MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING & INFORMATICS

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

BIT 3105: MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

CAT 1 AND 2

NAME:

ADM NO:
1. Describe five technology and business trends that have enhanced the role of

information systems in today’s competitive business environment.

Technology has evolved in many different ways. This way it has helped

businesses to improve their key factors in business environment. Technology also helps

business leverage and stay competitive. Five technologies that help in the business

environment include the following:

1. E-commerce- Due to autonomous buying of goods and services, online

shopping has improved tremendously which helps people buy and sell goods

online and get them delivered at the comfort of their home. Online shopping

provides shipping and delivery of goods from one place to another via online

services.

2. Social Media Networking and Advertisement- This is a platform that is

mainly used for marketing and business advertisements. Employees and

employers can earn directly through social media. Also social Medias can be

used for online communications.

3. Smart Mobile Application - Mobile phones have emerged with internet

capability to browse anywhere and anytime. This has led to improvement

because people don’t need to sit in a desktop computer and access internet

whenever they need to browse something.

4. Internet of Things- Assisting human decision making through deep analysis

and data visualization. E.g. Oil field learning through 3D visualization and

simulation
 5. Cloud computing- cloud computing has enable businesses to setup what is

essentially a virtual office to give them the flexibility of connecting to their

business anywhere, any time.

2. The functions of security include prevention, detection, recovery, correction and

deterrence of accidental or malicious modification of data or software and damage

to hardware.

i. Complete protection against all possible hazards is impossible and a risk

assessment should be carried out. List and briefly describe the items that a

risk assessment report should contain

A risk assessment is the combined effort of: identifying and analyzing potential

events that may negatively impact individuals, assets, and/or the environment; and making

judgments "on the tolerability of the risk on the basis of a risk analysis" while considering

influencing factors (Jessica, 2018).

A risk assessment report contains the following:

1. Executive summary- This is the summary of what to be accessed.

2. Detailed assessment- This area contains:

i. Introduction- A brief idea about the companies or organization

objectives.

ii. Purpose- What is the purpose of conducting the risk assessment

report and why should it be conducted.

iii. Scope of this risk assessment- The General and the specific objective

of what the risk might be caused or is caused by what.

3. Risk assessment approach- This includes:

 (i) Participants- The people participating in the risk assessment report.

(ii) Techniques used- Types of tools or ways used to conduct the

assessment

(iii) Risk model- How to mitigate the risk in case there is an occurrence

4. System characterization- This includes:

(i) Technology components used- Types of software’s used to conduct the

assessment. Are they viable to conduct the assessment or not.

(ii) Physical Location(s) - If the demographic environment located in a safe

place or there is a high risk like flooding and different climatic

conditions.

(iii) Data used by system- What data flow does the system contain. Is it safe?

(iv) Users- Number users using the system

(v) Flow diagram- This is to structure step by step analysis of the

assessment

5. Vulnerability statement- What is the high risk involved?

6. Threat statement- The pre-final statement given so the threat can be analyzed and

controlled.

7. Risk assessment Results- The entire risk assessment report results, to determine the

risk involved

ii. State and justify the key elements of a disaster recovery plan.

Disaster recovery plan is the process of mitigating a risk or having a backup plan to control a

plan. Key elements of a disaster recovery plan include:

(a) Create a disaster recovery team- This is the team that will be responsible for

maintaining and controlling the disaster recovery plan. They help to plan and give out

roles to each members so they can be responsible for their departments.

(b) Identify and access disaster risks- Risks of the organization should be identified and

accessed by the disaster recovery team.

(c) Determine critical applications, documents, and resources- Critical applications,

documents and resources which are mostly likely to be affected by the disaster should

be determined as soon as possible.

(d) Specify backup and off-site procedures- These procedures should identify what to

back up, by whom, how to perform the backup, location of backup and how

frequently backups should occur. All critical applications, equipment, and documents

should be backed up.

(e) Test and maintain in the Disaster Recovery Plan- Organizational routine process

should be done to ensure that the DRP is tested and maintained from time to time.

iii. Explain EACH of the following and state how this is achieved:

(a) A fault tolerant computer system-Fault tolerance refers to the ability of a system (computer,

network, cloud cluster, etc.) to continue operating without interruption when one or more of its

components fail. The objective of creating a fault-tolerant system is to prevent disruptions arising

from a single point of failure, ensuring the high availability and business continuity of mission-

critical applications or systems.

(b) High availability computing- In computing, it refers to computers that are available and

can serve for a long period of time without failure. This aims to eliminate single points of

failure and prepare for redundancy.

 3. As computers become faster and cheaper and the Internet becomes more widely

used, most of the problems we have with information systems will disappear. Do you

agree? Why or why not?

Yes I do agree with the above statement, this is because as the computer

systems are getting faster and cheaper and internet is being widely used, hence the problems of

information system would turn out to be more instead of less due to massive internet usage and

as the information system expert is important to pull the raw data into some useful information

which can be used for decision making in an organization and for specific analysis hence there

need would be more than what is needed now. As part of the SDLC approach also, planning,

creating, testing, and deploying the information system hence the need for information system

expert becomes more.

4. Organizations have become increasingly dependent on continuously functioning

network systems such as WANs, extranets, etc. Because of this, “Survivability of

Networked Systems” has become important for information systems managers.

Briefly describe the range of threats that has given rise to these concerns, and

suggest strategies for coping with these threats

Threats associated with network systems include:

1. Internal Threats- They include:

(a) Logic bomb- This are codes embedded in a program that is set to

explode when certain conditions are met.

(b) Trap doors- This are login programs written by developers to gain

unauthorized access.
 (c) Login spoofing- This is a technique of collecting other users

passwords.

2. External Threats- They include:

(a) Trojan horses- It looks like a useful system application but has a

hidden malware contained within it.

(b) Virus- A program that infects other programs and makes copies of

itself which can spread in the whole system and take control of the

operating system.

Strategies to cope up with these threats include:

(a) Strong Access Controls- This is to prevent unauthorized access in the system

(b) Keeping all software updated- This is to fix security vulnerabilities

(c) Standardize software- This is to ensure the users cannot install software without

approval

(d) Use Network Protection Measures- By using different software which control traffic

like firewall

(e) Employee Training- by ensuring your employees understand network security.

5. Working in groups and collaborating with colleagues is essential in most businesses.

If a group is well managed, its synergy should lead to an output that is greater than

the sum of the inputs of the individual members of the group. A group might not all

work in the same location and might only interact via a computer network.

i. Describe the software and hardware facilities that such an online group

would require and briefly explain why EACH of the items you describe is

necessary.
Software and hardware are the key components for the facilitation of online groups. Software

and hardware used include the following:

Software

(i) Zoom Meeting- This is a video conferencing meeting application that is used to

enable video of a group of people online. The main advantage of zoom meeting is it

provides users with a clear video with no attenuation

(ii) GoToMeeting- This is an online meeting, desktop sharing, and video conferencing

software that enables users to connect via the internet. It hosts a suite of online

meeting tools, including real-time screen sharing and integrated audio.

(iii) Microsoft Teams- Teams is a chat-based collaboration tool that provides global,

remote, and dispersed teams with the ability to work together and share information

via a common space. You can utilize cool features like document collaboration, one-

on-one chat, team chat, and more

Hardware

(a) Computer or Laptop- For the purpose of connectivity

(b) Video- conferencing machine- To help in presentation

(c) Webcam- For video recording and clear view

(d) Headset or microphone- For the purpose of communication

(e) Broadband connection- This is to provide the network and bandwidth

ii. An online group can easily lose its cohesiveness and deteriorate into a set of

individuals carrying out separate tasks as directed by a central authority.

Explain how you would manage such a group so that it retains its synergy.

Factors to consider to make the group retain its synergy:

 (a) Consider Communication climate- Put some barriers in the online meeting and

allow communication to be done by one person at a time.

(b) Group configuration- All the members to contribute effectively

(c) Allow all members to contribute effectively

(d) Team processes. A sense of unity is created through sharing clear goals which are

understood and accepted by the members.

(e) Cohesiveness. This involves encouraging feelings of belonging, cooperation,

openness and commitment to the team.

(f) Communication- This involves being clear, accurate, open and honest.

(g) Decision-making- This involves making sure that established procedures are in

place, that everybody is clear about leadership and an environment of trust is being

created.

References

Jessica, Sipple. (2018, September 26). 5 Elements of Disaster Recovery Plan- Is

your Business Prepared? Retrieved from https://mksh.com/5-elements-of-a-disaster-recovery-

plan-is-your-business-prepared/

Schmidtler, M. A., Dalal, G., & Kovalev, T. (2019). U.S. Patent No. 10,284,570.

Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Matthews, K. L., Baird, M., & Duchesne, G. (2018). Using online meeting

software to facilitate geographically dispersed focus groups for health workforce

research. Qualitative health research, 28(10), 1621-1628.