Course Project

The project for this course is really one large paper (approximately 12-14 pages, single-spaced) broken into four parts. The project will use the precepts of Integrated Reflective Practice (IRP) as you write a series of papers that apply to information assurance and your work place. Write to the subjects requested below in terms of the six IRP Areas of Management Practice, as relevant:

1. Measurement and Process Improvement
2. Values-Based Leadership
3. Innovation Through Information
4. Financial and Economic Resources
5. Customers, Markets, Sales, and Marketing
6. Human Resources and Organizational Relationships

Be sure to follow the guidelines in the Course Logistics Overview page, particularly those items related to assignment format and the cover page.

Deliverable 1

Deliverable 1 will be a 3-4 page, single-spaced annotated list of Web sites, journals, e-mail lists, seminal papers, etc. that relate to information security in your discipline or workplace — which might be based upon your current work or even your future professional aspirations! For example, one might choose either “Network Engineer” or “Health Records Compliance Officer” as the discipline of choice.

Put this information together as if you were providing it to your manager, such as the CIO, CEO, CISO, or board chair of your organization. Don’t just list a bunch of resources; provide an introduction and a capsule summary of what each provides, its usefulness, etc. Some of the resources might be oriented towards management, some may be purely technical. Relate to IRP where possible. You may wish to break things up by subject area for clarity.

In an effort to keep anyone from feeling cast adrift, kick around some ideas with your classmates during the first week of the project (i.e., Week 2) about just what this means — i.e., what is the relationship between the areas of management practice, your workplace, and reference materials? Use the discussion forum for Deliverable 1 to exchange some ideas. This is not intended to result in a template that you all have to follow but, instead, to really just get your creative juices flowing. The instructor will monitor the discussions and may pipe in. This is a great opportunity to help each other and learn another perspective.

There should be no problem coming up with three or more full pages. The cover sheet, references, and any tables or figures do not count towards the page count.

This deliverable is due at the end of Week 3.

Deliverable 2

Deliverable 2 is a 4-5 page, single-spaced paper that provides an opportunity for you to share some war stories. Discuss a project in which you have been involved where information security was not taken into account in the design process. What were the results? Did this cause a problem? If so, what problem and how was it resolved? Was this lack of forethought not a problem when you thought that it might be? Was there a project where InfoSec was added later? How did it work out? Include some relevant resources and/or references to strengthen your case.

This project is fairly open-ended. If this topic isn’t an exact fit, see if you can adapt the idea to your situation. Write your paper as if it were an honest, after-action report to your CIO, CEO, or CISO. Sanitize the information as much as you’d like! There is no need to include any company confidential information.

Follow the same general instructions as for Deliverable 1 and use the discussion forum for Deliverable 2 to kick around ideas during Week 4.

This deliverable is due at the end of Week 5.

Deliverable 3

Deliverable 3 is a 4-5 page, single-spaced paper describing how you might design cybersecurity considerations into a real project at your workplace. Start by defining your workplace and the target project. Then describe the information aspects, where you might want to consider adding protection or improving it, how you would justify the return-on-investment and/or cost-benefit of adding security, determining how “much” security is necessary, the impact of your security measures on productivity, system efficiency, and usability, etc. If you don’t have a workplace situation that lends itself easily to this topic, see if you can use a colleague’s workplace as a case study, apply it to a former workplace as if you were returning as a consultant, or create a fictitious project/company. The important thing is to write it, as before, as if you were addressing your CIO, CEO, CISO, etc. (If you’re still having trouble finding a scenario, drop the instructor an e-mail and work something out).

Follow the same instructions as for Deliverable 1 and use the discussion forum for Deliverable 3 to kick around ideas during Week 6.

This deliverable is due at the end of Week 7.

Deliverable 4

Prepare a presentation containing the high points of your Deliverable 3 paper, as if you were giving a 5-10 minute briefing to professional colleagues. This portion of the assignment will be posted to the Course Project Deliverable 4 discussion forum for class viewing and comment during Week 9.

You can be as creative as you’d like with this. At a minimum, prepare a PowerPoint (or equivalent) presentation. Refrain from using fancy effects in your presentation; use bullets and do not write essays and/or lengthy paragraphs in your slides. The file format of the presentation as delivered to the class must be one that is commonly available, such as PowerPoint (.ppt or .pptx) or PDF.

Alternatively, you can try to use other media option. Try narrating the presentation with a tool such as Screencast-O-Matic (Links to an external site.) (or in PowerPoint (Links to an external site.), etc.), or create an audio, video, or interactive presentation that you upload to the MyMedia (Links to an external site.) (pdf) section of the course.

If you have other ideas, feel free to run them by the instructor.

The Course Project Deliverable 4 discussion forum is intended to wrap all of this up. After you post Deliverable 4 in the forum, each of you should view each others presentations, then react and comment.

Please contact the instructor with any questions, comments, or concerns.