Perspectives; RFID in Wireless e-Business;and Business Intelligence
Objectives:
To examine the performance principles for designing the e-Business systems
To exhibit Wireless e-Business Strategy: RFID Solution
To play selected demos with the latest software packages about Business Intelligence
Required Reading
Design ebz for Performance.ppt, RFID Introduction.ppt, Wireless.doc, Demos for Business Intelligence
Assignments for Unit 5
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)What are the issues that may cause performance problems on server, client, and network with respect to information flow?
2)What are the limitations when applying RFID technology?
3)What is the strategy or mechanism of DB2 High Availability Disaster Recovery?
4)What are the relationship and difference between virtualization and integration of systems?
Unit 6: E-Business Data Storage Management
Objectives:
To scan the basic data storage technology for e-Business systems
To share real experience of designing an e-Business software -- IBM/Tivoli Storage Manager
Seminar
Speaker Training: Effective Presentation Strategies; Interview Insights
Required Reading
e-Business Data Storage.ppt, TSM Overview.ppt
Speaker Training.ppt, Interview Insights.ppt
Assignments for Unit 6
- Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)From your personal experience or perspectives, what could be the major challenge for a data storage solution in e-Business?
2)What are the advantages and usages of “Two-Phase Commit”?
3)Why this e-business software – Tivoli Storage Manager could survive?
4)What strategies you may use during a job-interview?
Team-Work (lab): Prepare to evaluate a virtual e-Business System.
- Please
- Construct the team by yourselves (5-15 people as one team);
- Pick up ONE topic for each team, from the websites < ;
- See “Login.doc” for login ID and password;
- Distribute the workloads of website evaluation among teammates:
Identify the e-business patterns used in constructing the system.
Summarize the design features with architecture or engineering perspectives (such as Non-Functional Requirements).
Point out the defects in the system design if possible.
(Optional) Provide feedback to the designers.
Unit 7: e-Business Operational Rulesand Futures
Objectives:
To scrutinize the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
To touch the emerging topic in e-Business fields: Service Science, Management and Engineering(SSME)
Required Reading
ITIL.ppt, ITIL.exe, SSME Overview.ppt, Web Service.doc, Course Review.doc, Course Summary.ppt
Assignments for Unit 7
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)What are the major differences between service support and service delivery in ITIL?
2)What are the characteristics of Web services?
3)How could you effectively measure the benefits of an IT service from the service-profit triangle?
4)What’s your preparation to work for IT service industry?
Unit 8: The Root, Source, and Provider of “e-Business”
Objectives:
To present IBM corporative culture and internal mechanism which fostered the concept of “e-business”