Software Engineering Research Paper

The assignment requires a well-researched paper exploring the field of software engineering. It emphasizes topics like legacy systems, innovation in software development (like Christensen's theory), methodologies for research in software engineering, and the impact of technology growth on areas such as online communities and industries. The provided references offer a starting point for the research.

Running head: RESEARCH PROJECT
Research project
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Executive summary
This report discusses the evolution of information technology from its initiation to its current
stage and social impact of IT industry in the business of Microsoft. This chapter is to analyse the
Microsoft’s emergence in the industry and how they evolved and became an international
competitor in the business. Further, the research review and conceptual framework of the
research base is given and project budget and project schedule is described in the chapter. The
research methodology and data collection process is also given. The research includes both
primary and secondary data collection and analysis of the data. The organisation of the study has
been highlighted as different chapters and thus it will balance the flow of the chapters for any
readers. The sampling technique and the research method is also thoroughly discussed in the
following company. Further, the organisation of the study done on the impact of IT in this
business is also given in the following chapter.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................5
2. Background of the study..............................................................................................................5
3. Research aims and objectives......................................................................................................6
3.1 Aims.......................................................................................................................................6
3.2 Objectives..................................................................................................................................6
3.3 Problem statement.....................................................................................................................6
3.4 Research questions.....................................................................................................................7
4. Literature review..........................................................................................................................8
4.1 Conceptual framework...........................................................................................................8
4.2 History and development of information technology............................................................9
4.3 Rise of Microsoft...................................................................................................................9
4.4 Social impact and challenges faced by Microsoft...............................................................11
4.5 Impact of information technology in society.......................................................................11
4.6 External factors and issues faced by software engineers.....................................................12
5. Research methodology...............................................................................................................13
5.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................13
5.2 Research approach...............................................................................................................13
5.3 Data collection method........................................................................................................13
5.4 Factors that needs to be considered.....................................................................................14

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5. 5 Sampling method................................................................................................................14
5.6 Sample size..........................................................................................................................15
6. Organisation of the study...........................................................................................................15
7. Project Budget...........................................................................................................................17

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1. Introduction
Microsoft is one of the well-known global competitors of the IT business. The first
operating system that they used was MS-Dos and after that, they started their business in
personal computers (Bahr et al., 2013). This report discusses the evolution of information
technology from its initiation to its current stage and social impact of IT industry in the business
of Microsoft. First, they were in business of manufacturing different hardware for computers and
then they moved to exclusively in software business. Information technology business has
benefitted from this company hugely. Microsoft Windows was a new operating system with the
existing systems like, Linux and Java (Tasevska, Damij & Damij, 2014). Further, the
organisation of the study done on the impact of IT in this business is also given in the following
chapter. This chapter is to analyse the Microsoft’s emergence in the industry and how they
evolved and became an international competitor in the business. Further, the research review and
conceptual framework of the research base is given and project budget and project schedule is
described in the chapter (Kim, 2013). The organisation of the study has been highlighted as
different chapters and thus it will balance the flow of the chapters for any readers. The sampling
technique and the research method are also thoroughly discussed in the following company
(Christensen & Raynor, 2013). The sample size and the sampling tools and techniques are
discussed later in the chapter.
2. Background of the study
The background of this study is based in the study of IT sector growth over the years and
different products that have been developed to make the human life easier. The purpose of this
research also is to study the stimulation of developing the IT products and applications in

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everyday life of people (Christensen & Raynor, 2013). The social impact after developing the
products and the different demography of people who likes to use these products in their
everyday lives.
3. Research aims and objectives
3.1 Aims
The focused aim of this research is to gather information on the development of
Microsoft as global competitors. In addition, another aim is to study the emergence of
Information technology and in accordance with Microsoft.
3.2 Objectives
 To study the supporting role played by IT behind the growth of Microsoft
 To study the external factors that the company has faced during the initial stage and also
in the next years and the social impact of their products and innovations
 To study the impact of other companies innovations in their system
 To study information technology from its initial to current stage
3.3 Problem statement
There also have been some challenges for this industry in the last two or three decades.
The fear of reaching the stagnant stage has hit the industry in most cases. The most important
part of innovation that the company has faced in their initial stages and during their growth and
mature stage what are the plans and approach that, they have taken. Moreover, the problems,

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they have learnt from over the years and what where the customer’s feedback in their different
products are also the foundation of the study (Christensen & Raynor, 2013).

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3.4 Research questions
 How Microsoft has affected the Information technology sector?
 What would preference to use among the operating systems available for PC?
 What are the challenges that the company has faced during the growth period of
Information technology?

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Information Technology
initiation stage
Rise of Microsoft
Current stage of Microsoft
Social impact of Microsoft products in the
global market
Overall impact of IT in the global
market and society
Change of Java to android
External factors affect
Supporting role of other IT to Microsoft
4. Literature review
4.1 Conceptual framework
Figure: conceptual framework

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Source: created by author
4.2 History and development of information technology
The first ever known technology was abacus in the history. Then came the minicomputers
and computer technology and science was developed initially. Near about 1970 mainframes of
minicomputers were developed. The rise of IBM as computer technology development was
marked to be the initiation of growth period of this industry (Kim, 2013). Microsoft today is a
global leader and this journey by the company has been remarkable for many reasons. Microsoft
has been the key to worldwide development of different of technological advances. First of its
kind was used to create, manipulate and only distribute the data but that scenario has been
changed (Kerzner, 2013). The importance of the data transferability and accessibility has been
long realised by the professionals. The programs written in many language has been realised and
thus the functions of them were thoroughly tested in expectation that this innovation will save a
lot of time and effort in working process of human (Agrawal, Khatri & Srinivasan, 2012). The
application in hardware and software were first ranged for simple addition, multiplication,
subtraction and division. In addition, after that the evolution came to a point are people are able
to search and access historical data and build programs and databases based on that. Virtual
reality and commercial electronic media development has caught the attention of all existing
people (Goasduff & Pettey, 2012). This has also allowed people to travel virtually in the
available.
4.3 Rise of Microsoft
Company history

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Paul Allen and Bill Gates are founders of Microsoft. The preliminary operation was on
programming and named their founded company as Traf-O-Data in 1972. The rudimentary work
was to track and analyse data traffic in automobile. The first product was a basic interpreter and
named Altair BASIC (Kerzner, 2013).
The first operating system invented in 1980, Unix and Xenix was the first version. With
the excusive demand in MS-Dos operating system, later they became the most important
Personal Computer operator and vendor in the local and global market. Microsoft invented
Microsoft windows and OS 2 with graphical extension and in 1985, they went unrestricted with
the rise in the stock of share. From 1985 till 1994, they extended their program facilities in their
wide product range in 32 bit OS as well in Microsoft Windows NT (Riha et al., 2014). It also
happened to grow in the World Wide Web of computer networking. Online services were also
given with the different product assistance (Zhang, 2012). Like the other companies, they also
shaped Trusted Computing Platform Alliance and started programming in protecting its own
research base.
Current state
Microsoft is also a technology exclusive company, that translates its mission to empower
every person’s experience in personal computing. Different company has acquired the hardware
corporation of this industry. IBM’s products have developed the foundation of their hardware
business. The platforms and productivity innovation in the field of service they are, mobile
cloud computing and software also in considered under their product service area (Agrawal,
Khatri & Srinivasan, 2012). Some of the focused area for discussion of present state of the
company operating from it is headquarter in United States capital Redmond, Washington is

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below. Cloud revenue rate was around $12.1 billion. In addition, Office 365 consumer
subscription has increased. Microsoft dynamics CRM online seat additions also increased
(Tasevska, Damij & Damij, 2014). Microsoft Azure and SQL databases Customer relationship
management program solution doubled over the year. Windows 10 upgradation. Xbox active
users also increased. Today the company is more focused on developing the networking platform
by using the World Wide Web. The windows 10 development and Microsoft Azure is platform
of their innovation (Goasduff & Pettey, 2012). After the event of stepping down of Steve
Ballmer, Satya Nadella is leading the business to more cloud and enterprise based. Then
acquiring the Nokia devices and services they are restructuring the company for millions
(Goasduff & Pettey, 2012). The innovation products are windows 10 in mobile, Microsoft edge,
Azure and Hololens and other upgradation of their applications and services.
4.4 Social impact and challenges faced by Microsoft
Some of the biggest challenges faced by Microsoft were, the development of android,
which affected their market share drastically. This was a challenge given by the competitors
Apple, Lenovo, Dell, HP an Acer and others (Zhu, Mukhopadhyay & Kurata, 2012). Another
challenge faced by was the sustainability of their new innovative products except office365. The
development of Bing was regarded second to any Google search engine. In addition, the pricing
of the products with compared to others are known to be of high priced. However, these
challenges were faced head on by the company and they remained competitive during their
growth stage (Silverman, 2016).

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4.5 Impact of information technology in society
The global scenario of communication has changed during this last three decades. It has
also reached the heights of unprecedented peak of the achievable success. The idea of
networking through internet has changed also during the years. All of this had been possible
because of information technology emergence (Agrawal, Khatri & Srinivasan, 2012). The
immense of scope of increasing efficiency has revolutionised the learning IT (Kairam, Wang &
Leskovec, 2012). The close interaction between two people has become closer for developing IT
products. The existing print media industry is now facing challenges because of this electronic
media industry. The quick dispatch of various information facilitated by IT products are have
become very resourceful for people (Goasduff & Pettey, 2012).
4.6 External factors and issues faced by software engineers
Innovation in the software industry has been a constant factor faced by different
engineers. The business, which creates products and systems and services, are increasingly being
interconnected, instrumented and intelligent. The most common faces are IBM, Microsoft,
Google, Samsung and competitors in the global market (Chowdhury, 2013). Therefore, keeping
with the pace of this balance of innovation has been challenging for different engineers. The
honest collaboration of the management and governance are also developing and keeping with
the pace that integrates the lifecycles are being used (Zhu, Mukhopadhyay & Kurata, 2012). The
continuously evolving systems, products and applications and optimising the process has also
been a challenge for remaining in the life cycle. The industry needs more engineers and less
overheads and better business outcomes. The automation industry is one of the innovations of
these engineers (Kairam, Wang & Leskovec, 2012).

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5. Research methodology
5.1 Introduction
The research for this topic has been highlighted in the aims and objectives of the previous
chapter. Working on the problem statement a research has been designed both qualitative and
quantitative method (Bahr et al., 2013). The research design is for validate the findings of the
research and fully analyse the questions that are being given in the research questions. The
research methodology is to suggest pattern of research that is being done. The methodology
includes both qualitative and quantitative (Mackey & Gass, 2015). To study the impact of
Information technology and social impact of Microsoft and its products are evaluated on the
research by gathering secondary data that are being assessed in the literature review and primary
data collected for further insights of the products.
5.2 Research approach
Research onion is a systematic way of conducting a research and the methods that are
dependent upon the philosophy of the research approach. Both inductive and deductive ways are
the basic approach of mostly used path of researches. The inductive way of this approach is what
follows observation, data collection and analysis of the research questions and analyses the
questionnaires. The deduction approach is for observation pattern creation and research analysis
process (Baden-Fuller & Haefliger, 2013).
5.3 Data collection method
Researchers always must confirm that there are two kinds of sources of data collection,
primary and secondary data. Secondary data are collected from the journals, media,
government’s reports web and internet information and official previous data or research done on

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the subject previously. Here the literature review and conceptual framework of the sources have
been reviewed and gathered to build the foundation of the research (Tasevska, Damij & Damij,
2014). The primary data collection will be based on the interview and observation from different
sources and the responds from the questionnaires. The analysis of the qualitative and quantitative
data will also be gathered in the following chapters (Goasduff & Pettey, 2012).
5.4 Factors that needs to be considered
The validity, reliability, and practicality of the data are the phenomenon that is being
studied. The validity is known as the truthfulness of measurement and explanation of the data
collected (Silverman, 2016). . The internal and external validity of the social research methods
are identified and used in the arguments and analysis. The practicality of the research always
needs to be considered, while developing a research design (Mackey & Gass, 2015). The cost
and budget needs to be considered as well. Time scale and sample size needs to be considered in
conducting a primary research. Methods of collecting qualitative data can be of four types that
are, focus groups, individual interviews and action research (Tasevska, Damij & Damij, 2014).
In this research design the project budget has been given. In addition, the project schedule
according to the time line has been discussed in the following chapter.
5. 5 Sampling method
Sampling is a crucial part of conducting a survey. As this research requires doing a
primary research and analysis of a survey, therefore, choosing a perfect sample for research is
mandatory for data collection method. The two basic sampling methods are probability sampling
and non-probability sampling. As per the research requirements, the convenient probability
sampling as well as stratified sampling is needed for primary data collection process in this
research (Christensen & Raynor, 2013).

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5.6 Sample size
For this current study, the researcher needs to define the sample size of the research. 90%
of the respondents must be given most significant importance and their reply must be checked
and rechecked thoroughly. The sample size for this research is 60 people. For qualitative data
collection, method the organisation had been chosen as the Microsoft.
6. Organisation of the study
 The first chapter gives the overview of the study. The insights to the different chapters
are also given in short forms.
 The next chapter gives the research aims and objectives. The outline of the research
questions has also been given in the second chapter. The main purpose of this study and
other identified objectives of choosing this particular study and social platform of study
are also highlighted in the research.
 The next chapter is the foundation of the whole research and develops a conceptual
framework of the study. The mainframe of the study that has been discussed in the
literature review. This chapter also consolidates the idea of Information technology and
its overview of this industry.
 The next chapter is about the organisation Microsoft, which has been identified to base
this research on further.
 The next chapter highlights the conceptual framework of the research and what has been
discussed in the literature review in the study.
 Next, the chapter outlines the research methodology and sampling of the research that
needs to be done in the findings and analysis of data collected from primary and
secondary research.

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 The next chapter discusses the findings and analysis of the primary and secondary
research data. This also gives the interpretation of the secondary reviewed data.
 The last chapter analyses the conclusion and recommendation for the research purpose.

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7. Project Budget
Collecting secondary data 10$
Collecting primary data 45$
Research activities 12$
Use of different paid tools 30$
Facilitation charges 25$
Educational supplies 17$
Documenting interviews 5$
Major required equipments 15$
Miscellaneous expenses 11$
Total budget 170$

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8. Project schedule
week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 week 5 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8 week 9 week 10
Milestones
Introduction
Designing problem
sta tegment
Designing the resea rch
objectives
Designing the structure
Literature review
Building conceptua l
fra mework for this
research
Developing a na lysi s
Methodology
Designing res ea rch
approach
Identifying sa mple tools
and techni ques
Conducti ng primary
research
Al igning the s econda ry
collected data
Findings and analysis
Usings tools to develop
da ta
Interpreting data
Ana nlys ing the da ta
Conclusion
Summa ry of research
Build recommendatai on

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