I'll Tag It!!

Hi guys, this is the first part of the IT Gov. open course. As you step through the materials, you will notice that IT Governance focuses more on business and talks much about a business than IT per se. So, it’s all about business. Please read them all to give you proper basis about what IT Governance is. Oh yeah, I will state explicitly if there is a particular content that I add it by my self.

Part 1 is an Introductory discussion.

1. About the Essence of IT Governance. The sources are partly from ITGI (IT Governance Institute) and the other part is sourced from Strategies for IT Governance by van Grembergen and de Haes, scholars in IT Governance University of Antwerpen Management School (UAMS).
2. Corporate Governance. Briefly discusses the relationship between IT Governance and Corporate Governance
3. IT Governance according Weill&Ross, from  Centre for Information Systems Research (CISR), MIT Sloan.
4. Integrating  IT Governance into corporate strategy, extracted from Ryan Peterson writing.
5. Discussion on Organizational Structure Theory.
6. A brief about Organization Decision Making.
7. Communication. Communication mechanism is talked in Board Briefing on IT Governance, ITGI.
8. Managing IT Function, mostly from Gottschalk’s chapter in  van Grembergen Et. Al’s  Strategies for IT Governance book.
9. ITIL in a nutshell.
10. COBIT 4.1 in a nutshell.
11. AS-8015 Good Governance for ICT, now ISO 38500.
12. Val IT 2.0 Erklärung
13. What is Risk IT. I add it myself. It is available in ISACA website.
14. Muki’s paper on  Describing IT Value Using IT BSC and IT Strategy Maps, in  Praha, Czech Rep, 2007.
15. Muki’s presentation in Seminar IT Gov UI February 2008 at Bidakara, hasil case study 18 organisasi besar by Lab IT Gov UI
16. Muki’s paper about Pendorong, Pendukung dan Penghambat IT Governance at big companies in indonesia (working paper, do not quote).
17. Muki’s paper on the State of IT Governance at 103 Indonesia’s state enterprises  2010 (working paper, do not quote). There is no paper available either. Not available in Muki’s homepage too.
18. Muki’s paper on  IT Gov BUMN hasil survey di 103 BUMN, in  a seminar of  IT Gov collaborating with Faculty of Computer Science  UI. Supported by ISACA, Detiknas, and other private firms. The output has been updated on his dissertation. 16 March 2011, Bidakara, Jakarta.
19. Muki’s dissertation  about  IT Governance in BUMN. Entitled IT Governance Maturity at Indonesian State Owned Enterprises: Contingent Factors & Impacts. I salute you for this!. Sneak peak:
    • number of drivers (pressures) relates with IT Governance maturity
    • number of enablers associates with IT Governance maturity
    • number of inhibitors has nothing to do with IT Governance maturity
    • IT Governance has a positive effect on how value of IT investment is being felt in the organization
    • IT Governance has an association with bottom line company performance
    • IT Governance has (unfortunately) no association (or weak) with IT Risks
20. Survey of IT Governance Control Objective Maturity, based on COBIT ME4 – Provide IT Governance. In Indonesia, easy to use and comprehend.
    
21. ITIL version 3. From an official source, only selected the most important ones due to the large repository of books. Indonesia slides are also available.
    • Introductory ITIL versi 3
    • ITIL v3 Service Strategy: start here, what service business need actually?
    • ITIL v3 Service Design: to answer the need, what IT Service should be designed and how should be designed?
    • ITIL v3 Service Transition: prepare service to be ease of use.
    • ITIL v3 Service Operations: ensure that IT service works effectively and serve user needs.
    • ITIL v3 Continual Service Improvement: process continous improvement.

That is it. I am thinking to give it in Indonesia to make the readers more effectively grasp the idea transfer process. Tell me what you think. Happy reading and keep sharing alive.

Back to outline.

Disclaimer: I hereby do not claim that part or the whole materials I post in this topics are under my ownership. But I make some modification to make it easier and enjoyable to reader. I will claim some topics if it belongs to me.

The Wish of Arrianto Mukti Wibowo (Email: amwibowo@cs.ui.ac.id; amwibowo@yahoo.com)

Personal Appeal / Request

” I BEG YOU, PLEASE, in the name of knowledge and science, in the name of the All-Knowing GOD, please REFER, LINK from other pages/websites, COPY, GRAB, BACKUP, SUCK, MIRROR to MANY SERVERS or CD/DVD as much as possible. May The Most Mercifull GOD bless you all (ga peduli kalau Anda atheis atau nyembah batu atau nyembah tuyul, that’s your business). Tapi please bantu backup di server lain. Mohon bantuannya mensosialisasikan. The reason I am asking you this is that in my experience, in a couple of years, for some reasons, sometimes websites are shut down for some reason (like geocities now backed-up in reocities)…” (Arrianto Mukti Wibowo)

I am pleased to have a chance to know Muki (his nikcname) for we are able to get his teaching and consulting materials in relation to IT Governance study. Muki is academics member of University of Indonesia’s School of Computer Science. He places much interest in Strategic IT Planning, and he mainly works in IT Governance Lab. He even begs to copy, grab the whole site contents for further redistribution.

I grant your wish, Muki. He has already acknowledged the power of sharing and peering of web 2.0 as MIT open course did. So do I  (my justification to download and upload those materials:) ). Building the “sharing spirit” on the top of this course materials, please do not hesitate to share it further to your peers. The more share you do, the better, remember Metcalf Law of network effect.

FYI, the original materials is sourced from Wikimuki page which is administered by Muki. Some modifications in terms of the look and data organization is done by me for some consideration. First, this topic will be organized into several posting as I do not want you to get jammed for comprehending all the materials. Taking a baby step is much wiser rather than solely grab the whole stuff but leave them eventually unread. Second, as I am a bit (or perhaps a very) perfectionist, I want my posting babies looked cool and enjoyable to read. That’s why I need time to do this and that kindda stuff, especially for the flow of contents.  Last, I just have to manage my focus with my own study which also takes time. I’m sure you understand that, and thank you for that. One more thing, as the original website is constantly updating, you might need to keep udpated by watching my blog regularly too (not everyday obviously) or simply visit his website.

This first posting is simply a brief outline of the trip we’re about to take. The following points are the topics will be discussed (I don’t modify the order, only slice the whole materials into clusters):

The Outline

1. IT Governance
2. IS/IT Strategic Planning 2a and 2b (Muki’s favorite topic and me too!!)
3. Managing IT Investment
4. Research Methodology
5. Information System (IS) Principles
6. Risk Management and IS Security
7. IS Audit
8. Decision Support Systems
9. Business Process Design & Reengineering
10. IT Architecture

As soon as the whole contents populate, I will rearrange with some link between the outline and the specific topic group. Some contents are still empty, waiting for uploaded. Do not worry, I keep my eye all the time to the website. Once it get uploaded, I’ll put it into my website too. Two type of materials are posted, video and reading (in pdf, word, or ppt formats).

Disclaimer: I hereby do not claim that part or the whole materials I post in this topics are under my ownership. But I make some modification to make it easier and enjoyable to reader. I will claim some topics if it belongs to me.

That’s it for now. Sorry, no downloads today :D.

Imagine the world wide web with infinite identification where everyone can put whatever they want as their internet domain naming address, virtually everything. Now, it is no more imagination. You really can put any name you want, for instance as www.business.ritchi. Or for governmental area, you can simply type www.trade.paris. Or for education purpose, you can use www.children.kindergaten..

After a series of long discussion and debate between internet communities, business groups, and governments, the decision was made on Monday, 20 June 2011 to enter a new order of top-level-domain management ever. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that coordinates the Internet’s addressing system, approved to increase number of domains that can be used for any industry, community or interest group for their specific needs from that previously limited to only some domain like dot.com, dot.org, dot.net, dot.info or dot.biz. Ratification made by ICANN now provides users more choices to apply name for their own generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

Obviously, this whole new ways of addressing domain will bring impact on the way people search and use information. For trademark holders this ruling would make their brand, innovation or process are more protected by ensuring more authenticity and authorization power for their properties. From now on, no one will be allowed to apply for a particular name, such as dot.Ritchi, without written approval from me. For a local or a specific country, like Thailand, who wants to utilize more internet activity delivered in their local language, gTLD will enable them to their own language structure, not only English.

gTLDs implementation is also seen as a way to prevent or to reduce cybersquatting activities. Value of cybersquatting would be greatly reduced as no logical need for bad faith squatters to keep such dot.something to further sell it to another party with marginal cost. Reflecting the dot.com burst back in 2000, we have seen how many unreliable (or perhaps unrealistic) dot.com start ups failed to show real business value due to unproven business plan. These young IT folks sold huge number of non substantial unbacked business domains to some sloppy venture capitalists in exchange for stock to make them new billionaires. And the trend continued, at least to some degree until gTLDs endorsement, with the selling of variety of these dot.coms/orgs/nets/etc which bears little meaning to the squatters (but great value to real business)to subsequently sell them to companies or groups with high prices.

With such promising merits offered by gTLD, it would be a worth move to get the new domain. But no pain no gain. In order to obtain your dreamed domain name, you have to dig out your wallet a way out deeper. ICANN requires any interested group to spend $185,000 to subscribe for their desired domain. This big investment does not come with unsubstantiated reason. One of ICANN’s argument is that it needs to cover application processing expenses and providing service for litigation and any related issues might arise. From applicant side, this would entail a detailed business plan, clear IT strategy especially in B2B, and likely a ready legal policy to tackle competition and ownership issues. This indicates how serious and fully-controlled the organization and of this new domain naming system will be.

Nevertheless, with such big opportunity, and big money too, there is still challenge in dispute over who will be the most proper one to be entitled with particular domain. For example, there may be a conflict over the use of dot.ritchi between me and the other guy in some US state. If this occurs, auction to the highest bidder will likely be done to overcome the dispute. Auction means more money, and I ain’t got that huge bucks though. So perhaps I will let this other hamzah ritchi to win. C’est la vie.

Some analysts voice some concern over a predicted decline in traffic, and consequently profits, of search engine industry. Under the new system, users are likely to by pass google or yahoo to get their specific needs. They do not have to think what queries to type in search field as they can straightforwardly go to their destination which they knew already. But as Lenny Kravitz said, it ain’t over ’till it over. I will not take a hurried opinion to judge whether Google with its entire kingdom, will diminish.

According to the site, ICANN will soon begin a global campaign to tell the world about this dramatic change in Internet names and to raise awareness of the opportunities afforded by new gTLDs. Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012. For quick introduction, a seven minutes video of the coming gTLDs is available here or in the organization’s homepage. A new platform emerges for everyone to grab and monetize opportunity in digital environment, and that the internet is all about, to do[t]anything.

I am not really that into making money from online. I know I’m not a promising sales force(at least for now), with a quick talking skill and making people somehow loosing their consciousness on any logical senses about their own very needs (I’m hiperbolizing here). Even in offline world I am still struggling to impersonate my wife to buy me a Stratocaster complete with JCM900 set and effects (you wish!) ). But I found online business is quite tempting after I get in touch with Google Adsense. It’s not that I don’t know before, but it was until now I had a chance to interact with AdSense. The idea is simply as much as we know how this online advertising works. It works like this (from Google AdSense):
1. Choose where to show ads => Specify where you want ads to appear =>Choose what types of ads can compete for those slots bid.
2. Highest-paying ads display => Advertisers bid on your inventory in a real-time auction => Always show the highest-paying ad get paid.
3. Get paid => Google bills advertisers and ad networks => Get paid through our reliable payment options.

Sounds nice and easy wouldn’t it? And one more thing, it’s free!. Let the money be your slave, all humankind’s dream. We do not really have to care about the targeted marketing campaign of Google. They have their own way to do so.

But, it does not mean that you can easily do it. Google has to make sure that your site is important enough to their marketing strategy. You have to prove that your site is important enough for their clients. It’s the essence of targeted marketing. What happened is that Google could not accept my application as it does not meet their requirement. Here are some important points we need to consider before we apply for Google AdSense. I summarize from the rejection response I got.

================================

Problem:
– Language Not Supported
– Page type

———————

More details:
Not Supported languages.
– Google can not approve the content of a site that uses language that is not fully supported for AdSense features that you’re proposing. Support language and targeting ads to the languages ​​are listed here.
– Important Note: If the language on your site is the Indonesian language, you must send application in Indonesian application environment. It helps their marketing team to match with marketing cluster in their database. Their team will immediately re-check the suitability of your application to their program policies.

Page type
– To be able to participate in Google AdSense, site
your page and the information sent in the application must meet
following guidelines:
– You must have a level site with top level domain.
( www.example.com and not www.example.com/yoursite ).
– You must provide your personal information is accurate with the application according to the registration information for your domain.
– Your website should contain a lot of original content.
– Your site must be in accordance with the Google AdSense program policies.

Well, it is just another way of saying that having famous website is important, and mine is not famous enough.

/* A copy from my former other notes with a bit modification*/

March 28, 2010 ,
Hari ini sy mendapat pelajaran dari seorang kawan zaman SMA dan kuliah dulu. Beberapa menit seblm sy tulis note ini, kita sempet ngobrol lewat messenger. Dia bertanya apa perasaan saya ketika sedang jauh dari keluarga dan mendapati bahwa istri sedang sakit serius. Istri memang saat ini sedang diuji Tuhan dengan sakitnya yg cukup serius yg tidak terbayang sebelumnya dia akan mendapat ini.
Dengan santai tapi sedikit berpikir saya jawab, “ya sedih, ga bisa ngapa2in pastinya. Lo aneh2 aja pertanyaannya”. Terus dia bertanya lagi apa yg akan saya lakukan ketika itu terjadi. Saya jawab, “gw bersimpuh dihadapan Allah, benar benar minta ampuuun, mohon diberikan kesembuhan dsb. Kemudian dia lanjut berkata, ini sesuai ketikan messengernya ==> “bhwa pd point2 dibalik kesedihan kita, sbnrnya ada rasa takut…. rasa takut kehilangan org2 yg kita sayangi. Cuma yg jelas, setiap saat kita hrs siap mati dan atau ditinggal mati org2 yg kita sayangi. Itu yg kadang2 blm merasa siap…. Kemudian perbincangan pun berlanjut ke topik lain.

Segera setelah kalimat itu meluncur, saya tidak mampu berkonsentrasi berpikir multitasking meneruskan obrolan di messenger. Saat itu jg saya merenung, ya Allah, kita tuh jadi manusia bener bener bodoh atau sombong ya? Kenyataan bahwa kita Allah masih mengkaruniai kita dengan orang orang yang kita cintai disekeliling kita kok bisa seringkali terlupa ya? Kita sadar tiap hari mereka selalu, setiap saat, berinteraksi dengan kita dari yang namanya berbicara normal, kesal, sedih, tertawa bersama, mengejek dan lainnya. Tapi tiap hari itu juga kita lebih sering tidak sadarnya bhw mereka ada karena Allah kasih nyawa sama mereka. Dan, bam!, pada keterbiasaan itulah kita terlupa bahwa keberadaan mereka adalah berkah Allah. Artinya, kalau Allah dengan kuasaNya mencabut nyawa mereka, baru kita tidak biasa. Betul tidak logikanya ya, hmmm *sambil mikir sendiri*).

Saat itu terasa sekali rasa syukur saya pada Allah. Rasa syukur yg murni terasa dari dalam hati. Ternyata dengan menggunakan formula “What-if” yang biasa dipakai berbagai aplikasi Decision Support bisa jg efektif, tidak hanya untuk perusahaan, tapi juga pada manusia :).

What if bila bulan depan ibu kita yang biasanya lebih sering kita tinggalkan karena alasan kesibukan luar, ibu yang sering menelepon menanyakan agar kita jangan lupa makan pagi atau menanyakan kapan pulang dan sering kita jawab dengan jawaban sekenanya, esok, 1 jam lagi tiba-tiba meninggalkan kita?

What if bila minggu depan ayah kita yang biasanya sering berdebat dengan kita karena kita suka anggap tidak mengerti diri kita, ayah yang seringkali kita pulang kita langsung masuk kamar, esok meninggalkan kita?

What if bila kakak/adik yang padanya biasanya kita tidak akur kalau dekat dengan kita karena rebutan apa pun yang ga penting, sampai orang tua sendiri pusing, lusa meninggalkan kita?

What if bila suami/istri, orang yang 24 x 7 menjadi sahabat/partner/pasangan kita, orang yang paling tau diri keinginan kita, orang yg paling tau obat2an kita dikala sakit, suami/istri yang kalau dia pergi sepekan keluar kota utk dinas kita langsung ingin cepat ketemu, orang yang setiap hari sejak bangun hingga tidur muka terjelek hingga muka terbaiknya kita tahu, orang yang paling sering jadi tempat interaksi dalam sehari, besok sudah meninggalkan kita?

What if bila anak anak kita yang kita sayangi, tanpa lelah kita cukupi kebutuhannya apa pun yang kita mau sebisa kita, yang kita selalu sepertinya tidak pernah cukup untuk memastikan that they’re gonna be alright ketika mereka masuk PG, TK, SD, SMP, SMA, kuliah, kos, kerja, menikah, hingga menjadi seorang ayah/ibu, 1 jam lagi meninggalkan kita terlebih dahulu?

What if….What if…apakah kita sudah benar benar siap? Sementara kita seperti sudah “terbiasa untuk lupa” bahwa mereka punya jatah waktu hidup, sama seperti kita. Have we been grateful for that?

Ternyata karunia Allah sungguh real, tunai di depan kita, tiap hari, tiap detik. RahmatNya ada pada wujud orang orang yang kita cintai yang ada dihadapan kita saat ini, yang masih bisa hidup berbicara, bergerak, berlari, berlompatan, dan berlaku lainya. Kita saja yang harus sering sering berlatih untuk memelihara rasa takut kehilangan orang orang yang kita cintai. Tepat sekali bhw kematian itu mendidik kita jadi lebih bersyukur.

-special thx for kores-

So love Janis and her reincarnation Joss Stone

Piece of My Heart

(Come on…)
Didn’t I make you feel like you were the only man, well yeah,
An’ didn’t I give you nearly everything that a woman possibly can ?
Honey, you know I did!
And each time I tell myself that I, well I think I’ve had enough,
But I’m gonna show you, baby, that a woman can be tough.

I want you to come on, come on, come on, come on and take it,
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby, (break a..)
Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah. (have a..)
Hey! Have another little piece of my heart now, baby, yeah.
You know you got it if it makes you feel good,
Oh yes indeed.

You’re out on the streets looking good, and baby,
Deep down in your heart I guess you know that it ain’t right,
Never never never never never never never hear me when I cry at night.
Baby, I cry all the time!
And each time I tell myself that I, well I can’t stand the pain,
But when you hold me in your arms, I’ll sing it once again.

I’ll say come on, come on, come on, come on, yeah take it!
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby. (break a..)
Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah, (come on…)
Have another little piece of my heart now, baby, yeah.
Well, You know you got it, child, if it makes you feel good

Guitar

I need you to come on, come on, come on, come on and take it,
Take another little piece of my heart now, baby. (break a…)
Break another little bit of my heart, darling, yeah. (have a)
Have another little piece of my heart now, baby,
You know you got it (waaaaahhh)
Take a…Take another little piece of my heart now, baby. (break a…)
Break another little bit of my heart, and darling, yeah yeah (have a)
Have another little piece of my heart now, baby,
You know you got it, child, if it makes you feel good

Mungkin ide nya mudah, but practically, hal ini bisa menjembatani kepentingan industri (vendor pengembang), yg seringkali dilupakan akademia. Yakni:

RQ1: Apakah praktisi masih embracing conceptual modeling secara serius?
cabang pertanyaanya: Teknik pemodelan apa yang paling popular

RQ2: How was adoption pattern of modeling technique in regards to some variables, say, organization size, purpose, topics, jenis software, pemodel/analis?
pertanyaan ini membantu akademia memperkecil gap ekspektasi dari kalangan industri yg selama ini punya fokus yg belum sinkron.

Selain menggunakan data kuantitatif, penelitian yang diusung nanti dapat juga menjadi sarana meletakkan batu pertama dalam penelitian kualitatif, yakni menentukan secara kontinu faktor faktor tren yg menjadi penentu keberhasilan sebuah aplikasi pemodelan sistem. Mahasiswa bisa mulai mengenal alat analisis non kuantitatif, seperti menggunakan NVivo. Metodenya bisa dengan studi kasus, atau juga grounded research.

Selamat Hari Jum’at kawan TGI Friday!!
Gruß

For my students who are interested to get some reading in conceptual model, be it in object, process and data model, place your request on the comments box.

Topik 1
Pekerjaan akuntansi, sama seperti sistem informasi, penyedia informasi yang berkualitas. SysTrust sebagai organisasi, ataupun COBIT sebagai kerangka IT Governance telah memberikan pijakan dalam menentukan kualitas sebuah informasi. COBIT sendiri menyebutnya sebagai information criteria a.k.a business requirement. (1) Effectiveness, (2) Efficiency, (3)Confidentiality, (4)Integrity, (5) Availability, (6) Compliance, dan (7)Reliability. Students dapat:

RQ1: Mengevaluasi dalam konteks tertentu (berupa control context, risk management, audit, atau lainnya), bagaimana COBIT memiliki validitas dan konsistensi internal dalam mencapai kriterita informasi itu, or
RQ2: Bagaimana kualitas informasi diterapkan dalam pelaksanaannya? lebih relevan bila diselenggarakan dalam studi kasus, walaupun menggunakan cross sectional method juga tidak masalah
RQ3: Bagaimana kualitas informasi akuntansi dengan basis kerangka selain COBIT,seperti SysTrus, ITIL, COSO atau ISO? bahkan bisa diexpan RQ nya dengan komparasi untuk mencari tahu
RQ4: Bagaimana kerangka IT Governance mendukung kualitas informasi melalui perbandingan kerangka tersebut, dalam konteks Indonesia.

Topik 2

Ontologi merupakan domain pengetahuan yang juga banyak diadopsi kalangan peneliti di bidang analisis dan perancangan sistem. Pada intinya, ontologi mencoba menjembatani kebutuhan “kognitif” seseorang dalam memahamai fenomena dunia nyata. Dalam konteks pengembangan sistem, konteks pemodelan dunia nyata menjadi penting, karena pengembangan dan analis perlu memetakan dan mengidentifikasi konstruk dunia nyata yang mana yang perlu dimasukan dalam katalog informasi/pengetahuan model sistem. Analisis Representaional (berbasis teori Representasi oleh Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) dapat dijadikan pijakan awal untuk mengevaluasi bagaimana model proses bisnis ataupun model struktur data, ataupun model aktifitas organisasi sudah memenuhi “kebutuhan informasi” sebagaimana mana di positkan oleh BWW.

Dengan mengevaluasi suatu model, diharapkan pemahaman thd dunia nyata (modeling) dapat lebih terakomodasi dan terwujud dalam aspek yang sudah melalui tingkatan pengukuran yang ilmiah dan terbukti.

RQ1: Bagaimana kemampuan representasional dinilai, bila dikaitkan dengan teori representasi BWW atas teknik pemodelan tertentu (DFD, Flowchart, UML activity, REA, BPMN, ebXML, dll) dalam hal permasalahan tertentu (e.g:compliance, penyelesaian suatu tugas spesifik, penciptaan informasi proses bisnis)?
RQ2: Isu apa saja yang perlu diperhatikan oleh akademis, vendor, dan praktisi terkait dengan teknik pemodelan tertentu saat ini saat yg akan datang?
RQ3: Bentuk kombinasi model apa saja apa yang mendukung kebutuhan pengembang atau pun pengguna dalam pemecahan permasalahan/pengambilan keputusan?

PS: Buat temen2 mhsw yg kesulitan/tertarik discuss utk pengembangan topik skripsi mereka. Pintu terbuka lebar untuk supply jurnal yg berkaitan dgn apa yg sudah sy bicarakan.

Thank you.
(sambil pusing mikirin proposal sendiri)

Mumpung masih ingat, langsung ditulis. RQ ini berhubungan dengan sistem informasi akuntansi, khususnya dalam konteks pemahaman terhadap proses bisnis. Kita ketahui dalam keberhasilan pengembangan atau pun penggunaan sistem informasi akuntansi, pendekatan user centric merupakan pendekatan yang bisa digunakan untuk memastikan seberapa berguna / berhasil kah sebuah sistem yang akan dirancang dalam run time.

Berikut RQ yang dimungkinkan dalam konteks terhadap evaluasi kritis terhadap sistem.

1. Bagaimana model data memiliki kualitas yang bisa disampaikan pada pengguna dalam hal pemaknaan terhadap realitas proses organisasi. Peneliti bisa menggunakan metode riset kuasi eksperimen dengan membandingkan beberapa model data yang biasa digunakan dalam praktik (ER, Objek, IDEF, atau UML) kemudian terapkan pada sampel partisipan yang memakainya.

2. Mengevaluasi kualitas struktural dari sebuah model dalam mengekspose pengendalian aplikasi, atau khususnya pengendalian pada proses bisnis (business process control)? hal ini penting, krn dalam praktik information assurance/auditing, pemahaman terhadap IT Governance yg khususnya IT control di bagi menjadi beberapa layer, entity level, service level (general control) dan business process level (application control). Silahkan refer ke COBIT.

3. Meneliti seberapa jauh kemampuan model/diagram dalam perancangan sistem terhadap pemahaman user dalam melaksanakan tugas mereka (sering disebut Task Implementation) yang diamanatkan pada mereka. Sekali lagi, metode riset yang cukup representatif adalah eksperimen. Studen pada awalnya menciptakan skenario terlebih dahulu, rancang bangunan model yg akan dipakai lengkap dengan versioningnya, kemudian terapkan pada sampel user (bisa mahasiswa akuntansi lainnya, atau vendor untuk mencerminkan relevancy). Hal ini empirically lebih robust dibanding melakukan analisis melalui kuisioner.

That’s it for now….
Gruß

/* This article is the source for those who want to read what happened to EY case which motivated me to write a popped up question. I know it is quite sometime ago, but still worth learning. Enjoy folks. */

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK | Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:47pm EST

(Reuters) – Accounting firm Ernst & Young was sued by New York prosecutors over allegations it helped to hide Lehman Brothers’ financial problems, in the first major government legal action stemming from the Wall Street company’s 2008 downfall.

The civil fraud case contends that Ernst & Young stood by while Lehman used accounting gimmickry to mask its shaky finances. The lawsuit says Lehman ran “a massive accounting fraud,” but it did not name as defendants any former top executives at the investment bank whose September 2008 collapse helped spark the global financial crisis.

The lawsuit seeks more than $150 million in fees that Ernst & Young received from 2001 to 2008 as Lehman’s outside auditor — less than 1 percent of its global annual revenue — plus other unspecified damages.

The lawsuit was filed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. People close to Cuomo said one factor in bringing the case was that he knows that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission already is investigating former Lehman chief Richard Fuld and other former top Lehman executives.

Cuomo “wants to go after the one party he knows isn’t being sued,” said John Coffee, a professor of corporate law at Columbia University.

In a statement on Tuesday, Ernst & Young said it intended to “vigorously defend” the lawsuit.

Lehman’s bankruptcy occurred in the midst of a global financial crisis and was not caused by any accounting issues, the company said.

“Lehman’s audited financial statements clearly portrayed Lehman as a highly leveraged entity operating in a risky and volatile industry,” the accounting firm said.

Legal and accounting experts said earlier they expect that Ernst & Young will try to settle the case rather than engage in a long court fight.

“It tends to be lot less expensive for both parties to resolve it through settling and getting it behind them,” said Bruce Pounder, an expert on accounting ethics and president of Leveraged Logic, an Asheville, North Carolina, firm that provides continuing education to accountants.

He said he does not see significant fallout for Ernst & Young in terms of its viability as an audit firm.

Ernst is the third-largest by revenue of the “Big Four” U.S. accounting firms, behind Deloitte and PwC.

Cuomo filed the lawsuit days before he is to leave office and become governor of the state in January. A spokesman for incoming attorney general Eric Schneiderman declined to comment.

REPO 105

Cuomo said in the civil complaint that for more than seven years leading up to Lehman’s bankruptcy, the investment bank engaged in fraudulent accounting transactions that Ernst & Young explicitly approved. The case focuses on an accounting technique known as Repo 105, which temporarily removed as much as $50 billion in assets from the balance sheet in 2008.

“This practice was a house-of-cards business model designed to hide billions in liabilities in the years before Lehman collapsed,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes nine months after a court-appointed examiner in the Lehman bankruptcy concluded that Ernst & Young was “professionally negligent” in its audit duties.

The report by examiner Anton Valukas also said that Lehman could also have claims against Fuld and former chief financial officers Chris O’Meara, Erin Callan and Ian Lowitt for negligence or breach of fiduciary duty related to the use of Repo 105 transactions.

PAST CASES

The case, filed in New York state Supreme Court, is one of the biggest legal cases involving an accounting firm since Arthur Andersen was criminally indicted in 2002 over the Enron scandal.

The Ernst & Young case is a civil lawsuit, while Andersen was charged criminally and later convicted of obstruction of justice for its role in Enron’s collapse.

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Arthur Andersen conviction in 2005, but the firm was virtually out of business by then — and its reputation was shattered.

Andersen’s demise reduced the number of big accounting firms that audit most large companies globally to just four, including Ernst & Young. Since then, prosecutors have been wary of charging entire firms with fraud because of worries that another audit firm collapse would harm the financial system.

In one major settlement, KPMG agreed in 2005 to pay $456 million to settle a federal investigation into questionable tax shelters, avoiding a potentially crippling criminal indictment. The firm agreed to make internal changes and to be overseen by an outside monitor temporarily as part of the pact.

In 1999, Ernst & Young agreed to pay $335 million to shareholders of Cendant Corp to settle a case stemming from an accounting scandal at the travel and real estate service company. Ernst & Young said at the time that it was misled by Cendant and had done nothing wrong.

London-based Ernst & Young employs about 140,000 people. It had revenue of $21.3 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30.

(Reporting by Grant McCool, Dena Aubin, Scot J. Paltrow and Dan Levine. Editing by John Wallace, Robert MacMillan and Matthew Lewis)