ITM 537 Module 1 SLP

Module 1 - SLP

CONTROL STRUCTURES: AUDITING

The purpose of the Session Long Project in TUI University classes is to give you the opportunity to explore the practical side of the Module topic, applied to your experience as user, manager or technology professional. The common thread is personal application, aimed at demonstrating a cumulative knowledge and understanding of the course's material.

In this course, the Project assignments for each Module will involve experiencing and analyzing demo programs or conducting research about existing products related to IS auditing, security auditing and forensics.

Each Module, you'll be given an assignment relevant to the Module's topic. Sometimes it's a single product; sometimes you'll be comparing possibilities. They vary considerably; some are downloadable, some operate on-line. Some are far-reaching, some are fairly lame. But collectively, they will give you a chance to see the range of software that's out there.

Most online demo sites, when we encounter them, will require you to enter a name and an email address by way of registration; if this bothers you, try using a pseudonym and a convenience free email account from Hotmail or Yahoo, or just try some other one. All they want is a place to send a password, generally. It is also possible that you will receive follow-up inquiries from sites that you have visited; if this concerns you, please read the Note on Contacts from Visited Websites.

It is essential that if you are going to download anything from the Internet, that you have adequate virus protection and anti-adware/spyware screening on your systems. In fact, it's so essential that if you haven't been through the exercise of checking out your protections, you must take the steps described in the Note for Those Participating in Any Downloading Exercise for TUI ITM Classesimmediately, before carrying out any of the Project assignments for this class.

Each Module, your SLP assignment will consist of filling out a report on your "adventures in software/control tools", summarizing what you looked at and offering to the degree possible some critical evaluation of it. You'll also be invited to reflect on your cumulative software experiences (a very important section of your SLP assignment).

Cautionary note: if you're computing in an environment where you can't easily or at all download things to look at them, let your professor know and we'll help you work out an alternative.

For this Module, we'll evaluate auditing software available at http://www.download.com. In the search box, type "auditing" and you will see more than 300 products related to the auditing process. Please pick only three and fill out the table with your review.

You are to:

• go to http://www.download.com
• Here you'll find links to a number of free downloadable programs that address various aspects of auditing. You are not restricted to demos available through this one website; if you know of any other relevant software packages at any point, you may substitute them with the permission of your Professor.
• Try to download and make use of 3 of these utilities (4 if you would like some extra credit);
• Then write up your results and summarize what you've learned. To expedite reporting your project assignments in several of these modules, we've prepared a grid that you can use. You can copy the grid and paste it into your project report; the first row has an example. Once it's filled out, all you need to do is put on the appropriate cover page and file it by the Monday deadline.

If you have any questions about how this works, check with your instructor.

Your assignment will be graded according to the MSITM SLP Grading Rubric, which aligns with the following expectations. (To see the rubric, go to Assessments>Rubrics. Click the arrow next to the rubric name and choose Preview.) 

SLP Assignment Expectations

Length: Follow the number of pages required in the assignment excluding cover page and references. Each page should have about 300 words.

Your assignment will be evaluated based on the Rubric.