Discussion Questions and Assignment
Week 9 #1
· Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural style for building software applications that use services available in a network such as the Web. SOA is based on standard protocols such as HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), etc. SOA services are consumed by client applications over the Internet. SOA exposes business services to a wide range of service consumers. Assess SOA in terms of business integration, security, interoperability, and IT infrastructure.
· A Web service is a set of technologies used for exchanging data between applications. Web services allow businesses to connect their processes to their business partners. This form of business integration results in Business Process Management (BPM) mashups. Assess the benefits of BPM mashups in terms of ease of integration, composition of services, and information sharing.
Week 9 #2
· When a company has a need for software, one option is to buy it from a software vendor or build it internally if the IT department can develop the software. This results in a build-or-buy debate. Take a stance on the build versus buy debate. Justify your decision in regard to cost, flexibility, reliability, and security.
· Software development methods include Joint Application Development (JAD), Rapid Application Development (RAD), Extreme Programming (XP), Software Prototyping, and Open-Source Development. Choose the best software development method from those listed here and explain why you believe it is best.
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Assignment 4: Data Mining
Due Week 9 and worth 75 points
The development of complex algorithms that can mine mounds of data that have been collected from people and digital devices have led to the adoption of data mining by most businesses as a means of understanding their customers better than before. Data mining takes place in retailing and sales, banking, education, manufacturing and production, health care, insurance, broadcasting, marketing, customer services, and a number of other areas. The analytical information gathered by data-mining applications has given some businesses a competitive advantage, an ability to make informed decisions, and better ways to predict the behavior of customers. Write a four page paper in which you:
1. Determine the benefits of data mining to the businesses when employing:
1. Predictive analytics to understand the behavior of customers
2. Associations discovery in products sold to customers
3. Web mining to discover business intelligence from Web customers
4. Clustering to find related customer information
2. Assess the reliability of the data mining algorithms. Decide if they can be trusted and predict the errors they are likely to produce.
3. Analyze privacy concerns raised by the collection of personal data for mining purposes.
1. Choose and describe three (3) concerns raised by consumers.
2. Decide if each of these concerns is valid and explain your decision for each.
3. Describe how each concern is being allayed.
4. Provide at least three (3) examples where businesses have used predictive analysis to gain a competitive advantage and evaluate the effectiveness of each business’s strategy.
5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
· Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
· Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
