INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR MANAGERS
I.S. 812
22-485-812-901
Fall Quarter 1995, Tuesdays 6PM-9PM
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
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 to arrange a time. No appointments are available on Tuesdays.
Virtual office hours are available by electronic mail. Visit me at Allen.Lee@uc.edu. Using e-mail, I communicate regularly with students who send mail not only from UC vax and UC unix, but also from CompuServe, America Online, and the companies where they work. Because e-mail communication is asynchronous, it can sometimes be more convenient than telephone calls or in-person meetings.
Office: 331 Lindner Hall. Mailing address: University of Cincinnati, Mail Location 211, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0211. Telephone and voice mail: 556-7195. 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.
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COURSE OBJECTIVES
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
Every class on Tuesday evening will consist of two sessions. Each session will last about 1 hour and 15 minutes. A session may be a case discussion, a lecture on general principles, or a combination. 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 students. My expectation is for you to be prepared to discuss all the questions in class, as well as to give an expert answer to the particular question assigned to you.
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CLASS PARTICIPATION
Participation in class discussions is required. I will not expect you to participate in every discussion. Starting in the third 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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QUIZZES
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! My purpose in having the quizzes is simply to encourage you to attend class and to keep up with the readings.
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JOURNAL
There will be no midterm exam, no final exam, and no weekly papers, but you will keep a weekly journal. The purpose of the journal is for you to keep a running record of what you have learned in this course. 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 apply to your job and the company where you work; 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 every week; a substantive entry is one that provides evidence that 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 final paper.) 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. I will ask you for a copy of your journal in the middle of the quarter and near the end of the quarter. You may give me a copy of your journal at any time for my feedback.
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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FINAL PAPER
The topic of the paper, to be announced in the third to last week of classes, will build on the study questions assigned during the quarter. My purpose in requiring the final paper is to encourage you to keep up with the readings; to contribute to and to listen to others during class discussions; to think about what you hear and read; to keep a record of useful material in your journal; and to accumulate the lessons that you learn.
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GRADES
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 final paper (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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REQUIRED MATERIALS
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.
IMPORTANT DATES
November 14: Journal is due.
December 5: Final paper is due.
Every week: quiz.
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Introduction
Sept. 26, General Principles Alter,
Session 1 Alter's pages 1-9, 13.
work-centered
analysis (WCA)
framework.
The components of
an information
system.
Information
requirements.
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Doing Business on the Internet
Sept. 26, Lab Session Alter,
Session 2 Electronic mail. the internet: pages 677-681.
World wide web. e-mail: 205, 218-219, 220-221.
Oct. 3, Case Discussion Jarvenpaa & Ives,
Session 1 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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Strategic Information Systems (SIS)
Oct. 3, General Principles Alter,
Session 2 Competitive competitive strategy and IS: pages 285-322.
strategy and the the value chain: pages 58, 288, 291-293.
Porter framework.
Competitive
advantage vs.
competitive
necessity.
The value chain.
Oct. 10, Case Discussion Stoddard,
Session 1 "Otisline (A)," Harvard Business School,
9-186-304. 1986.
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Database Management Systems (DBMS)
Oct. 10, General Principles Alter,
Session 2 What is a DBMS? pages 143-190.
Oct. 17, Case Discussion Schuck & Zuboff,
Session 1 "Data Administration in Citibank Brazil
(Abridged)," Harvard Business School,
9-486-081. 1986.
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Decision Support Systems and Executive Information Systems (DSS and EIS)
Oct. 17, General Principles Alter,
Session 2 What is a DSS? pages 198-242.
What is an EIS?
Oct. 24, Case Discussion Applegate & Osborn,
Session 1 "Phillips 66 Company: Controlling a Company
through Crisis," Harvard Business School
9-189-006. Revised, 1993.
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Expert Systems (ES)
Oct. 24, General Principles Alter,
Session 2 What is an ES? pages 504-518.
Oct. 31, Case Discussion Gill,
Session 1 "Bank of Boston Treasury Systems (A)," Harvard
Business School 9-190-011. Revised, 1992.
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Systems Analysis and Design
Oct. 31, General Principles Alter,
Session 2 What is systems systems analysis: pages 52-85, 557, 580-582
analysis? CASE tools: 422-423, 442, 432, 442, 586, 655
What are CASE
(computer assisted
software
engineering) tools?
Nov. 7, Case Discussion Orlikowski,
Session 1 "Division Among the Ranks: The Social
Implications of CASE Tools for System
Developers," Proceedings of the Tenth
International Conference on Information
Systems, December 4-9, 1989, Boston,
Massachusetts, pp. 199-210. (This case is not
on sale at the UC bookstore or Dubois.)
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Client-Server Networks
Nov. 7, General Principles Alter,
Session 2 What is telecommunications and networks: pages 457-500.
telecommunications? client server: pages 383-385, 409-410
What is a network?
What is client
server?
Nov. 14, Case Discussion Espen,
Session 1 "Union Pacific Railroad: Transition to
Client-Server," Harvard Business School,
9-195-045. 1994.
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Outsourcing
Nov. 14, General Principles Alter
Session 2 What is 550-551, 567-568, 628-629.
outsourcing?
Nov. 21, Case Discussion Seger,
Session 1 "General Dynamics and Computer Sciences
Corporation: Outsourcing and the IS Function
(A+B, Abridged)," Harvard Business School,
9-193-178. 1993.
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Capstone Topic and Case:
Management, Planning, Political, and Leadership Issues in IS
Nov. 21, General Principles IS planning: 549-590.
Session 2
Nov. 28, Case Discussion Elam & Morrison,
Session 1 "United Services Automobile Association
(USAA)," Harvard Business School, 9-188-102.
Revised, 1993.
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