Reference no: EM131453222

Term Paper Assignment- An Analysis of the Secom Case

Description

Secom - Managing Security in a Risky World is one of your required texts. It details the decision environment related to cybersecurity and in many ways illustrates the struggle between security and operations that has been discussed in your texts.

For this paper, I would like for you to read the case completely and answer the following using the materials in the case, the text and lectures, and the resources that I have provided to justify your answers:

1. Discuss the organization.

a. What business is it in?
b. What are its strengths and weaknesses?
c. What are their opportunites?
d. Who are their customers and what do they have to do to satisfy them?

2. Discuss the issue and decision factors.

a. What is the decision to be made in the case?
b. What facts are relevant to a solution? How are the relevant to the problem?
c. What are the decision criteria?

3. Discuss the alternative solutions.

a. What are the alternative solutions?
b. What is your evaluation of each alternative given the decision criteria? What are the pros and cons of each? (Back this up with some metrics, analytics, justifications from case, etc.)
c. Which solution do you think is best? Why? (Again, make a case here using facts!)

4. Describe the implementation of your solution.

a. What would your plan of action be to implement the solution? (Answer this by outlining your plan into who, what, where, when, why, and how.)
b. What do you think the results will be? Why? (One last time, you have to make a case for this using facts and research.)

So your paper should consist of five sections:

1. Executive Summary (Very brief summary of sections 2-5)
2. Introduction (Addresses Section 1 above)
3. Problem Description (Addresses Section 2 above)
4. Alternative Solutions (Addresses Section 3 above)
5. Solution Implementation (Addresses Section 4 above)
6. Conclusion (Summarizes sections 2-5 in more detail)

Some points of clarification.

1. There is no minimum or maximum page count. You are in graduate school. The paper should be as long as it needs to be for you to fully address sections above.

2. Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, 1" margins, double spaced.

3. APA formatting for all references in text and for the reference section (see the references section if you need help here.)

4. Be smart with how you construct your paper with respect to headings. If you give me 6 level one headings, it will make it much more difficult for me to discern whether or not you have addressed each area. Instead use the 6 level one headings, and answer each question within a level 2 heading dedicated to the issue that you are addressing.

5. There are case analysis and writing resources for you in the resources section.

Article: Secom: Managing Information Security in a Risky World by F. WARREN MCFARLAN, ROBERT D. AUSTIN, JUNKO USUBA and MASAKO EGAWA.