Introduction
Students earning the Master’s Degree in Cybersecruity through UMUC are provided a distinctive opportunity. The capstone course for the degree program allows students to put the knowledge they have gained throughout the program into practice. The Cybersecurity Capstone Simulation presents students, organized into teams representing business sectors, with various scenarios in which a cyber threat must be addressed. Furthermore, the simulation stresses the need for the teams to consider other impacts on the implementation of security control, such as employee morale, productivity, and profitability. One of the greatest challenges of the simulation is to implement controls which will defend the sector’s systems, yet still provide
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To make this level of coordination easier and more manageable for team members, the team agreed to a battle rhythm for weekly activities. As the simulation progressed, the schedule for deliverables was altered slightly to accommodate a strategic change to the processes for report generation. The weekly schedule of activities was as follows:
Thursday - The team held a meeting on every Thursday evening. The meetings were conducted using Google Hangouts video chats. The video chats made coordination efforts far more effective and efficient than simple text chats. The purpose of this meeting was to coordinate the implementation of controls to address the current threats. The team also reviewed team performance in previous rounds and tried determine what controls could be implemented or adjusted to improve faltering indices. Budgetary conflicts were addressed during this meeting, if required. At the end of this meeting, all members of the team entered their final control decisions into the simulator, in preparation for the running of the simulation on Friday evening/Saturday
Harnessing unique applications that formulate effective team competencies can be greatly beneficial when nourishing team dynamics. These necessary factors create high performance levels due to consistency and team cooperation. Performance appraisal is a great way to determine team dynamics due to summative evaluations that are executed during a practice. To obtain effective team dynamics it is important that each individual motivate one another in a positive manner, provide feedback and have an open mind. In conclusion, each member of the team should not be shy introducing any new ideas during the engineering, keep in mind that there is no wrong answer and diversity and innovation is always permitted. In a nut shell, Ocean’s Eleven depicts true signs of team work, leadership and the proper power and influence a leader should have to achieve his/ her goals in life.
1. Competitive Advantage – Through my experiences in the Capstone Simulation I learned a great deal about running a business. First of all, recognizing your company’s competitive advantage and reinforcing it in your business plan and operations is essential for sustained success. By investing heavily in TQM, HR, and automation in the low and traditional segments, Digby was more efficient than our competitors. Thanks to our heavy investments in TQM our company’s R&D cycle times were among the industry’s best. Not only were we able to meet customer preferences in a timely manner, allowing us to secure market share, our variable costs were greatly diminished with these investments. Costs were even further diminished with
“The Forming – Norming – Storming – Performing model of team development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. This model has become the basis for subsequent models of team dynamics and frequently used management theory to describe the behavior of existing teams (Wikipedia).”
The purpose of this report is to reflect on my team working experience and to critically review the events of this experience. Throughout the process I kept a diary of events which I will be analysing in conjunction with Tuckman and Jensen’s (1977) model on stages of group development, these are: forming, storming, norming, preforming and adjourning.
Seven tasks must be included in consideration of team dynamics and structure. The first of which is defining the goal, mission or function of a specific team. The team must know what it is being asked to accomplish. The second area of consideration is assessing what skills, abilities, knowledge or potential to acquire such would be needed amongst selected team members. Identification of potential team members should include an assessment of the skills, knowledge and abilities or the potential to acquire such so that ultimately the team has the building blocks with which to succeed in its mission, goal or function. This assessment must include an understanding of realistic potential contributions by potential team members with the included assessment of whether or not the acquisition of skills and knowledge can be made available through research and analysis.
Data was entered into a scheduling program to ensure convergence of the schedules across all the sub-teams.
We also addressed potential barriers that we may encounter, like scheduling conflicts due to personal or work related issues & technological boundaries, for each person may be on a different level in this area. Also, the time zone factor which is the biggest & you must prioritize it for the benefit of the team & the competency of each members contributions. Trust must be earned by the team members & leader through fulfilling duties, assignments, & commitments. (Temme, J. & Katzel, J. (1995)
Whitman, M., & Mattord, H. (2010). Management of information security. (3rd ed., p. 6). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Platt, L. (1999). Virtual Teaming: Where Is Everyone?. Journal for Quality & Participation, 22(5), 41. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3616/is_199909/ai_n8872660/
The purpose of this report is to reflect on the experiences encountered during the Everest simulation and identify how these experiences affected our decisions and relate to the course. The report includes a description and analysis of the Everest group simulation, a critical analysis of the team’s performance and results along with a critical analysis of the team’s communication interactions.
between norming and storming, because, as new tasks come up, the team may lapse back
National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2012, March/April). Basing Cybersecurity Training on User Perceptions. (IEEE Report 1540-7993/12). (pp. 40-49). Retrieved from University of Maryland University College IEEE Computer Society website: http://www.computer.org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/portal/web/csdl
My strong curiosity towards the field of Cybersecurity dates back to my pre-university days when I started reading sci-fi novels. Digital Fortress, a techno-thriller novel written by Dan Brown, explored the theme of government surveillance, security and civil liberties. This theme is brought out in the book by portraying cryptographic techniques, security policies and implications of these policies. This gravitated me towards the field of security. With little programming experience, I was eager to begin my nascent adventure in the field of Cybersecurity. Although I’ve gained exposure in the field of security during the course of my Bachelor’s degree, I believe pursuing a master’s degree in Cybersecurity will allow me to explore the field of security in greater depth and utilize it effectively to address more real-world challenges.
When first being introduced to a group, it can be quite stressful trying to figure out how you and your team members are going to function together. As with any group, there are a few milestones that need to be reached in order to ensure a functional and successful relationship. Specifically, groups need to go through Tuckman’s Group Development Stages. These stages consist of forming, storming, norming, performing, and in some scenarios, a final stage of adjourning may be reached. After participating in this assignment, we as a group were easily able to identify, and analyze, each stage of our development.
The stages of team development are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Norming is the first stage that involves team members getting to know each other and trying to figure out where they fit in. As a leader, it is important to provide clear directions and set proper goals and expectations during this stage. Storming is the next stage and as the name suggest it is characterized with struggles, challenges, conflicts, and competition among team members. During this stage, I will provide a mediating role and facilitate conversations that steers the team towards the right