CO1109/CO1909辅导、讲解Java, C#编程语言、辅导IT professionals
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CO1109/CO1909
Assignment 2
15
I. Objective
Inspired by a real-life case, the students are introduced to a kind of a non-technical
task that IT professionals often perform in practice. The assignment develops the
students’ skills in problem solving, analysis and reporting.
II. Important Dates:
1. Starting date Thursday 28
th February 2019
2. Submission Deadline 15th March 2019, 3 pm
III. Policy on Plagiarism:
Department of Computer Science Rules The Department operates the principle
that both the plagiarised and the plagiariser are equally guilty. Students are
therefore responsible for ensuring that their work is not plagiarised, and note that
this includes ensuring that any work stored on the departmental and/or university
computer systems is suitably protected.
Note that the Department reserves the right to exact any penalties which are in
accordance with the University's code of practice on plagiarism.
The Department has its own set of regulations concerning plagiarism which can be
found in the Study Guide of any module. The Department takes this issue very
seriously, and students should note that on occasions in the past some very serious
penalties have indeed been applied, including reduction of module mark to zero,
and overall reduction of degree class.
Additionally: Plagiarizing any part of the assignment will result in getting
ZERO in the whole assignment.
IV. Assignment #2
Imagine that the company you work for is about to buy a software product for a new
application. After researching the market, it has been decided that there are 2
alternatives: a commercial product (Product A) and a cloud-based product (Product
B). Your manager has asked you to perform a comparative study of the 5-year costs of
the 2 products, based on the variation of number of users that will have access to the
application and prepare a power-point presentation that summarizes your findings and
conclusions.
122
After contacting the products’ vendors, talking to your colleagues and researching the
market you have identified the following facts:
Product A
Product A consists of 4 components (subproducts) that are all required for the new
application, however, they are licensed independently:
Component A1 that is licensed on a per user basis, costing ￡80 per User that
will have access to the application.
Component A2 that is licensed on a per user basis, costing ￡120 per User that
will have access to the application.
Component A3 that is licensed based on the number of CPUs that are installed
on the application server that the product will run, costing ￡15000 per installed
CPU.
Component A4 that is licensed based on the number of CPUs that are installed
on the application server that the product will run, costing ￡10000 per installed
CPU.
It is estimated that in order to be able to perform adequately in the production
environment, Product A requires 2 CPUs for up to 300 Users, 4 CPUs for 301 to 600
Users and 8 CPUs for 601 to 1000 Users.
Additionally, the new application will have a disaster recovery site for which the cost
for product A is calculated as 40% of the price of the license for the production site
when, however, the production site license is calculated with no users accessing the
product. Note that, given its purpose, the disaster site still needs to have the
appropriate processing power in order to be able to accommodate the same number of
users as the production site.
Moreover, starting from the second year, for Product A, the bank will have to pay the
product vendor an annual 20% maintenance fee over the final product license price
(where the final price includes both the production and the disaster recovery sites).
The implementation/customizations fee that the vendor will apply for Product A is
fixed and equal to ￡80 000. Moreover, starting from the second year, the vendor will
apply an annual 10% maintenance fee over the implementation/customizations fee.
Product B
The cloud-based product (Product B) is subscription-based, starts from the first
year and costs ￡15 000 per year, per CPU installed on the application server that the
product will run.
It is also estimated that in order to be able to perform adequately in the production
environment, Product B requires 4 CPUs for up to 400 Users, 6 CPUs for 401 to 600
Users and 8 CPUs for 601 to 1000 Users. There is no cost for the disaster site for
Product B.
The implementation, once-off, fee that the vendor will apply for Product A is fixed
and equal to ￡60000. There is no annual maintenance fee over the implementation fee
for Product B. 3
Hardware Costs
The acquisition cost of each CPU that is installed on the application server in the
production and disaster sites is ￡5000. The CPU cost has also a 12% annual
maintenance fee which starts from the second year.
Based on the facts above and in order to prepare the presentation to your manager you
should perform the following tasks:
Devise the mathematical formulas that calculate the 5-year costs for each of the
products above (the 5-year costs should include elements such as the production
site license costs, the disaster site license costs and the maintenance or
subscription costs)
Based on the previous formulas and using MS Excel or by developing your own
application, implement the formulas you devised and also build the following
diagrams/graphs:
- The first diagram will show (in the same diagram) the 5-year costs of each of
the products as a variation of the number of users, in other words the vertical
axis is the 5-year cost (in ￡) , whereas the horizontal axis is the number of
users ranging from 50 to 1000, in intervals of 50 users.
- The second diagram will show the 5-year cost difference of the two products
as a variation of the number of users, in other words the vertical axis is the 5
year cost difference (in ￡) (Product A 5-year cost minus Product B 5-year
cost), whereas the horizontal axis is the number of users ranging from 50 to
1000 in intervals of 50 users).
-assuming that the usage of Product A will provide the bank an annual profit
of ￡85 000, provide a graph in which the vertical axis is the Payback Period
for the investment in Product A, whereas the horizontal axis is the number of
users ranging from 50 to 1000, in intervals of 50 users. Note: in calculating the
PP you should consider only the initial CAPEX investment for Product A, not
the 5-Year TCO.
o Prepare a concise power point presentation to your manager (in a presentation
form suitable for your manager). The slides of the presentation should include at
least the following:
o the facts you have identified (already described above),
o the graphs you have prepared (as defined above)
o your own conclusions from this analysis you performed i.e. what does your
analysis show that your manager needs to be aware of e.g., which of the 2
products is more cost-effective and in which cases? If you wish, you may
include other calculations in order to reach conclusions on the comparison
(e.g. the 7-year or the 10-year costs of each product)
o A list and brief explanations of additional cost factors (at least 4 of them)
that you believe the previous analysis does not take into account, but should
nevertheless be considered in order to be able to calculate with more
precision the final total 5 year-cost of the application. For example, the cost
of telecommunication lines is an example of such factor.4
Notes:
1. If you use MS Excel to implement your formulas you may have to use the Excel
“IF” function for which you can find several resources online (depending on
which MS Excel version you will use). You would also need to create charts in
Excel, a task for which you can also find several resources online.
2. If you prefer not to use MS Excel, you may choose any widely applicable
programming language (e.g. Java, C#) and user interface technology (e.g.
browser-based or other) to implement the application (as long as it runs in a
Windows XP or later OS and does not require any special additional software (or
even hardware)). Please ask if in doubt on what programing language to use.
3. The assignment will be marked according to the following criteria:
Criteria Weight
Formulas Completeness and Correctness 30%
Formulas and Graphs Implementation Quality, Completeness
and Correctness (either in MS Excel or other)
35%
Quality of the Power Point report contents and presentation
elements
35%
V. Submission Notes:
Late submissions of the assignment report and project files (within 24 hours) will
automatically lose 50% of the mark.
Late submissions (more than 24 hours) are not accepted. In case of emergency,
illness, etc., late work may be accepted without penalty, provided that enough
supporting documents are submitted.
Submissions should be made electronically containing the following deliverables:
1. The .xls file with the formulas implementation or the source code you
have developed in which case the “byte” code and the necessary scripts
and a file with instructions on how to set up and “run” it in a Windows
XP or later OS should also be included.
2. The report (in .ppt format) that you would have delivered to your
manager.
All the above should be bundled in a .zip file that should be named
Assignment2.zip
CO1109/CO1909
Assignment 2
15
I. Objective
Inspired by a real-life case, the students are introduced to a kind of a non-technical
task that IT professionals often perform in practice. The assignment develops the
students’ skills in problem solving, analysis and reporting.
II. Important Dates:
1. Starting date Thursday 28
th February 2019
2. Submission Deadline 15th March 2019, 3 pm
III. Policy on Plagiarism:
Department of Computer Science Rules The Department operates the principle
that both the plagiarised and the plagiariser are equally guilty. Students are
therefore responsible for ensuring that their work is not plagiarised, and note that
this includes ensuring that any work stored on the departmental and/or university
computer systems is suitably protected.
Note that the Department reserves the right to exact any penalties which are in
accordance with the University's code of practice on plagiarism.
The Department has its own set of regulations concerning plagiarism which can be
found in the Study Guide of any module. The Department takes this issue very
seriously, and students should note that on occasions in the past some very serious
penalties have indeed been applied, including reduction of module mark to zero,
and overall reduction of degree class.
Additionally: Plagiarizing any part of the assignment will result in getting
ZERO in the whole assignment.
IV. Assignment #2
Imagine that the company you work for is about to buy a software product for a new
application. After researching the market, it has been decided that there are 2
alternatives: a commercial product (Product A) and a cloud-based product (Product
B). Your manager has asked you to perform a comparative study of the 5-year costs of
the 2 products, based on the variation of number of users that will have access to the
application and prepare a power-point presentation that summarizes your findings and
conclusions.
122
After contacting the products’ vendors, talking to your colleagues and researching the
market you have identified the following facts:
Product A
Product A consists of 4 components (subproducts) that are all required for the new
application, however, they are licensed independently:
Component A1 that is licensed on a per user basis, costing ￡80 per User that
will have access to the application.
Component A2 that is licensed on a per user basis, costing ￡120 per User that
will have access to the application.
Component A3 that is licensed based on the number of CPUs that are installed
on the application server that the product will run, costing ￡15000 per installed
CPU.
Component A4 that is licensed based on the number of CPUs that are installed
on the application server that the product will run, costing ￡10000 per installed
CPU.
It is estimated that in order to be able to perform adequately in the production
environment, Product A requires 2 CPUs for up to 300 Users, 4 CPUs for 301 to 600
Users and 8 CPUs for 601 to 1000 Users.
Additionally, the new application will have a disaster recovery site for which the cost
for product A is calculated as 40% of the price of the license for the production site
when, however, the production site license is calculated with no users accessing the
product. Note that, given its purpose, the disaster site still needs to have the
appropriate processing power in order to be able to accommodate the same number of
users as the production site.
Moreover, starting from the second year, for Product A, the bank will have to pay the
product vendor an annual 20% maintenance fee over the final product license price
(where the final price includes both the production and the disaster recovery sites).
The implementation/customizations fee that the vendor will apply for Product A is
fixed and equal to ￡80 000. Moreover, starting from the second year, the vendor will
apply an annual 10% maintenance fee over the implementation/customizations fee.
Product B
The cloud-based product (Product B) is subscription-based, starts from the first
year and costs ￡15 000 per year, per CPU installed on the application server that the
product will run.
It is also estimated that in order to be able to perform adequately in the production
environment, Product B requires 4 CPUs for up to 400 Users, 6 CPUs for 401 to 600
Users and 8 CPUs for 601 to 1000 Users. There is no cost for the disaster site for
Product B.
The implementation, once-off, fee that the vendor will apply for Product A is fixed
and equal to ￡60000. There is no annual maintenance fee over the implementation fee
for Product B. 3
Hardware Costs
The acquisition cost of each CPU that is installed on the application server in the
production and disaster sites is ￡5000. The CPU cost has also a 12% annual
maintenance fee which starts from the second year.
Based on the facts above and in order to prepare the presentation to your manager you
should perform the following tasks:
Devise the mathematical formulas that calculate the 5-year costs for each of the
products above (the 5-year costs should include elements such as the production
site license costs, the disaster site license costs and the maintenance or
subscription costs)
Based on the previous formulas and using MS Excel or by developing your own
application, implement the formulas you devised and also build the following
diagrams/graphs:
- The first diagram will show (in the same diagram) the 5-year costs of each of
the products as a variation of the number of users, in other words the vertical
axis is the 5-year cost (in ￡) , whereas the horizontal axis is the number of
users ranging from 50 to 1000, in intervals of 50 users.
- The second diagram will show the 5-year cost difference of the two products
as a variation of the number of users, in other words the vertical axis is the 5
year cost difference (in ￡) (Product A 5-year cost minus Product B 5-year
cost), whereas the horizontal axis is the number of users ranging from 50 to
1000 in intervals of 50 users).
-assuming that the usage of Product A will provide the bank an annual profit
of ￡85 000, provide a graph in which the vertical axis is the Payback Period
for the investment in Product A, whereas the horizontal axis is the number of
users ranging from 50 to 1000, in intervals of 50 users. Note: in calculating the
PP you should consider only the initial CAPEX investment for Product A, not
the 5-Year TCO.
o Prepare a concise power point presentation to your manager (in a presentation
form suitable for your manager). The slides of the presentation should include at
least the following:
o the facts you have identified (already described above),
o the graphs you have prepared (as defined above)
o your own conclusions from this analysis you performed i.e. what does your
analysis show that your manager needs to be aware of e.g., which of the 2
products is more cost-effective and in which cases? If you wish, you may
include other calculations in order to reach conclusions on the comparison
(e.g. the 7-year or the 10-year costs of each product)
o A list and brief explanations of additional cost factors (at least 4 of them)
that you believe the previous analysis does not take into account, but should
nevertheless be considered in order to be able to calculate with more
precision the final total 5 year-cost of the application. For example, the cost
of telecommunication lines is an example of such factor.4
Notes:
1. If you use MS Excel to implement your formulas you may have to use the Excel
“IF” function for which you can find several resources online (depending on
which MS Excel version you will use). You would also need to create charts in
Excel, a task for which you can also find several resources online.
2. If you prefer not to use MS Excel, you may choose any widely applicable
programming language (e.g. Java, C#) and user interface technology (e.g.
browser-based or other) to implement the application (as long as it runs in a
Windows XP or later OS and does not require any special additional software (or
even hardware)). Please ask if in doubt on what programing language to use.
3. The assignment will be marked according to the following criteria:
Criteria Weight
Formulas Completeness and Correctness 30%
Formulas and Graphs Implementation Quality, Completeness
and Correctness (either in MS Excel or other)
35%
Quality of the Power Point report contents and presentation
elements
35%
V. Submission Notes:
Late submissions of the assignment report and project files (within 24 hours) will
automatically lose 50% of the mark.
Late submissions (more than 24 hours) are not accepted. In case of emergency,
illness, etc., late work may be accepted without penalty, provided that enough
supporting documents are submitted.
Submissions should be made electronically containing the following deliverables:
1. The .xls file with the formulas implementation or the source code you
have developed in which case the “byte” code and the necessary scripts
and a file with instructions on how to set up and “run” it in a Windows
XP or later OS should also be included.
2. The report (in .ppt format) that you would have delivered to your
manager.
All the above should be bundled in a .zip file that should be named
Assignment2.zip