Joseph KK Ho's work diary

As  I mark the software development final year projects as a second marker, I feel disappointed at what I have seen: No referencing; and when there is referencing, it is not in harvard referencing format. Reference list mainly provides url links on related resources. The final year project reports did not use proper references Very often, there are only systems diagrams, narratives are too brief and, very often, missing. The  main methodology to use is Systems Development Life Cycle, not more advanced methodologies studied in the Degree programme. Even for those who have attempted to use proper methodologies and references, the line of reasoning is not clear and the writing skill remains very weak. Literature review is very brief and, often, makes up of 1-2 pages of lecture notes. It is too vague for students to just say that they are the project manager or systems analyst of the software project, because, they do not say clearly in their dissertation report...

On marking some of the final year dissertation reports that I have, I notice the following problem: in the reference list, the students only provide some internet resouces as references. For a Degree level students not to use proper references, i.e. textbooks and academic journal articles is quite bad: your dissertation reports do not have credibility and your reports immediately give the impression of extremely low academic value. As to you, the student: you give the impression of not serious and sincere in your study and you do not gain respect from your marker(s). Not using proper references in your dissertation work is very disappointing from the marker(s) and teacher(s)' perspective. Can these students be still be considered as University students at all? The answer is clear: No, although they will still be treated as important customers by the education system/ education centre(s).

The trends of Business Management Education are captured in these 3 words (Gloeckler, 2012): Shorter Specialized Web friendly These education programmes are targeted at busy managers who need management education with good job fit. Students in the early stages of their career are especially interested in specialized degree programmes. Those students with much working experience tend to still favour MBA programmes that offer broad general management education. On the other side, business schools appear to adopt differentiation strategies in response to the increasingly competitive pressures in the management education sector. Reference Gloeckler, G. (2012) "The Best Business Schools 2012" Bloomberg Businessweek , Nov. 19, pp.57-62.

Deep-focused reading (DFR) is different from shallow-multi-tasking reading (SMR). DFR is mainly paper-based (or standalone e-book based) while SMR is e-collaborative (e.g. PC-tablet based). DFR has been the main reading mode before the Internet (i.e. before 1996) while SMR is the more popular reading mode after the Internet (i.e. after 1996). DFR and SMR should be carried out in different venues. For example, DFR can be carried in the following venue: And SMR works quite well in the following venue:  DFR fosters critical, analytical thinking and theory-driven analysis competence while SMR raises creativity, comprehensive awareness and knowledge collaboration. DFR draws on a limited set of documents (e.g. a few books and articles) while SMR taps into a large repository of Internet-based linked multimedia resources. Subsequently, DFR, SMR and professional practices, as supported by an appropriate supportive platform, make up an in...

When answering assignment requirement, if you required to evaluate a statement, you need to do so explicitly and clearly. I have got the following case from a student to illustrate the case: Student: " I received your assignment commen. You mentioned that tast 2 did not evaluate "statement". I would like to confirm the "statment" which is the additional question added by Professor XXX. But I have answered this statment in the last three paragraphs. Maybe I can not express it clearly. For example: It is assumed that we sell our products using full production cost, we can get a high contribution margin for our further development...... I mean that I sell my products using full production cost, I can get a high contribution margin for our further development...." My reply is as follows: "...Try to more clearly review the assignment statement and state clearly that you intend to examine the assignment statement in the coming sectio...

Some students, on receiving SMA assignment comments that look no good, ask me if they could fail. I post my response below for reference: While I cannot release info about specific assignment score and that alll my marks are preliminary at this stage anyway, I can say that very very few students failed in assignments based on my memory. It is very very rare to fail in assignments on this subject as marked by me. Thus, poor comments do not necessarily indicate that the assignment will fail. If the quality of an assignment is indeed horrible, it should earn a failure grade. For students who are not serious in their study and do very poorly in their coursework and exam, they should receive a failure grade. If students think that the University and the lecturer(s) should be nice to them, I personally have no problem to refer these students to some wild chicken universities who would be very happy to enroll them to their academic degree programme(s). Frankly, I have been...

This afternoon, I purchased two second-hand classical novels, at HK$5 each, totally at $100. In some restaurants, a noodle of good quality plus a soft drink can cost around $70 Some of my students spent $70,000 to $110,000 to gain a recognized Master Degree in Management within a short period of time, without much time to read books and academic journals; and with the intellectual skill and writing skill remaining very poor (i.e. below primary six level). Different people have different perceptions of what is "value for money" in spending - this is basically correct. Nevertheless, some spending is wise and some spending is not. In school, we should learn how to be wise; instead, we mainly focus on how to gain employability with short-cut. Now, there are serious problems with this kind of "learning" and mindset of learning.

Principal: Little child.. which one is larger D: Mud Fund or Bear (Bear) Home? Six-year-old child: ...omg.. Mud Fund [a mutual fund on natural resources] is much larger in value in terms of market capitalization than the market price of a Bear (bear) home property.. Principal: Impressive.. NB: it is actually a very broken gag.

Below I provide my comments of claification on some Strategic Management Accounting exercises and answers: Another  query: "I am confused on the exercise of throughput accounting as attached. In page 2, it shows the maximum process time Z = 12 hours x 60 mins, I do not understand what 12 hours comes from? " Comments below: Another query: " I saw the ACCA's past exam paper.  I want to ask a question. ACCA June 2012 - Question 5 part (d) Calculation of opening net assets after investment, why it does not deduct the amount of depreciation?": Reply: Briefly, to come up with an updated total investment base, opening total investment balance + new investment in the period (but no need to deduct depreciation for the new investment for the period because the idea is to calculate a new opening balance, NOT an ending balance for the period.) Another query: "SMA HK Seminars 2012-13 F.5 a) item 2 計Transacion C ...

Students as secretaries - a case study: Professor in lecture: [to stimulate student's thinking on case study] On this case study, the company can consider two strategies which are both feasible, ie cost leadership and differentiation. You think about it and see how you could develop your own analysis viewpoint in your assignment report.. Subsequently, in a student report: "The company can consider two strategies which are both feasible, ie cost leadership and differentiation. Management needs to think about them [fullstop]"

Professor: to do your dissertation projects, you need to use the university e-library to access academic journal articles... Student: The university e-library has no articles to download... Professor: It has lots of academic articles to download. Try to learn how to use e-library by reading my blog articles Student: I prefer to read books, not academic articles.. Professor: You need to read academic articles for doing your dissertation reports. Books cannot replace articles..... Student: I prefer to read McKinsey articles from the Internet.. Professor: McKinsey articles are not academic articles... Student: I am busy and have no time to read academic articles. Professor: It is required for Undergraduate students to learn to read academic articles and for Master Degree students to develop a habit of reading academic articles. As to Ph.D. students and Ph.D., they should be capable to write academic articles...  anyway, you decide... Student: I do not read articles on-screen,...

The last lecture on Strategic Management Accounting will focus on doing exercises with the following documents: SMA exam paper - Dec 4, 2010 Exercise 18.16 (transfer pricing) Exercise 19-16(financial and non-financial measures) Exercise 22.15 (balanced scorecard) Question 8 (file Exercise abc [ABC and CPA exercises]). Will brief you on skill for exam revision too: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/11/examination-preparation-for-strategic.html Students could also refer to fb folder to study some previous remarks (of clarification) on exercises: https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.468035247089.257946.713727089&type=3 Some related notes   

The following diagrams depict the relationship between the notions of Management Accounting  function (MAF), Strategic Management Accounting techniques (SMA techniques)and Strategic Management Accounting thinking (SMA thinking): Diagram 1 (on SMA thinking): Diagram 2 (on SMA techniques and Management Accounting function) In diagram 2, I mention Just in Time (JIT) thinking as an example; other Management philosophies/ approaches include Total Quality Management and Relational Marketing, etc. Students need to have some ideas on the nature of Management Accounting also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_accounting

Some preliminary comments on Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) assignments: Assignment 1 (case 1): some reports need to apply more SMA concepts and thinking in analysis; some answers did not sufficiently address the assignment questions. Some answers were too descriptive in nature [which read like lecture notes]. Some answers were disorganized in reasoning and the content read like fragmented lecture notes. Some answers talked about "Just in Time" approach and "Quality Management" as if they were Strategic Management Accounting systems/ techniques per se., which were misleading. Assignment 2 (case 2): Some reports produced cost analysis tables but did not analyze the figures. Some reports were too inventive to create new operational data to support their answers. Some reports were vague in evaluating the assignment 2 statements.  Some students skipped the task of evaluating assignment 2 statement. Some reports did not refer to case 2 in the evaluation of th...

Embolded students (ES) spend a lot of money to enroll for Advanced Degree programme study, especially those that have relatively short programme duration. ES are busy people and they skip classes very often. They do try their best to do their assignments with very tight time constraint and resource constraint. and, very often, their teachers also try their best to give them a pass. They are treated as customers and customers are "kings". The main concerns of the education centre are (a) how many customers the centre can get and (b) how to facilitate these customers to pass their subjects, given that these students have difficulties to read academic articles, have little time to read textbooks, and have poor writing skills. When their coursework quality is challenged by the second marker(s) or external examiner(s), they will appeal. Sometimes, if ES are "forced" to sit for closed-book internal exam, they will boycott the exam. The product positioning of the educat...

My 1-hour presentation on plagiarism in  coming BA degree orientation workshop will cover the follwing 2 blog articles: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/08/plagiarism-what-plagiarism.html http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/10/self-plagiarism-in-self-denial-mode.html I will also make use of a refereed journal article for illustration in my presentation. Some advices to new students: Form facebook group to support each other during the study and beyond Discussion with fellow classmates on course materials is encouraged. Try to learn how to use e-library and read academic articles Need to develop independent thinking Do not study in a rush; learn how to learn effectively Do not just study powerpoint notes; study textbooks and academic articles Aim at graduation with at least a second class lower; forget about just getting a bare pass or getiing a third-class hon. Study passed exam papers is good to develop understanding of subjects' requirements Do no...

November and December are the months of: marking reports/ exam papers, reading producing teaching materials answering students' queries writing articles touring invigilating exam (ie walk-walk-stand-stand) Just to ensure that time is well spent on meaningful activities.

Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) exam is 2 hours; you need to answer 2 questions out of 4. There is one essay question on SMA per se. 3 questions are calculation-type of questions [which still involve some essay form of answers] You need to study the textbook chapters and do exercises (preferably on those with answers from the textbook). The following notes assist your exam revision effort: Note 1 (as related to the essay question in exam) To tackle the essay question, you need to read the textbook, some academic articles on SMA and blog articles by me on SMA to develop a comprehensive understanding of the topic area. Note 2 (more related to the calculation questions in exam. Note: some interpretation of figures in calculation questions require students to have understanding of the conceptual thinking in SMA - more related to the exam essay question) In this blog article, which I will explain in class, I depict the landscape of the subject and indicate...

The topics for coming Strategic Management Accounting class are on: Chapter 19 of textbook: on ROI, EVA, and Residual Income: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/10/control-systems-performance-measurement.html Balanced Scorecard (re: chapter 22 of textbook). Also refer to: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/10/balanced-scorecard-brief-note.html

An admin staff at an education centre that I know likes to write poems and post in the door of the school male toilet. His poems are quite raw, which these days one can call this gangnam style. He said he is poor so he call himself "No money" to distinguish from "No Speech". I told him that one day, he will be famous and be rich.... Since he is a gentleman and a poet, out of respect, I call him the Poet Guy.

The following 2 blog articles are useful Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) readings: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/10/contribution-analysis-with-limiting.html http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/10/high-low-method-in-management-accounting.html Also study cost behaviour topic for your revision: http://classes.bus.oregonstate.edu/fall-06/ba422/management%20accounting%20chapter%204.htm These two topics are also explained in the SMA textbook.