INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR MANAGERS
I.S. 812
Fall Quarter 1995, Tuesdays and Fridays
Section 22-485-812-001: 9AM-11:45AM
Section 22-485-812-002: 1PM-3:45PM
MBA Program, College of Business Administration, University of
Cincinnati
TO: Students in I.S. 812
FROM: Dr. Allen S. Lee, Associate Professor of Information Systems
Office: 331 Lindner Hall
FAX for the College of Business: 556-4891
Web site: http://www.cba.uc.edu/faculty/Leean/index
Internet e-mail address: Allen.Lee@uc.edu
Mailing address: University of Cincinnati, Mail Location 211, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0211. Telephone and voice mail: 556-7195
SUBJECT: Course syllabus and course policies
Knock on my door. If I am busy, we will schedule an appointment for a different time. Evening appointments are available. To make sure that I can see you, call me or e-mail me to arrange a time. No appointments are available on Tuesdays. I will accept and answer questions via email.
This course provides an introduction to the managerial issues that information systems (IS) raise. The course also examines selected technological features of IS that are essential to the "information literacy" of the general manager. The course takes the perspective of a general manager, not a computer programmer, systems analyst, IS manager, or computer scientist. The objectives of the course are:
We will not be concerned with information technology alone. We will not even be concerned with information technology primarily. We will usually regard the technology as "given" and then proceed to examine the more difficult matter of how a business organization can use the technology in efficient and effective ways (for instance, "to make money" and "to gain a competitive edge"). An information system consists of not only information technology, i.e., hardware and software, but also people who use, develop, maintain, and manage the hardware and software; the procedures or processes by which both the people and the technology carry out work (which include, but are not restricted to, procedures and processes pertaining to hardware and software); and the data or information which the overall system stores, processes, and retrieves.
An information system is more than just "the computer." In fact, in some information-technology applications such as electronic mail and electronic commerce, no "computing" or "computation" takes place at all.
An information system is more than just "programming." From a business perspective, programming involves a small and typically unproblematic aspect of an information system. In fact, this course will not teach or require any programming at all.
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CLASS FORMAT
We will meet for two hours and forty-five minutes for every class meeting. Every class meeting two sessions. Generally, the first session will last longer than the second session.
Except for October 24, the first session of every class meeting will generally consist of (1) a quiz, (2) a presentation of a progress report by a group on its systems development project, and (3) a case discussion. The second session of every class meeting will generally consist of a lecture on the general principles that the next case discussion will illustrate. Your fellow students and I will expect you to be fully prepared to discuss the readings, which can include textbook chapters and a case study.
In preparation for each case discussion, I will provide a list of study and discussion questions. I will assign different questions to different groups. My expectation is for each group member to be prepared to contribute to the discussions on all the questions in class, and to give an expert answer to the particular question assigned to your group.
Participation in class discussions is required. I will not expect you to participate in every discussion. Starting in the second week of the course, I will ask you to suggest, every week, the cumulative class participation grade that you believe you will have earned, so far, for the course.
Every student will have a manila file folder (that, by the way, will also serve the purpose of a name tent). There will be some guidelines in your file folder describing how to gauge your participation. You should keep a record of your suggested grades (along with justifications) in your file folder. I will collect the file folders at the end of every class and redistribute them at the beginning of every class.
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There will be a multiple-choice quiz almost every week. It will test you on straightforward matters, such as "who's who" in the assigned case, major points from the previous week's discussion, and perhaps definitions of the more important terms from the textbook. The quizzes will contain NO trick questions! One of my purposes in having the quizzes is to encourage you to arrive to class on time. Another purpose is to encourage your to keep up with the readings.
Each quiz will consist of ten multiple-choice or true-false questions. An average grade of at least 8.0 on your quizzes will earn you an overall grade of "A" for your quizzes. An average grade of at least 6.0 but less than 8.0 will earn you an overall grade of "B" for your quizzes. An average grade lower that 6.0 will earn you an overall grade of "F" for your quizzes.
I will drop your lowest quiz grade. If you miss one quiz (whether missed because of absence or missed because of lateness), it will count as the dropped quiz. The grade for any additional missed quizzes will be 0, unless you make satisfactory arrangements with me prior to the quiz date.
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There will be no midterm exam, no final exam, and no weekly papers, but you will keep a journal. The purpose of the journal is for you to keep a running record of what you have learned in this course. Simply regurgitating material from the textbook, the cases, and the lectures is not evidence that you have learned. Simply recording, in your journal, notes that you take in class is not evidence that you have learned.
I will try to end each case discussion by reviewing "What general lessons about IS management do we walk away with from this case?" Record these lessons and what you think about them in your journal. During the week, you might have additional thoughts about how these (and perhaps new) lessons have applied to your past jobs, to the companies where you have worked, or to the information systems in our own College of Business Administration itself; elaborate these thoughts and record them in your journal. When reading a new case and preparing an answer to the question assigned to you, you might have additional thoughts and questions about IS management that go beyond the case you are reading; if you believe that these thoughts and questions will be valuable to you later in the course or, more important, valuable to you even after you have completed this course, then record them in your journal. Make at least one substantive entry after every class meeting (i.e., at least two entries every week); a substantive entry is one that provides evidence that you have learned.
Be creative. If you come across a Business Week article or Wall Street Journal article that is interesting to you AND relevant to the lessons you have been learning, then paste a clipping of the article into your journal AND add a journal entry that explains its relevance to the lessons you have been learning and what else you are learning from it. This is only one possible example of how to be creative.
When the course is over, one of only two tangible products of it that you will have will be your journal. (The other will be your group's systems development project.) Whereas the journal satisfies a requirement for this course, write the journal for yourself.
Date your journal entries. Because I will grade your journal, be sure that your entries are coherent and well written. Your journal must be typed. Use a spell checker. You may give me a draft copy of your journal no later than Monday, November 20, for my feedback. Whether or not you ask me to comment on a draft of your journal is up to you, but I can make a judgment about whether or not you are "on the right track" only if you show me a draft of your journal. The choice of whether or not to ask me for feedback on a draft of your journal is up to you. The choice of how to proceed on this matter, like the risk, is yours.
The latest day for you to show me, for the first time, a draft of your journal is Monday, November 20.
The most important criterion I will use in grading your journal is the extent to which it convinces me that you are learning something in this course. Your journal grade will reflect, first, what you learn in this course and, second, how effectively your journal communicates what you learn in this course.
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Your group will participate in a systems develop project. Your client will be an office or department in the College of Business Administration. I will describe the project in class.
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Attendance is required.
Your grade for the course will depend on participation (one fourth of the course grade), the quizzes (one fourth), the journal (one fourth), and the systems development project (one fourth). However, an additional requirement is that a passing grade for the course will require a passing grade in each of the four areas.
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The required textbook is Steven Alter's Information Systems: A Management Perspective, Second Edition (Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings, 1996). Harvard Business School cases are also required. These materials should be on sale at the UC Book Store and at DuBois.
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November 20: Last day to submit a draft of your journal for feedback.
December 1: Journal. Systems development project.
Every Tuesday and Friday (except Oct. 24): Quiz.
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Introduction
Tuesday General Principles Alter,
Oct. 24 Alter's pages 1-9, 13.
Session 1 work-centered
analysis (WCA)
framework
The components of
an information
system
Information
requirements
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Doing Business on the Internet
Tuesday Case Discussion Alter,
Oct. 24 the internet: pages 677-681.
Session 2 e-mail: 205, 218-219, 220-221.
Jarvenpaa & Ives,
Digital Equipment Corporation: The Internet
Company. 1994. (This case is not on sale at
the UC bookstore or Dubois. It is available
without charge on the internet.)
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Information Requirements, the Work-Centered Analysis Framework, and the Components of an Information SystemFriday Case Discussion Stoddard, Oct. 27 "Otisline (A)," Harvard Business School, Session 1 9-186-304. 1986. [Return to Table of Contents.]
Strategic Information Systems (SIS)
Friday General Principles Alter,
Oct. 27, Competitive competitive strategy and IS: pages 285-322.
Session 2 strategy and the the value chain: pages 58, 288, 291-293.
Porter framework
Competitive
advantage vs.
competitive
necessity
The value chain
Tuesday Case Discussion Stoddard,
Oct. 31, "Otisline (A)," Harvard Business School,
Session 1 9-186-304. 1986.
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Database Management Systems (DBMS)
Tuesday General Principles Alter,
Oct. 31, What is a DBMS? pages 143-190.
Session 1
Friday Case Discussion Schuck & Zuboff,
Nov. 3 "Data Administration in Citibank Brazil
Session 1 (Abridged)," Harvard Business School,
9-486-081. 1986.
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Systems Analysis and Design
Friday General Principles Alter,
Nov. 3 What is systems systems analysis: pages 52-85, 557, 580-582
Session 2 analysis?
Tuesday Case Discussion Schuck & Zuboff,
Nov. 7 "Data Administration in Citibank Brazil
Session 1 (Abridged)," Harvard Business School,
9-486-081. 1986.
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Decision Support Systems and Executive Information Systems (DSS and EIS)
Tuesday General Principles Alter,
Nov. 7 What is a DSS? pages 198-242.
Session 2 What is an EIS?
Friday Case Discussion Applegate & Osborn,
Nov. 10 "Phillips 66 Company: Controlling a Company
Session 1 through Crisis," Harvard Business School
9-189-006. Revised, 1993.
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Expert Systems (ES)
Friday General Principles Alter,
Nov. 10 What is an ES? pages 504-518.
Session 2
Tuesday Case Discussion Applegate & Osborn,
Nov. 14 "Phillips 66 Company: Controlling a Company
Session 1 through Crisis," Harvard Business School
9-189-006. Revised, 1993.
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Client-Server Networks
Tuesday General Principles Alter,
Nov. 14 What is telecommunications and networks: pages 457-500.
Session 2 telecommunications? client server: pages 383-385, 409-410
What is a network?
What is client
server?
Friday Case Discussion Espen,
Nov. 17 "Union Pacific Railroad: Transition to
Session 1 Client-Server," Harvard Business School,
9-195-045. 1994.
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I.S. Planning
Friday General Principles Alter,
Nov. 17 IS planning: 549-590.
Session 2
Tuesday Case Discussion Elam & Morrison,
Nov. 21 "United Services Automobile Association
Session 1 (USAA)," Harvard Business School, 9-188-102.
Revised, 1993.
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Management Issues and Political Issues in I.S.
Tuesday General Principles
Nov. 21
Session 2
Friday Case Discussion Elam & Morrison,
Nov. 28, "United Services Automobile Association
Session 1 (USAA)," Harvard Business School, 9-188-102.
Revised, 1993.
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