Introductory Principles of Social Work Research Bruce A..docx

Introductory Principles
of Social Work Research
Bruce A. Thyer
The scientific approach to unsolved problems is the only one
which contains any
hope of learning to deal with the unknown.
A
-Bertha Capen Reyno lds (1942, p . 20)
n emphasis on the value of scientific research has always
characterized
professional social work education and practice. Indeed, this
emphasis is
one of the hallmarks that distinguishes genuinely "professional"
services
from other forms of private/public philanthropy and charity and
the
provision of social care motivated by religious, familial,
altruistic, or
philosophical reasons. In the history of social work in )Jorth
America and
Great Britain, as well as in other European nations, the system
of poor laws and other rel-
atively unsystematic attempts to care for the destitute gave rise
during the latter part of
the 19th century to an orientation labeled scientific
philanthropy. Coincident with the
emergence of "friendly visiting;' settlement houses, formalized

academic train ing, and
ot her prec ursors to the professionalization of social work, the
development of charitable
se rvices gui ded h y a sc ienti fic orienta ti o n has evolved to
the present day.
Social work historian John Graham provides a good case study o
n a To ronto charity
hom e for women called The Haven, established in 1878 by re li
gio us elites, that gra dually
made Lhe tra nsition Lo a rn o re secularl y o riented and p
rofess ional service. Gr aham (l.992)
describes the completion of this tra nsition in 1927 ::is follows:
Profess ional social work, therefore, had been firm ly installed
at The Haven, and the
last vestiges of the benevolent philanthropy of the nineteenth
century were aban-
doned. A growing sense of professional identity moreover
demanded a strict delin-
eation bet.ween the social worker and the social agency
volunteer. Differentiating the
former from the latter was a scientific knowledge base and
specialized skills which
were the social worker's alone. (p. 304, italics added)
Such a transition can be said to characterize the. majority of
social work programs across
orth America by the early part of the 20th century. Currently,
one widely used definition
of social work can be found in The Social Work Dictionary
published by the N'ational
Association of Social Workers- "the applied science of helping
people achieve an effective

2 THE HANDBOOK OF S OCIAL WORK R ESEARCH M
ETHODS
lerel of psychosocial function and effecting societal changes to
enhance the well-being of
all people" (Ril rker, 2003, p. 408, italics added). Many states
further defme the practice of
clinical social work, and Florida's definition provides a
representative examp le of the inter-
connec tedness of social work and science: "The ' practice of
clinical social work' is defined
as the use of scientific and applied knowledge, theories and
methods for the purp oses of
describing, preventing, evaluating, and treating, indiv idual,
couple, fa mi ly o r gro up behav-
ior " (Florida Departmen L of Hea.lth, 2008, ita lics added) .
These definitions illustrate the
close lin kage between the practice of social work and the world
of scientific inquiry.
''here do we social workers come from organizationally? Vlc
have many roots, but a
central one was the establishment in 1865 of the American
SocjaJ Science Association
(ASSA), a generalist organization influenced by French
sociologist Auguste Com te's then
novel philosophy of science labeled positivism, which called for
the objective study of
human society and behav io r using the same tools of scientific
inquiry that were proving
so successful in the biological and physical scie nces. rrom the
ASSA sprouted numerous
o ffs hoots, some of which thrive to this day, although the
parent g roup crumbled in 1909.

from the ASSA, in 1879, eme rged the Co nfe rence of
Charities, which in 1.881 evolved into
the Nat ional Conference of Charities and Correction (NCCC),
described as "a forum for
the communication of the ideas and values co nnccLcd with
scientific char ity" (Germain,
1970, p. 9). In turn, the NCCC was renamed the Na tional
Conference on Social Work in
19 17. This label lasted until 1957, when it was altered to the
National Conference on
Social Welfare, which gradually expired during the 1980s.
More recently, in 1994, a small group of social workers led by
Janet B. W. Williams estab-
lished a new scientifically oriented social work membership
organization known as the
Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR). AIJ social
workers with a n interest in scien-
tific research in social wo rk are eligible to join. T he SSWR
quickly grew from 27 1 members
in 1995 to more than 1,300 in 2009, and the organization has an
active news letter and
program of annual in tern ational conferences. The first
professional SSWR co nference was
held in 1995 in Washingto n, D.C., and has been followed
annually since that time with very
successful and high-quality conferences (see www.sswr.org) .
The SSWR conferences offer a
hos t of competitively reviewed symposia, papers, and posters;
P.lcnary addresses by promi-
nent social work researchers; and an awards program that
recognizes outstanding e..xamples
of recen tl y published social work research. Because of its
superb organization and the top
quality of its presentations, the SSWR conference has rapidly
become Lhe preferred venu e

for social work researchers to present their research findings.
Moreover, it has become the
conference ol choice for schools of social work to seek
interviews w it h potential new faculty
and fo r potential new faculty to seek academ ic positions. In
1999, lhc SSWR began provid-
ing its members a subscription to Lhc bimon thly peer-reviewed
journal Research on Social
Work Practice, an in dependen t periodical established in 1991.
This grow th of the SSWR
augurs well for the continuing voice of science within
mainstream social work.
A related bu t independent development was the establishment
of the Institute for the
Advancemc11l of Social Work Research (IASWR) in 1993. The
mission of the IASWR is to
create infrasrructure for social work research, to lead advocacy
efforts to fund social work
research, to help stakeholders view social work research as
valuable, to provide training
and professional development programs for social work
researchers, to persuade social
workers to undertake careers in research, to provide a free Web-
based research-focused
newsletter, and to promote disc ip l.in ary and inte rdisciplinary
resea rch collaboration . Pive
nalional pro fess io nal social work organizations contributed to
the developrncn l o f the
IASWR and are represented on its governing board. Its origi nal
p urpose of advocating for
the establishment of a federally funded Na 1ional Center for
Social Work Research failed in
the face of fiscal austerity, bu t the IASWR has expanded its
remit as described above (see
http://ww>v.iaswresearch.org/) .

(MAPTER l • INTRODUCTORY PRI N CI PLES OF SOCIAL
W ORK RESEARCH 3
Anolhcr organizalional reso urce for social work research is the
Social Work Topical
Interest Group (TIG) found within the American Evaluation
Association (AEA) . The
AEA has about 5,000 members, and several hundred of these
comprise the social work
TIC. The AEA holds an annual conference as well as regional
ones, has an active journals
program, and provides training and consultation services, and
its Web site has a wealth of
useful resources (e.g., locating measurement instruments, how
to locate an evaluator; see
hup://www.cval.org/aboutus/organization/aboutus.asp).
The National Association of Social Workers is the largest
professional social work
group in the world, with about 150,000 members. Almost aJJ
are M.S.W. and B.S.W.-lcvcl
trained professionals, and the organization primarily serves Lhc
needs of ils practitioner
member base, not those of social work research ers. The NASW
does not host an annual
conference but does have one research journal, Social Work
Research J new initia tive is a
social wo rk resea rch Well page (see
www.socialworkers.org/research/), cosponsored with
the IASWR, which is itself ostensibly independent but is
actual1y h oused within the
NJSW offices in Washinglon, D.C.

Social work resea rchers also find welcoming organizational
suppo rt from various dis-
ciplinary (e.g., American Psychological Association, American
Sociological Associatio n,
Associa li on for Behavior Anal ysis) and in terdisciplinary
(e.g., Am erican P ublic Health
Association, Associatio n fo r Advancement of Behavioral and
Cognitive Therapies,
American Orthopsychiatric Association, the Gerontological
Society of America) groups.
These groups typically have thriving annual conferences, a
wcll-cslablished journals
program, and training opportunities social workers can take
advantage of. Thus, both
budding and experienced social workers have ample
opporlunities to network with
research -oriented colleagues both within and oulsidc of lhe
discipline.
Scientific Perspectives on Practice
The role of scientific research in social welfare can be seen
through many early writings,
including a11 article titled "Scientific Charity," presented at the
1889 meeting of the NCCC
(cited in Germain, 1970, p. 8), and one titled "A Scientific
Basis for Charity" (Wayl and,
1894), which appeared in the influential journal The Cha.rities
Review. Such perspectives
cu lmi n ated in the publication of Richmond's (1917) Social
Diagnosis, an influenLial text
that wholeheartedly extolled the virtues of positivist science.
lndeed, in 1921, Richmond
received an honorary M.A. degree from Smith College for
"esLablishing th e scientific basis
of a new profession" (cited in Germain, l 970, p. J 2).

The possible examples of conference talks, journaJ articles,
chapters, and books illus-
trating the central reliance on scientific research as a guiding
force within early social work
arc roo numerous to mention further here. Germain (1970)
remains one of the very best
reviews of this "ancient" history of our profession. More recent
is the history of the Social
Work Research Group (SWRG), a short-lived professional
membership organ ization
established in 1949 that became one of the original seven
constituents of the l'ational
Association of Social Workers (NASW) in 1955,
transmogrifying itself into the NASW's
Research Section. In 1963, this became the NASW's Council on
Social Work Research,
where it gradually faded from v iew by the mid-1960s as the
NASW allowed the research
mission established in its bylaws to Largely lapse. Graham, Al-
Krenawi, and J3radshaw
(2000) have prepared an excellent historical study of the rise
and demise of the SWRG.
Coinciden t with these organizational and policy developments
related to the integra-
tion of science and social work during the past quarter century
have been t hree related
perspectives on practice. The first is known as empirical
clinica.l practice (ECP), the second
4 THE HANDBOOK OF SOCIA i WORK RFSFARCH
MFTHOr>S

is called empirically supported treatments (ESTs), and the third
is labeled evidence-based
practice (F.BP ). Th ese are reviewed briefly in turn.
Empirical Clinical Practice
Empirical clinical practice was the name of a book authored by
social workers Siri
Jayaratne and Rona Levy (1979), who describe the
characteristics of the ECP model they
espouse: "Empirical practice is conducted by clinicians who
strive Lo measure and
demonstrate the effect of their clin ical practice by adapting
traditional experimental
research techniques to clinical practice" (p. xiii). The authors
focus on teaching social
workers the use of relatively simple research methods ca lled
single-system research
designs to empirically evaluate the outcomes of their work.
l'hey be lieve t hat "clinical
practice that can empirically demonstrate its effect prov ides the
basis for the best service
to the client" (p. xiv). They contended that ECP ca n be
::idopted by p ractitioners using vir-
tually any theoretical model of practice so long as it is possib le
to measure changes in the
client, re late t·hese changes (provis ionally) Lo soc ial work
inle rvc nlion , and Lhen base
future services on these observations. The auth ors advoca te
that social workers should
rely on previo us research to help guide their cho ices of
interve11tions that they offer
clients. In their words, "The clinician would first be inte rested
in us in g a n in terventi on
strategy that has been successful in the past . . .. When
established techniques are avail -

able, they should be used, but they should be based on objective
evaluation rather than
subjective feelin g" (p. 7) . ECP involves the careful and
repeated measure of client func-
tioning, using reliable and valid measures repeated over time,
combined with selected
treatments based on the best available scientific evidence. Their
entire book is devoted to
describing how to do these activities. A similar social work text
by Wodarski ( 1981 ), titled
The Role of Research in Clinical Practice, advocated for much
the sa m e thing- a preference
to make use of psychosocial treatments that scientific research
had really demonstrated to
be of benefit to clients, measuring client functioning in reliable
an<l valid ways, and
empirically evaluating outcomes with individual clients and
larger groups.
The banner of ECP was picked up by a number of subsequent
social workers, and a
rather large (a nd not uncontroversial ) literalure has grown
around Lhese nolions (e.g.,
Corcoran, 1985; Ivanoff, Blythe, & .8riar, 1987; Ivanoff,
H.obinson, & Blythe, 1987;
G. MacDonald, 1994; Thyer, 1996). The influence of ECP has
not been inconsiderable. For
example, in 1982, just 3 years fol lowin g the publicalion of
F.mpirical Clinical Practice
(Jayaratne & Levy, 1979) , the curriculum policy statement of
the Co un ci l on Social Work
Ed ucation (CSWE, 1982) included a new mandate Lh a l
research co urses musl now Leach
"designs for the systematic evaluation of the student's ow n
practice . . . [and should] pre-
pare them systematically to evaluate their own practice and co

ntr ibute to the generation
of knowledge for practice" (pp. 10- 11). Similar sta ndards still
ca n be found in the curren t
CSWE guidel ines. Insistin g that individual practi tio ners co
ndu cl systema tic outcome
evaluations of their own services was a remarkable professional
standard, one that has not
ycl bee11 cm ul a lcd by educational and practice guidelines
wiLhin clinical psychology o r
psychiatry in the present day. Reid ( 1994) provides a ni ce
overview of the rise, influence,
an d dissemjnation of the ECP movement.
Empirically Supported Treatments
Subscquenl lo Lhc ECP movement within social work, a rclaled
iniLiaLive developed
within clinical psychology called empirically validated
treatments. During the mid - l 990s,
the president of Section lll (Society for a Science of Clinical
Psychology) of Division 12
CHAPTCR 1 • IN l ROOUtTORY P RI NCIPLES OF S OCIAL
W ORK R ESEARCH 5
(Clinical Psychology) of the American Psychological
Association convened a Task Force
on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures, a
gro up charged with two
functions: (a) develop a scientifically defen sible set of criteria
that can be used to deter-
mine whether a given psychological technique ca n be called
empirically va lida ted and
( b) cond uct co mprehensive reviews of the research literature,
apply these cr iter ia, a nd

come up with, in effec t, lists of psychological procedures that
fulfill these criteria
and, therefore, can be co nsidered, in a scientific sense,
empirically validated.
Th e evid enti ary sta ndards ultimately decided o n by the task
force were actually rather
modest, consisting of the following criteria:
I. At least two good between-group design experiments
demonstrating efficacy in one
or mo re of the following ways:
A. Superior to pill or psychological placebo or to another
treatment
B. Equivalent LO an already established treatment in
experiments with adequate
statistical power
II. A large ser ies of single-case design expe rim en ts ( N > 9)
demonstratin g efficacy that
must have done the following:
A Used good experimental designs
B. Compared the intervention to another treatment (as in I.A. )
Among the further criteria are that the psychological techniques
must be based on
well-proceduralized treatmenL manuals, that the characteristics
of the client sam ples are
clearly defined, and th at the positive effects must have been
demon strated by at least two
different inves tigators or investigatory teams. A psychological
treatment m eeting the
preceding criteria co uld be said to be well established. A som

ewhat less stringent set of cr i-
teria could be followed to potentially label a treat ment as
probably efficacious (Chambless
et al. , 1996).
With the criteria in place, the task force busily got to work in
seeing which psycholog-
ical treatments co uld be labeled empirically validated and
probably efficacious, and reports
soon began appearing indicating empirically validated
inLerventions for a wide array of
psychosocial disorders such as depression, panic disorder, pain,
and schizophre nia. As
with the ECP movement within social work, the task force
within psychology did not
escape controversy. For one thing, the task force recognized
that labeling a treatm ent as
empirically validaled see med to close the discussio n off,
implying perhaps a stronger level
of research evidence than was justified. Subseq uent reports of
the task force used lhe
more t empered language of empirically supporled lreatments
(ESTs) . Entire issues oflead-
ing professional journals (i.e., a 1996 issue of Clinical
Psychology: Science and Practice, a
1998 issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, a 1998 issue of
Psychotherapy Research) were devoted to the topic, as were
considerable independent lit-
eratures (e.g., Sanderson & Woody, 1995). The influence of the
EST movem ent also has
been strong, and the work of the Division 12 task fo rce was
commented on extrem ely
favorably in Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General
(Hatcher, 2000). The volume
titled A Guide lo Treatments That Work (Natha n & Go rman,

2007), now in its third edi-
tion, i.s an exemp lary resource for social workers seeking
relatively current information
about empirically sup ported treatments for a wide va ri ety of
m ental hea lth prob lems.
Division 12, Sec.:Lion HT (The Society for a Science of
Clinical Psychology) co ntinues its
work in defining the cr iteria and language used to describe
empirically suppo rted treat-
ments and maintains a Web site providing curre nt information
on this influential initia-
tive (see http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/eklonsky-
/divisionl2/index.html).
6 Tll E HAIWBOOK OF S OCIAL W ORK R ES EARCH
METHODS
Evidence-Based Practice
Coinc ident with the EST initiatives in clinical psychology have
b een related activities in
med ic ine labeled evidence-based practice, defined as "the
conscientious, explicit, and judi-
ciou s use of the current best evidence in making decisions
about the care of individual
patients" (Sackett, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 1997, p.
2). On its face, EBP would
not seem to be a radical notion, and indeed, most readers would
ass ume that such a sta n-
dard already was in place in most of the hea Ith professions.
St'td ly, to a great extent, this is
not the case, altho ugh a small but in fluen tit'tl grou p of health
care providers is attempting
to make it so. EBP and EST actually are much more
sophisticated var iants of th e earlier

ECP model of social work, but the spirit and intent of all three
movements ECP (devel-
oped within social work), EST (developed within psychology),
and EBP (developed
within medicine)-are the same. EBP is gradually supplanting the
ECP and EST initia-
tives within social work and psychology. The current president
of the Society for the
Science of Clinical Psychology (a section of Division 12 of the
Amer ican Psychological
Association) pub lished an edito rial titled "Evidence-Based
Psychoth erapy: A Graduate
Course Proposal" (Persons, 1999 ), and some social workers
have begun using the EBP
language, most notably Gambrill (1999) w ith her thoughtful
arLicle titled "Evidence-
Based Practice: An Alternative to Authority-Based Practice,"
which introduced El3P to the
socia l work literature. The past decade has seen the publication
of enough social work
books on the EBP topic to fill a bookshelf. The melding of these
disciplinary perspectives
i11lo an interdisciplinary human services movemen t
generically ca lled evidence-based prac-
tice seems likely. Consider Perso ns's ( J 999) description of
EBP:
T he evidence- based practitioner:
• Provides informed consent for treatment
• Relies on the efficacy data (especially from RCTs [randomized
cl inical trials]) when
recomm ending and selecting and carrying out treatm ents
• Uses the empirical literature Lo gu ide decision-m aking
• Uses a systematic, hypothesis -testing approach to the

treatment of each case:
o Begins with careful assessment
o Sets dear and measurable goals
o Develops and individualized fo rmulation and a treatment plan
based on the
formulation
o Monitors progress toward the goals frequently and mod ifies
or ends treatment
as needed (p. 2)
WeU, perhaps Jayaralne and Levy ( 1979) were simply two
decades al1cad of their time. An
issue of the NASW News contained an article on the Surgeon
General's Report on Mental
Health and noted, "A challenge in the near term is to speed
transfer of new evidence-based
treatments and prevenlion interventions into diverse service
delivery settings and systems"
(O' Neill, 2000, p. 6, italics added ). The Surgeon General's
repo rt itself states clearly,
Responding to th e calls of managed menta l health and
behavioral heaJth ca re sys-
Lcms for evidence-based interventions will have a much needed
and discernable
impact on practice .... It is essential to expand the supply of
effective, evidence-
based services throughout the nation. (Hatcher, 2000, chap. 8, p.
453 )
EBP requires knowin g what helps socia l work clients and what
does not help them.
It requires being able Lo distinguish b etween unverified opin-

io ns a bout p sychosocial
CHAPTER l • I NTRODUCTORY P RINCIPLES OF SO CIAL
WORK RESEARCH 7
interventions and facts about their effectiveness. And separa
ting facts from fictions is
what science is prelly good at doing. Jot perfectly, and not
without false starts, but the
publicly verifiable and potentially testable conclusion s of
scientific research render this
form of knowledge buil ding an inherently self-correctin g one
(in the long nm), a con-
siderable advan Lagc over o ther "ways of knowing."
EBP differs from its precursor initiatives in that it does not tell
socia l workers what
interven tions should be provided to clients. TL d oes not list so
-called best practices, create
practice guidel ines, or develop lists of supposedly emp irically
based treatments. Nor docs
it unduly privilege certain forms of evidence above all others.
Each of the above three sen -
tences represents commo n misconceptions of EB P. EBP is
actually a process of inquiry
offered to practitioners, described for physicians in Straus,
Richardson, Galsziou, and
Haynes (2005), but readily adaptable to providers in all of the h
uman service professions.
These steps are as follows (from Straus ct al., 2005, pp. 3-4) :
Step l: converting th e need for information (abou t prevention,
diagnosis, prognosis,
therapy, causa tion, etc.) in to an answerable qucs Lion.

Step 2: tracking down Lhe besl evidence with which to answer
that question.
Step 3: critically appraising that evidence for its validity
(closeness to the truth),
impact (size of the effect), and applicability (usefulness in our
clinical practice) .
Step 4: integrating the critical appraisal with our clinical
expertise and wil11 our
patient's unique biology, values, and circumstances.
Step 5: Evaluating our effectiveness and efficiency in executing
steps 1-4 and seeking
ways to im prove them b oth for next time.
Each chapter in Straus et al. (2005) addresses on.e of these
steps, and they have been
adapted for use by soc ial workers in an exce ll ent series of
entries appearing in 171e Social
Worker's Desk Reference (see Roberts, 2009, pp. 1115-1182).
EBP states that social workers
need to be familiar with the best available evidence addressing
the questions related to
client services and to their particular practice situation and to
integrate their appraisal of
this information into an assessment of their own skills, the
client's preferences, relevant
professional and personal val ues and ethical standards, cost,
feasibility, and resources . All
of these factors a re rcleva n L, no t just what the research
evidence indicates. And by best
evidence, what is meant is not so-called gold-standard st udies
such as randomi zed con-
trolled trials or meta -analyses (see later chapters on Lh esc

LOpics in thi s book) but simply
t he best available relevan t ev idence. If there are no stud ies of
superlative quality, then you
locate and assess those of lesser quality. Lots of evidence can
go in to th e mix, including
quasi-experimental studies, single-subject studies, corrclational
studies, descriptive work,
epidemiological evidence, qualitative investigations, case h
istories, theory, and infom1ed
clinical opinion. There is always evidence for a social worker to
consult, even if it is nol
evidence of the highest quality. As with ECP, EBP also
encourages practitioners to evalu-
ate the outcomes of their work with individual cl ients using a
research methodology
called si ngle-subject designs .
Another option is for social workers to co nsu lt systematic
reviews (SRs) of the research
evidence related to various answerable que~tions invo lving
assessment and interven tive
meth ods. The two gro ups most responsible for preparing high-
quality and independent
SRs are called the Cochrane Collaboration (sec www.cochrane.o
rg), focusing on issues
related to health care, and the Campbell Co ll aboration (see
www.campbellcollaboration
.org), focusing on social welfare, education, and criminal
justice. SRs are prepared by
8 THt HAN DBOOK OF SOC IAL W ORK RtSEARCH M El
HODS
qualified research teams who obtain articles and reports from all

over the world dealing
with a specific issue. These reports are minutely analyzed and
critiqued and the collected
information surrunar ized in a readable format, with a take-
away .message something like
Treatment Xis well-supported as an effective treatment for
clients with Problem Y; The avail-
able evidence indicates that Treatment X is ineffective in
helping clien ts with Problem Y;
Clients with Problem Y who receive Treatment X demonstrated
impaired outcomes, com -
pared to clients who receive no treatment. You can see hmV"
this information would be of
immense value to social workers. Here is a sampling of SRs
currently available on the
Cochrane database that is of relevance to social workers:
• Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-
compulsive disorder in
children and adolescents
• Family intervention for bipolar disorder
• Family therapy for depression
• Psychological debriefing for preventing posttraurnatic stress
disorder
• Psychotherapy for bulimia nervosa and binging
• Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for common mental
disorders
And here are some fonnd on the Campbell Collaboration Web
site:
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy for men who physically a buse
their partner
• Cognitive-behavioral intervention for children who have been
sexually abused

• Interventions intended to reduce pregnancy-related outcomes
among adolescents
• School-based educational programs for the prevention of
childhood sexual abuse
• Work programs for welfare recipients
These systematic reviews represent the highest quality and up -
to-date critical appraisals
of the existing research literature addressing particular
psychosocial and health problems
e:>..'})erienced by social work clients. They are a wonderful
resource for practitioners seeking
such information and are integral to the conduct of evidence-
based practice.
To sum marize, ECP suggested that social work treatment
should be chosen based on
support via randomized controlled studies and that social
workers need to evaluate the
outcomes of their practice with clients using single-system
research designs. The EST ini-
tiative came up with a list of evidentiary criteria needed to label
a given treatmen t as
"empirically supported." Once these criteria were in hand, lists
of psychosocial interven-
t ions meeting these standards were published. RBP provides
more of a process to guide
clinical and practice decision making, which explicitly
embraces evidence from many
sources (albeit urging one to pay particular attention to
evidence of the highest quality)
and explicitly includes nonscientific considerations such as
client preferences and values
into this decision -making process. In many ways, EBP is a
more sophisticated and mature
conceptualization of the conduct of practice than ECP and EST,

and these latter two in i-
tiatives largely have been subsurn.ed by EBP.
On Terms
The preceding brief overview helps to bring us to the present,
wherein social work is
attempting to really implement our original aspirations
pcrtainiillg to being based on a
foundation of scientific research. As in most intellectual
undertakings, it always is helpful
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SuperTax is an American tax preparation software package
developed in the mid-1980s.
SuperTax Corporation is headquartered in Mountain View,
California.
2
3
SuperTax Information
Desktop Software.
Support MS Windows and Mac OS.
Software method: CD/DVD media format.
Different versions:
SuperTAX Basic, Deluxe, Premier, and Home & Business.
Used by millions of users and organizations.
4
SuperTAX Project
SuperTAX has hired your group as a consultant to move their

Desktop Software to a Traditional IT Hosted Software, available
Online.
5
For Discussion:
Find the challenges that your team will encounter attempting to
move SuperTAX Software to the new platform.
Prepared a presentation for the class.
On your Group you will need to define positions.
For example:
Project Manager, Senior Project Network, Senior Project
Engineer, etc.
6
Infrastructure
Software Development
Software Testing
Marketing & Business Model
Project Management
CHALLENGES

7
Infrastructure
No more test in a single machine. (CD/DVD format model)
Test in a production cluster. (20, 30 users?)
A larger cluster can bring problems. (1000’s of users)
Testing must be done for different clients (mobile, desktops,
OS)
Small performance bottleneck. Slow performance.
CHALLENGES
8
Marketing & Business Model
One time fixed cost vs. subscription model
Before a CD was sold, now a subscription model.
Maintenance and replacement of cooling, power, and server is
required
CHALLENGES
9
Project Management
Project can take many months to years for Software
Development cycle.
What model is appropriate for Hosted application. (Agile vs.

waterfall)
Ability to try new features faster.
CHALLENGES
Running head: INTERSESSION 1 FINAL PROJECT
PROJECTION 1
INTERSESSION 1 FINAL PROJECT PROJECTION 9
INTERSESSION 1 FINAL PROJECT PROJECTION
Shalini Kantamneni
Ottawa University
SUMMARY
The successful implementation of cloud adaptation project
requires an effective and efficient team which includes the
following.
1. Senior Management - Executive Project Sponsor or Product
Owner
The executive project sponsor or product owner is the one who
oversees project at the executive level. This person is
responsible for setting and prioritizing the goals which drive
towards the successful completion of the project and also held
accountable for it. He or she will always be the decision maker
for any changes happening throughout the project.
2. Legal Department
Legal department has to make sure that the product is built
according to regulatory compliances if any, and also making
sure accountability and integrity are well-maintained during the
entire project implementation. They will also be responsible for
finalizing the Terms & Conditions of the product.
3. Information Security

The security team will be responsible for setting up firewalls,
anti-virus, encryptions, incident management, escalation
procedures, disaster recovery procedures and making sure the
product is built as per security standards.
4. Sales and Marketing
This team will be responsible for analyzing current market
trends of similar software products in the cloud space, analyze
various user bases, build subscription models and strategize
marketing for new cloud version of product.
5. Business Users or Subject Matter Experts
The subject matter experts will be responsible for providing the
business requirements and technical specifications for the
project. They will provide business rules and procedures,
represent business needs to the IT team and take the
implemented product back to the business teams and customers.
They will be responsible for validating the requirements during
user acceptance testing phase and provide approval for the
changes implemented.
6. Project Management
The project manager will be responsible for planning and
execution of the project. He or she will monitor the progress,
try to identify the risks and prepare a mitigation plan.
7. Information Technology
The IT team consists of system architect, business analyst,
developers and testers. The architect will be responsible for
designing the system architecture based on the business
requirements. The business analyst will be responsible for
gathering and documenting the requirements and also for
maintaining them. The developers will be responsible for
technical design, coding and implementation. The testers will be
responsible for test case creation and execution to deliver a bug
free product.
References

· Kale, Vivek. Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and
Technology Managers: From Distributed Computing to
Cloudwa.. [VitalSource Bookshelf].
PROJECTION 1
9INTERSESSION 3 FINAL PROJECT PROJECTION
Shalini Kantamneni
Ottawa University
Intersession3 Final Project Projection
Introduction:
Assuming that the company doesn’t have a mature IT
organization, Hybrid cloud deployment model will be the best
option. This hybrid model will be combination of public and
private (outsourced) models. This will reduce the startup costs
for migrating to cloud services.
Hybrid Deployment Model:
The company should first identify critical vs. non-critical
applications of their business processes. The company should
select non-critical application which would have least impact on
their business and begin migration with it to public cloud
platform. This will help the company to transition smoothly
without risking their business.
The public model also helps the company gain insights of cloud
models which will in turn help them in outsourcing critical parts
of their application to a private cloud provider. Since this is the
first-time implementation, migration costs will be low and at
the same time the company will have an opportunity to gain
knowledge on IT requirements, cost savings, infrastructure
requirements, skills needed and improved functionality
compared to current software. However, there is a security risk
migrating to a public cloud platform for which appropriate

measures must be taken.
There may be certain limitations to understand the underlying
operations of public cloud platform since it is owned by the
cloud provider. It is good to have company employees certified
of cloud services who can analyze the new functionality for
improved features which will also help them in private cloud
model implementation.
The company should also consider the user experience before
transitioning to new cloud platform. Based on the analysis in
the public cloud platform, the company will now have an idea of
what worked, what did not work and whether it is good to
proceed with cloud migration.
After fully analyzing the public cloud platform, the company
should start slow transition process for private outsourced cloud
model. After selecting an appropriate provider, it should list out
the hardware and software requirements, infrastructure
requirements, security, data center requirements, user workload
to accommodate the new cloud model. The company should also
consider the new features that worked and whether they can be
included or improved further in the private cloud platform.
References
· https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-
1.amazonaws.com/5c06bfb1d2454/2802315?response-content-
disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-
8%27%278.%2520A%2520Group%2520Decision-
Making%2520Method%2520for%2520Selecting%2520Cloud%2
520Computing%2520Service%2520Model.pdf&response-
content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-
HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20191111T020044Z&X-Amz-
SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-
Credential=AKIAIBGJ7RCS23L3LEJQ%2F20191111%2Fus-
east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-

Signature=cb3846a26a83da813e5fd24dabea2f83a2a6bc46cd75ac
967476081afaacf0c9
·
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/94da/fa9c3421d7a10fd13ff9473
18b0891b06a68.pdf
· http://www.mecs-press.org/ijitcs/ijitcs-v9-n6/IJITCS-V9-N6-
7.pdf
8%27%279783319956664.pdf&response-content-
type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-
SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20191111T014640Z&X-Amz-
Signature=c7c4e9a820bb784e307ebacc977d3615f5b33882db31d
d606a77661f0c2fd162
Running head: Intersession 2 final project projection 1
Intersession 2 final project projection 9Intersession 2 Final
Project Projection
Shalini Kantamneni
Ottawa University
Intersession 2 Final Project Projection
Introduction
SuperTax software is a American tax preparation software
developed in mid 90’s. The purpose of this project is to migrate
the SuperTax software into cloud platform and make it available
to all the home and business users. This document covers scope,
architecture and the challenges we face before migrating any
software to cloud.
Scope
The scope of this project is to migrate the SuperTax software to

cloud and make the SuperTax software available to both
individual and business users. Initially, the software will be
available for free on trial basis but based on the demand we are
planning it to move to paid subscription options.
Architecture and Planning
The main focus will be on architecture. During migration,
we must focus on what type of application software we are
moving to either SaaS, PaaS/IaaS. Previously the organizations
used to follow CORBA technology to develop the applications.
Now we are planning to use the Java Remote Method invocation
(RMI) during the development and deployment phase of
software. We use PaaS where we use the J2EE technology and
we can develop the application using the .Net language. For the
basic functionality testing we need to use SaaS for testing the
basic functionality of software. During the testing phase we
perform different types of testing like smoke testing, regression
testing, functional and integration testing. This helps us to
know the further developments required in applications.
For the security and maintenance today, there are different
types of tool available like Amazon Beanstalk, Microsoft Azure
and different Salesforce tools to maintain the data and
architecture. We can maintain the data by having the servers in
the same location. This helps in reducing the production cost
and maintenance cost.
During project implementation, Agile methodology will be
better software development lifecycle methodology. Since this
is new, any changes to the code can be made and tested during
sprints based on the feedback of stakeholders.
Challenges
Currently, most of the organizations are using the tools which
are available online which are creating main issues during
managing the software and also security issues. Since this is
related to individual’s tax information, we need to mainly focus
on security we provide for the database and also the type of tool
we are using to maintain the software. Now-a-days most of the
organizations are facing the issue with the data leakage even in

the cloud platform. We need to focus on the security provided
to the data in the cloud as it contains confidential information.
We can use different types of tools to maintain the data in order
to avoid the security breach.
References
· https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/the-cloud-
strategy-canvas-a-users-guide/
· https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/5-questions-to-
answer-when-building-a-cloud-strategy/
·
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9d50/914eaa174785dfd0e3f014
38f550265af94a.pdf
8%27%27evaluation_of_cloud_computing_services_based_on_n
ist_800-145_20170427clean.pdf&response-content-
type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-
SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20191104T043434Z&X-Amz-
Signature=103a0217fc60f067698ec5f26310c3d3bc38989261e6b
7aee64a005caef8e58f
· https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8765563
PROJECTION 1
9INTERSESSION 4 FINAL PROJECT PROJECTION
Shalini Kantamneni

Ottawa University
Intersession4 Final Project Projection
Introduction:
In this week we are discussing about which cloud service model
we are going to use for the organization. Assuming that the
users of the software include both the home users and business
users, we are considering the SaaS service model as our cloud
service.
Software as a Service (SaaS) Model:
Before deciding the type of service model, company should
consider the usage of the software by different users. Assuming
that the users use the software once in year and business users
may use four times in a year, we are considering SaaS model.
Some of the core benefits to consider SaaS are:
· Compatibility where all the users have same version of
software
· Global Accessibility
· Patch management and automatic updates
· Ready to use
In this model the users can use the cloud service based on their
usage. This will help the organization to reduce the cost in
developing and maintaining its servers, operating systems,
storage or data storage.
In this service model users can use the application using
different web services. Users can use the both application and
configure the application based on their usage. For business
users SaaS platforms like salesforce.com can be considered as it
helps to avoid development of additional programming for the
business users. This helps the users to use the application
without installing any additional software. Even if the devices
are not working the data will be secured.
While using this service the user should mention if there are
multiple users or the user alone use the service. By providing
the number of users details the components like data storage,

business components etc., can be shared with mentioned
multiple users. The users need not to worry about the
installation of software as the SaaS providers will take care of
it.
The SaaS applications having salesforce.com include Google
Docs for document sharing, Web e-mail systems like Gmail,
Yahoo and Hot mail. This model is useful for the small scale
industries who have very less budget and during collaborating
with multiple projects can use SaaS platform.
References
· https://www.fingent.com/blog/cloud-service-models-saas-iaas-
paas-choose-the-right-one-for-your-business
· https://doublehorn.com/saas-paas-and-iaas-understanding/
· https://www.paranet.com/blog/bid/128267/the-three-types-of-
cloud-computing-service-models
· https://www.bluepiit.com/blog/different-types-of-cloud-
computing-service-models/
· https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/iaas-paas-saas

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