Title: Solving data breaches among various organizations

Project Title

Action Research

IST8101

Student Name

List of Tables and Figures

(Do not include these paragraphs in your paper)

IST 8101 research projects involve actively researching a current technological problem or issue using one of a variety of research methodologies. The research problem or issue can be internal or external to a business; however, the research must include fieldwork in the form of live/real time interaction with industry professionals and/or subject matter experts.

The introduction, as the minimum, is one page long and should not have an APA heading. The introduction must include:

• A brief, less than half a page, description of the business (assets, number of employees, headquarter location, etc.) if your research involves a business. Remember information about a business must be supported by appropriate citations.

• An overview of your topic

  • What are you researching and/or what are you doing?

• A section with the APA level 2 heading Statement of the Problem. This section will include:

  • A discussion about why the research needs to be accomplished clearly describing the technological problem or technical issue that you plan to solve, improve, or change including a discussion about why solving, improving, or changing the situation is important. Be sure to use appropriate, supporting literature.

  • A clear and concise problem statement (one sentence) summarizing the section and clearly identified by the words Problem Statement formatted as a level 2 APA heading

• One or two research questions that will be used to guide the research in the form shown below

Research Question 1: What are the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for entry-level work as a Database Administrator?

Research Question 2: What are the best ways to obtain the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for entry-level work as a Database Administrator?

Refer to the assignment and the assignment’s Rubric on Blackboard for additional criteria.

The paper’s methodology section must be at least two pages long and use a prose writing style. Essentially, this section is a mini-research paper defining and explaining your selected research methodology (e.g., Applied or Action Research (AR), Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research, Deductive Research, Conceptual Research, etc.) and its application to your project.

The methodology section must include:

• At least, five (5) verifiable professional (subject matter experts) or scholarly references

• A discussion about the origin, evolution, and current status (published literature cannot be older than five (5) years) of your selected research methodology and why this methodology is appropriate for technological research

• A discussion of the anticipated field research method or methods that you may use during your research

• A discussion, at the end of the section, describing why your selected methodology is more appropriate than, at least, one other methodology for researching your topic

Refer to the assignment and the assignment’s Rubric on Blackboard for additional assignment criteria.

The literature review is a research paper about your topic using a specific type of a review (argumentative, integrative, historical, methodological, systematic, etc.). This literature review must be at least three pages long written using a prose writing style and a themed (topic sections) presentation approach with as much detail as possible. Depending on your topic, specific examples or literary support may be difficult to find. You may need to use a surrogate (somewhat related) topic in order to complete the literature review. For example, improving the ‘needs assessment’ process in organization XYZ may not yield research results, so you will need to generalize the topic. Generalizing the topic could may require examining research on the value of need assessments, the processes associated with needs assessment, or how to a conduct needs assessment.

The literature review section/paper must include:

• At least eight (8) verifiable professional (subject matter expert) and/or scholarly references published within the past five (5) years

• A statement indicating which type of literature review will be used including why the selected type is more appropriate than at least one other type

• A discussion your topic and structured in accordance with the selected literature review type. This discussion must include an overview of major findings in each study identified in the literature review

• A section summarizing the literature review

Refer to the assignment and the assignment’s Rubric on Blackboard for additional assignment criteria.

The project overview section must contain a high-level discussion (e.g., an outline) of your plan to accomplish your research. This plan must define and explain the critical path items and/or major milestones needed for successful completion of your project in the time allotted. Each critical path item’s and milestone’s discussion must include an anticipated start date and duration as well as the anticipated resources needed.

Do not try to layout your full plan at this point, keep this to one or two paragraphs (a paragraph must be at least three sentences of 10 words or more) for each item or milestone. At this point, you should focus on the big picture.

Hypothetical situation - your project deals with improving the technology needs assessment process in an organization. The process, as presented to you, is weak and requires improvement, but you do not know what the weak points are or how to correct them. Your iterations may include:

This iteration may involve defining the project and gathering requirements. In order to define the project and gather requirements, you anticipate two or three brainstorming sessions and individual interviews with various senior employees. Each brainstorming session is anticipated to last about two hours while interview sessions may only be scheduled for one hour. The session discussions will include identifying current process flow, gathering process requirements, and communication flow. In addition, the iteration will include compiling, analyzing, and reporting the results of each brainstorming and interview session. At this point you can go into a little more detail but not too much…keep this statement to one or two paragraphs.

In this iteration, you expect several one-hour follow up sessions to clarify the project scope along with discussions about the outcomes from the brainstorming sessions. You may plan begin an analysis of the current process by examining the current hardware, software, and documentation for gaps. This analysis may require more in-depth, technical interviews and observing the process in action. Again keep this to one or two paragraphs, I encourage you to focus on the big picture.

This iteration may include the development and presentation of your findings to senior management along with developing a budget and a functional design of the new process. You may need additional follow-up meetings to clarify information. In addition, you should include time for compiling, analyzing, and formatting reports. Lastly, there may be more meetings and discussion prior to full approval of your functional design.

Assuming your functional design and project funding was approved; you may need to develop a more detailed design, select an implementation team, and implement the new process. What will it take to create a more detailed design? Who and how will you select team members? How do anticipate implementing the new process, a phased rollout, all at once, or something else? How do anticipate acclimating people in the new process?

A figure, see Figure 1, showing at least four iterations of your Action Research project’s flow must appear at the end of your proposal. The figure shown here should be used as a template for the information needed in the figure. Remember to revise the information in each of the Iteration number blocks!

Figure 1. Iteration flow diagram

The plan section, as a minimum, is one page long, must use a prose writing style to describe all YOUR planned activities needed to accomplish your first iteration, and must represent approximately two weeks, or a minimum of 40 hours, of activity. THE PLAN HAS TO BE WRITTEN BEFORE ANY ACTION TAKES PLACE!!!

The plan must include:

• What tasks or activities are you planning to accomplish?

  • Description of each anticipated task for the iteration

• How are you going to accomplish each identified task or activity?

  • Description of the resources needed to accomplish each task

• What resources and people are involved in each task or activity?

• What is the estimated duration of each task?

• What is the expected result or objective of each task?

  • Why are you doing the task or activity?

• What assumptions are you making about each task or activity?

Answering all the typical questions of Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How for each task in the plan will provide a good foundation for an effective plan. For example, you are planning meetings; who should be invited and why, what topic(s) will be discussed, what is the purpose of the meeting or what do you intend to achieve, where is the meeting’s location, when is the meeting, and why is this meeting important. Moreover, what are the expected results from the meeting and how do you intend on achieving the results.

If you develop an agenda for the meeting, either the agenda or the contents of the agenda would normally be included as part of the plan.

Suggestion: Take extra time in developing a detailed Plan following the SMART Methodology, if you list five items in your plan, and then you carry those five elements into each activity for comments. For example, in the Plan you say ‘you plan on completing internet research’, then in the Action - you discuss the internet research, in the Outcomes - you list any specific outcomes or analysis resulting from the internet research, and then in the Reflections -you reflect on what you learned as a result of the internet research. The plan sets the stage for the entire iteration.

THIS IS THE PLAN!!!

The action section, as the minimum, is one page long and must represent approximately two weeks, or a minimum of 40 hours, of activity.

This section must describe the activities that actually took place during the iteration, but most importantly, the section must describe YOUR actions/activities during the iteration. For example, your actions included a brainstorming session; who attended (and who did not), was the agenda followed, were there additional items for discussion added, or did the agenda take the meeting in a different direction and what was the duration of the meeting. In some instances, this may be very similar to the meeting minutes.

• What did YOU do? When did YOU do it?

• How long did it take?

• What resources did YOU need?

Any action(s) involving personal communications (e.g., an informal meeting, a hallway discussion or conversation, a telephone call, text message, etc.) used as part of your research requires documenting the participants. This means you must provide the first and last name, email address, phone number, address, and the employer’s name of each person involved in the personal communication. See Appendix A for the contact reporting form. Failure to disclose any or all the contact information may result in your inability to use the personal communication as part of your action research.

This section, as the minimum, is one page long and must represent approximately two weeks, or a minimum of 40 hours, of activity

Observations must include the analysis and outcomes or results of all actions/activities in the iteration with a focus on the analysis and outcomes or results from YOUR actions/activities. For example, your brainstorming session included documenting the information presented by each participant (the action). The observation or outcome from this action would be providing a list of all the brainstorming results or latent feedback from each participant. Additionally, you should include any analysis that would occur because of the brainstorming.

The reflection section, as a minimum, is one page long and must represent approximately two weeks, or a minimum of 40 hours, of activity.

This section is the most important section of your action research paper. The iteration’s reflection section must:

• Examine what went well

• Examine what did not go well

• Explain what actions/processes could be improved

• Provide a self-critique yourself as well as the processes you are applying

• Provide a critique of processes you applied during the iteration

• Identify any restrictions, limitations, and risks associated with the iteration and task accomplishment

  • For example, if one of the key participant was not available to attend the brainstorming session, you may want to think about how you will meet and gather information from that person (especially if the information is important to the process)

Hypothetical example - one on one interview sessions

The Plan would address the - who, what, where, when, why, and how regarding all three of the divisions. Since you would be interviewing three different division representatives, you would create one plan, but have three actions, three observations and possibly three reflections (or one reflection that addresses thoughts about each of the interviews). So it may look like:

The plan may include a one page description of the division representatives (may want to include specific influence), anticipated questions or dialogue, as well as justification why along with the meeting schedule (where, when, how long)

The action section could include a page detailing the interview of each representative (e.g., one page with the interview of the Operations representative, one page of the interview with the Data/Telecom representative, and one page with the interview of the HR representative)

The observation section could include a page detailing the interview of each representative (e.g., one page with the interview outcomes from the Operations representative, one page with the interview outcomes from the Data/Telecom representative, and one page with the interview outcomes from the HR representative)

The reflection section should include your perspective of all three meetings:

• Examine what went well

• Examine what did not go well

• Explain what actions/processes could be improved

• Provide a self-critique yourself as well as the processes you are applying

• Provide a critique of processes you applied during the iteration

• Identify any restrictions, limitations, and risks associated with the iteration and task accomplishment

The Action Research Project requires completing at least four, two-week iterations or approximately 40 days of research.

The last component of your action research paper is a reflective learning statement encompassing your complete experience. The statement must present two aspects of your research. First, the statement must summarize your experiences during the process and, second, the statement must summarize your overall learning during the process. Be sure to include any specific achievements.