Examples of Courses Being Taught from this Material


As stated previously, this handbook is largely a result of the following three courses that I have developed and taught to support the "Architectures and Intergration of Information Systems " Track (it is a conceptual track, it may or may not exist in current university programs):

The objective of this  "conceptual track" is to prepare IS professionals/students  to  plan,  architect and integrate modern information systems. Architectures and integrations require a practical synthesis of issues at several levels: business level (e.g., business process re-engineering), application level (e.g., enterprise application integration), middleware level (e.g., use of middleware plaatforms to architect and integrate applications), and network level (e.g., network architectures and interconnectivity, integration of wireless with wirelined networks). These courses cover all these topics. Many students from business as well as engineering schools have suffered through these courses  and have gone on to live happier lives --  others slept through them and ...

In addition, I have combined some of these courses into other courses. Here are examples

There is, of course, a security course:

Details of these courses are given later on in this page.
For more details and support materials for these courses, contact me at aumar1@amjadumar.com.


Partial List of Courses Taught at other Universities that use Modules of this Handbook

This handbook is not complete yet but already is being used by almost a dozen universities.  The current email activity is indicating a dozen more universities starting in Fall 2002. Not bad for work in progress. My gratitude to the early adopters and their very valuaebale feedback.

 I am sorry that I have not been able to post everything I know (there are not enough hours in a day!) but will start doing it more dilligently.  The courses being offered fall into the following broad categories:
 

a).eCommerce and eBusiness Technologies Courses. Most of the activitity is on variants of this course. This  text material has been also used  for corporate training (I am not sure if I can give out names), professional certificate programs in eCommerce,  and "Executive MBA Programs" at universities.Most of these programs use the following Modules:

b). Distributed computing and client/server computing courses. Many universities are using the Handbook Modules for a more up-to-date coverage of theC/S computing courses.  Examples are: :  The Modules most commonly used in these courses are:


c). Additional Courses. Some intersting patterns are emerging about courses that augmnet texts by using these Modules:

If you want me to post information about your course here, please send me an email at aumar1@amjadumar.com.



COURSE 1: Ebusiness/Ecommerce Systems: Applications and Technologies

Description: Ecommerce/ebusiness (EC/EB) are changing the landscape of business. This course introduces the key building blocks of EC/EB and their interrelationships in the evolving digital economy. It starts with a review of eBusiness strategies and application models and then discusses the enabling technologies that are specific to eCommerce and eBusiness. Topics include EB application models such as trading through electronic marketplaces, outsourcing through service providers (e.g., network and application service providers), partnering through virtual corporations, and integration through portals. These models rely heavily on the IT infrastructure as enabling technologies. This course concentrates on the role of enabling technologies in ecommerce/ebusiness (i.e., web and XML, web-based platforms for e-ommerce, B2B trade, mobile applications, XML standards for EC/EB, security, and management considerations for ecommerce). The course concludes with a discussion of security and management issues. Several real life examples and case studies will be reviewed in student led discussion sessions.

Prerequisites
1. Basic course in IS/IT with some backround in databases and object-orientation
 2. Some knowledge of Ecommerce desirable but not required
 

Course Text:

1. Umar, A. "eBusiness and Third Generation Distributed Systems Handbook", available at www.amjadumar.com, selected modules (Overview, Applications, Middleware, Platforms, Management)

2. Recommended: Kalakota, R. and Robinson, M., "e-Business 2.0", Addison-Wesley

Course Grade:

Two projects (200 Points)

One Examination- Take home (100 Points)

Total: 300 points

Course Outline Legend:

U-Mn-Ct, indicates Umar, Module name, Chapter t

K, Ct, indicates Kalakota, chapter t

PART I: Ebusiness- Strategies and Application Session 1; Introduction and ebusiness strategies (K, Ch.1,2, U-Applications-C1)

Session 2: E-business applications and models: CRM, emarkets, portals, application service providers) – (K- 3-6, U-Applications-C2)

Session 3: Application service providers, ERP, – (K- Ch 7-8, U-Applications-C2)

Session 4: SCM, e-procurement, Methodology (K. ch. 9, 10, U-Applications-C2, C3)

PART II: Enabling Infrastructure Session 5: Infrastructure Overview – Internet and Web (U-Applications-C4, handouts)

Session 6: Web and XML for EB (U-Middleware-C2)

Session 7: Mobile systems and mobile ecommerce (U-Platforms-C1)

Session 8; EC middleware (purchasing, e-payment, EC transactions, EDI) (U-Platforms-C2)

Session 9: B2B platforms, standards (ebXML, Rosettanet, Biztalk) and trends (U-Platforms-C3)

Session 10: Platforms for Multimedia and Collaborative Services (U-Platforms-C4)

PART III: Management and Security Issues in Ebusiness Session 11: EB-Management issues (U-Management-C1)

Session 12: EB-Security (U-Management-C3)

Session 13: Security solutions :for EB (U-Management-C4)

Session 14: Trends and wrapup
 


COURSE 2: Networks and Distributed Systems

Description: Distributed Computing Systems (DCS) are used to connect many different and independent business units, computers, databases and applications over networks to support business activities. This course focuses on networks in the Internet world and associated middleware services such as the Web that are at the core of 3G Distributed Systems. The first part of the course highlights the role of networks in modern enterprises and discusses topics such as communication network technologies, network architectures, Internet and its variants (public Internet, Intranet, Extranets), broadband networks, and wireless networks (cellular networks, satellites, wireless LANs). The second part of the course discusses how enterprise applications and databases are interconnected through middleware services and covers topics such as web-based distributed computing and client/server systems, distributed object technologies, XML-Web Services, .NET, J2EE, and distributaed data/transaction processing. The course concludes with a discussion of networks and systems management issues. The topics of this course continually evolve to reflect the latest business and technical trends. The course is intended for students who to learn how communication networks are being used in modern business settings.

Prerequisite:  Basic course in IS/IT with some backround in databases and object-orientation

Course Text: Umar, A. "eBusiness and Third Generation Distributed Systems Handbook", available at www.amjadumar.com, selected modules:

Additional Material (main reference): Course Grade: : COURSE OUTLINE

Legend: U-MnCk, indicates Umar, Module n, Chapter k

PART I: Networks in the Internet World

Session 1: Introduction to distributed systems (U-Overview-C1)

Session 2: Overview of Network Technologies (U-Networks-C1)

Session 3: Local and Wide Area Networks (U-Networks-C2)

Session 4: Network Architectures and Network Interconnectivity (U-Networks-C3)

Session 5: Wireless Networks (U-Networks-C4 and handouts)

Session 6: Broadband Networks (U-Networks-C4 and handouts)

Session 7: Internet, Intranets, Extranets, and IP Networks (U-Networks-C5)
 
 

PART II: Distributed systems Middleware Services Session 8: Interconnectivity through Middleware (U-Middleware-C1)

Session 9: Web and XML (U-Middleware-C2)

Session 10:: Object orientation, distributed objects, Web Services and Dot Net (U-Middleware-C3, U-Tutorials-C2)

Session 11: Distributed Databases and Transactions (U-Middleware-C4, U-Tutorials-C3)

PART III: Management and Support Issues Session 12: Administration and network planning (U-Management-C1)

Session 13: Networks and Systems Management (U-Management-C2)

Session 14: Trends and wrapup



COURSE 3: Enterprise Architectures and Integration

Description: Integrating business applications across all business functions and also between companies provide large benefits to organizations. Commercial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems promise tight integration but they prove to be technically difficult because of their breadth. The course is roughly divided into three phases. The first phase concentrates on business process and enterprise applications. The topics discussed in this phase include a discussion of business processes, business process reengineering, and ERP systems. The relationships and flows between ERP and other EB applications and models such as CRMs, e-procurement, SCMs, emarkets, portals, mobile commerce, ASPs are established. The second and third phases emphasize how these applications can be architected and integrated by using the modern IT infrastructure. Topics include the role of IT infrastructure, solution architectures, analysis of commercially available enterprise application integration (EAI) platforms, strategies to deal with legacy applications, and integration versus migration tradeoffs. The course is intended for students who are interested in understanding the management as well as technical issues involved in enterprise-wide application architectures and integration.

Prerequisites Recommended: Course 1 and  Course 2, or one as a prereq the other as coreq.

Course Texts (required):

1. Umar, A. "eBusiness and 3G Distributed Systems Handbook", available from www.amjadumar.com. Three modules required: Applications, Architectures, Integration

2. Also Recommended: Jacka, I. and Keller, J: "Business Process Mapping: Improving Customer Satisfaction", 2001

Course Grade: Three Projects – Given a company, work through the following projects (100 points each) Project 1: Develop a business strategy and enterprise integration plan

Project 2: Develop a solution architecture for a new business unit

Project 3: Develop an integration approach that unites the new systems with the existing systems

Course Outline Legend:

Jacka-Ct, indicates Jacka, Chapter t

Umar-Mn-Ct, indicates Umar, Module n, Chapter t

PART I: Business Process Reengineering, Strategies, and Applications Session 1: Strategic issues in enterprise architectures and integration (Jacka-C1, Umar-Applications-C1)

Session 2: Businessm process modeling and Process Mapping (Jacka-C2-C4 or outside reading)

Session 3: ERPs and their role in enterprise architectures and integration (readings, Umar-Applications-C2)

Session 4: Review of E-business applications and models: CRM, emarkets, portals, application service providers) – (Umar-Applications-C2)

Session 5: Application Engineering/Re-engineering Methodology (Umar-Applications- C3)

PART II: Application Architectures and Integration Session 6: The role of enabling IT Infrastructure - Internet, Web, XML, platforms (Umar-Applications-C4)

Session 7 Solution Architectures – Putting the pieces together (Umar-Architectures-C1)

Session 8; Enterprise Application Architectures: (Umar-Architectures-C2)

Session 9: Enterprise Data Architectures (Umar-Architectures-C3)

PART III: Application Architectures and Integration Session 10: Application Integration Strategies (Umar-Integration-C1)

Session 11:: Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) Platforms (Umar-Integration-C2)

Session 12 : Data Warehouses for Enterprise Integration (Umar-Integration –C3)

Session 13: Migration stargies and approaches (Umar-Integration-C4)

Session 14: EB-Management issues (U-Management-C1)
 


COURSE 4: Web Technologies, Protocols, and Applications

Course Description: This course introduces the main concepts of Web technologies with special emphasis on contemporary web design issues. The topics of this course continually evolve as new web technologies and protocols emerge. The course starts with an overview of key Web software technologies (Web clients, Web proxies, Web servers, XML and its variants, web gateways, and cookies) with emphasis on Next Generation Web (i.e., object orientation of Web). Emerging approaches to build web applications will be reviewed to illustrate practical applications. The students will then learn HTTP protocol design and its interaction with TCP/IP. The course stresses the role of web in supporting the modern large scale applications by using a variety of middleware components. Emerging areas to be discussed include multimedia over the web, wireless web, web mining and building next generation web applications with XML. Students will develop a simple web server and will investigate special areas of interest to them.

Prerequisites
1.: Basic course in IS/IT with some backround in databases and object-orientation
 2. Some knowledge of network principles
 

Texts:

Course Outline

Legend:

K: Balachander Krishnamurthy and Jennifer Rexford "Web Protocols and Practice: HTTP/1.1, Networking Protocols, Caching, and Traffic Measurement"

U: A. Umar, "Third Generation Distributed Systems and eBusiness" selected chapters (available at www.amjadumar.com). U-MxCy means module x, chapter y .

Session 1: Introduction and overview of Web technologies and protocols (K1, U-Middleware-C2)

Session 2: Basic Web software (Web Clients, Web Proxies, Web Servers, cookies) (K2, K3, K4)

Session 3: Web Protocols: HTTP Protocol Design and Description (K5, K6, U-Tutorials-C4)

Session 4: HTTP/1.1, HTTP/TCP Interaction. (K7, K8)

Session 5: Middleware principles for Web (U-Middleware-C1)

Session 6: Next Generation Web - XML and its variants, servlets, JSPs, XSPs; Object-oriented Web, DOM, RDF) (U-Middleware-C2)

Session 7: Next generation web applications, XML-web services (e.g. SOAP), CORBA, and EJBs (U-Middleware-C3, U-Tutorials-C5)

Session 8: Data and transaction management in Web environments (U-Middleware-C4)

Session 9: Web-application architectures, component-based architectures with J2EE and .Net (U-Architectures-C1, C2)

Session 10: Web architecture implementation examples by using components and EJBs(U-Architectures-C2, C4)

Session 11: Web Engineering and XML Processing (U-Tutorials-C4 )

Session 12: Web Traffic Measurement and Workload Characterization (K 10)

Session 13: Web Caching and Delivering Multimedia Streams (K11, K12)

Session 14: Research Perspectives in Caching, Measurement, and Protocols. Case studies and examples (K13, K14, K15)
 


COURSE 5: e-Business and Third Generation Distributed Systems

Description: This course discusses eBusiness from a distributed systems point of view and shows how the EB applications can be architected and integrated by using the modern IT infrastructure. The course consists of four parts: applications, enabling IT infrastructure, architectures, and integration. The first part of the course quickly reviews common EB application models such as customer relationship management systems (CRMs), e-procurement and online purchasing, supply chain management (SCM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, emarkets, portals, mobile commerce, and application service providers (ASPs). The second part discusses the enabling IT infrastructure with focus on modern middleware services and platforms such as web-XML services, remote data access, mobile computing, and ecommerce/ebusiness platforms. The course concludes by discussing how the new applications can be architected and integrated with existing, including legacy, applications by using the component-based platforms such as Sun’ J2EE and Microsoft’s Dot Net. The emphasis of this course is on synthesis and interrelationships between the key building blocks of modern distributed systems and how they can be used to architect and integrate ebusiness applications. Several real life examples and case studies will be reviewed in student led discussion sessions and students will be assigned a project to develop integrated architecture of a real life corporation. .

Prerequisites
1.: Basic course in IS/IT with some backround in databases and object-orientation
 2. Some knowledge of Ecommerce desirable but not required

Course Text:

Umar, A. "eBusiness and Distributed Systems Handbook", available at www.amjadumar.com, selected modules (Overview, Applications, Middleware, Platforms, Integration). See the attached outline (Required)

Course Grade:

Two projects (200 Points)

One Examination- Take home (100 Points)

Total: 300 points

Course Outline

Legend:

U-Mn-Ct, indicates Umar, Module name, Chapter t

PART I: Ebusiness- Strategies and Application Overview

Session 1; Introduction and overview of eBusiness (U-Overview-C1, U-Applications-C1)

Session 2: E-business applications and models: CRM, eMarkets, portals, application service providers) – (U-Applications-C2)

Session 3: ERP, SCM, Enterprise Application Methodology – (U-Applications-C2-C3)

PART II: Enabling Infrastructure

Session 4: The role of IT Infrastructure and Middleware Services (U-Applications-C4; U-Middleware-C1)

Session 5: Web, XML and Web Services for EB (U-Middleware-C2)

Session 6: Distributed Objects, Dot Net, J2EE (U-Miiddleware-C3)

Session 7; Mobile systems and mobile ecommerce plaforms (U-Platforms-C1)

Session 8; EC platforms and commerce servers for online purchasing (U-Platforms-C2)

Session 9: B2B platforms and standards (ebXML, Rosettanet, Biztalk) and trends (U-Platforms-C3)

PART III: Architectures for eBusiness

Session 10: Solution architecture overview (U-Architectures-C1)

Session 11: EB-application architectures through components (U-Architectures-C1)

PART IV: EB Application Integration

Session 12: Application Integration and Migration Strategies (U-Architectures-C2)

Session 13: Enterprise Application Integration - EAI/eAI(U-Architectures-C2)

Session 14: Trends and wrapup

 

 


 

COURSE 6: e-Business Security for Managers

 

This course will cover the technical as well as administrative aspects of security and information assurance that are vital to IS management. The course will start with a comprehensive overview of security principles and techniques that are needed to address the corporate security requirements. The topics in this phase of the course will include security awareness, threat analysis, risk management, intrusion detection and tolerance, authentication, access control, encryption techniques, PKI, digital certificates, and digital signatures. In the second phase, these principles will be used to build a security architecture at an enterprise level. Topics in this phase will cover Internet security, Web security, application security, database security, wireless and mobile computing security, information assurance in web environments, and other emerging cyber information issues. The last phase of this course will discuss the management issues of security policies, system integrity, disaster recovery planning, data quality, EDP audits, security ethics, and security administration. Classroom discussions and team projects will revolve around conducting security audits of web sites and web-based corporate applications.

Course Texts:
1. Tipton, H. and Krause, M. editors, "Information Security Management Handbook", Auerbach, 2000
2. Umar, A. "e-Business and Distributed Systems Handbook", available at www.amjadumar.com, selected modules (Management, Applications, Middleware, Networks)

Additional sources of Information
· Gollman, D., "Computer Security", Wiley, 1999
· Stallings, W., "Network Security Principles", Prentice Hall, 2001
· Additional sources and web links will be made available during the course


Course Grade:

Two projects (200 Points)
One Examination- Take home (100 Points)
Total: 300 points
Straight percentile grade

 



Course Outline

Legend:
T: Tipton, H. and Krause, M. editors, "Information Security Management Handbook", Auerbach, 2000 :
TCx means chapter x.

U: A. Umar, " eBusiness and Distributed Systems Handbook" selected chapters (available at www.amjadumar.com). U(MxCy) means module x, chapter y.

Session 1; Introduction to information assurance and security (U-Management-C1-C3)
Session 2: Management Issues: security awareness, organizational architectures for security (T-C12-C13) (U-Management- C3)
Session 3: Management issues : risk analysis, security management examples (T-C15,C16,C17)

Session 4: Security principles: cryptography techniques, key management (T-C 19-C20), (U-Management- C2)
Session 5: Security principles: digital signatures, certificate management, PKI (Chapters 21-22) (U-Management- C3)

Session 6: Access control: Biometric identification, single sign-on (T-C1,C2)

Session 7; Network Overview, Network security principles and firewalls (U-Networks- C1, C2) (T-C3, C4, C8, C9)
Session 8; Internet security, SSL, and IPSEC (U-Networks- C3) (T-C5,C6, C7, C14)

Session 9: Wireless and mobile systems security (U-Network- C3) (U-Management- C4)
Session 10: Web and Middleware security (U-Middleware- C1, C2) (U-Management- C4)
Session 11: Application security, Java security, transaction security (U-Applications- C1, C2) (U-Management- C4) (T-C10, C18, C25)

Session 12; Data quality, EDP audits, (T-C26- C27)

Session 13: Contingency planning, disaster recovery, privacy (T-C26-C28)
Session 14: Management Platforms, Trends and wrapup (U-Management- C1, C2)