INFS 622 Syllabus –
v1.2: Initial Syllabus (DRAFT)
|
Instructor: Office: Phone: E-mail: Office Hours: |
C. Randall Howard, Ph.D. Volgeneau Engineering Building Room 5323 (703) 899-3608 by appointment |
Graduate Assistant:
Office: Phone: E-mail: Office Hours: |
Katherine Irvin by appointment kirvin@gmu.edu |
Course #: INFS 622
Section: 002
CRN: 73199
Course Title: Systems Analysis and Design
Term: Fall 2012
August 29, 2012 – December 11, 2012
Time: Wednesdays, 19:20-22:00
Room: Planetary Hall 206 (formerly S&T I)
Prerequisites: INSF 501, 515 and 590 or equivalent, or by permission.
Textbooks:
IMPORTANT NOTE: The material posted for reading
and reference is NOT to be distributed, posted or used outside of the INFS622
session. The material is copyrighted and
is Intellectual Property of various parties.
Catalog Description:
Integration of computing technologies, system analysis, system design practices, and management criteria in the design of large-scale information management and decision support systems.
Learning Objectives:
INFS622 is a core-course for the CS and Applied-IT programs. Dr. Howard leverages his 29+ years of system engineering, architecture and consulting experience to run heavily mentored group interactions along with industry-relevant lecture material. Students learn the material, and also know how to apply and connect the artifacts together by semester’s end. The result is a valuable skill that enables the students to “sell” a cohesive story that greatly increases the chance of acceptance and approval of any proposal or recommendation. In doing so, students learn to:
· Refine & apply new “translation and “language” skills to mediate between business & technical communitiesthe
· Tools to determine best fit to address the problems and shape solutions
·
Explain rationale and recommendations to
stakeholders
Ground Rules
This syllabus serves as our
“contract” for the course and the semester.
Such items as the textbook, topics, learning objectives, grading, etc.
are conveyed in this syllabus.
Students are expected to prepare
BEFORE class on material scheduled for each session. At a minimum, the lecture slides need to be
reviewed. This is vital to encourage
participation, which is a vital element of Professor’s Discretion.
While the workload is designed to be
as balanced throughout the semester:
ü
The front part of the
semester is heavier by nature
ü
There are points at
which the workload is heavy though
ü
It is up to the students
to prepare accordingly
Other ground rules are listed in the
first lecture. These are listed to help
facilitate a smoother running of the semester.
Release Notes
Syllabus:
Since this is the first time we have used this book, there will be some “shaking out” some kinks as adjust the rhythm of the material coverage.
The structure of the course is also being streamlined to make the learning experience as efficient and effective for both student and teacher. The changes are heavily influenced by valued feedback from previous semester. Throughout the semester, we will have checkpoints where we will solicit such feedback in order to re-calibrate certain elements as needed.
Part of this streamlining is moving to online testing this semester. A “Mock Trial Test” is setup to run it through the paces before a real assessment is due.
Changes, especially the schedule, will occur during the semester to adapt the structure to the personality and progress of the class. These changes will be announced and discussed as needed.
All efforts will be made to announce changes in the course material; however, it is each student’s responsibility to verify that they have the latest version. This is done by checking the date of the material on Blackboard.
Group
work
We will break the class into no more than 5
Teams. While we prefer 4-6 people in a
team, we cannot effectively run the session with more teams due to high level
of interaction w/ teams. While requests
for groups will be honored, the professor reserves the right to equitably
distribute students to optimize class performance across the groups.
Evaluating
Performance:
Grading is being broken into smaller chunks throughout the semester to provide earlier feedback to the students, and to facilitate streamlined evaluation of the students and groups.
Evaluations will comprise of two methods:
ü Formal
ü Peer Review, as opportunity is available, that will feed into Formal grading reviewed and concurred by the Professor
Grading
Note:
Grading Events are being streamlined to address issues experienced in previous
semesters. Changes in approach will be
announced! However, the %’s below will not change.
Table 1. Grading Distribution
|
Item |
Percentage |
|
Individual Assignments |
15% |
|
Project Work |
40% |
|
Exams |
30% |
|
Professor's Discretion |
15% |
Table 2. Grading Scale
|
Letter Grade |
Numerical Range |
|
A+ |
97-100 |
|
A |
92-96 |
|
A- |
90-91 |
|
B+ |
88-89 |
|
B |
82-87 |
|
B- |
80-81 |
|
C+ |
78-79 |
|
C |
72-77 |
|
C- |
70-71 |
Individual
Assignments:
The assignments are individual unless otherwise specified. Assignments will be graded on correctness as well as style and presentation.
Group
Project:
There will be a group research project. Each team is responsible for developing an integrated requirements specification and design document.
Each group will select a team coordinator or leader who will help coordinate the overall progress of the team. Each team member's individual contribution to the final documents must be clearly identified. Each group will be called on to present material throughout the semester.
Available Case Studies for Fall 2012
· P&G Automated Data Capture
· Zara POE
· Shinsei CRM
· Hilton CRM
· CVS DUR Expiration Date Check
· Beth Israel Patient Access
· Codelco Emergency Alert System
· Your own?? (w/ Professor’s Approval)
Group Project Checkpoints:
Project checkpoints are an opportunity to receive feedback on their
progress. The content itself is not
graded per se; however, they:
·
Are
evaluated as to the completeness and intent of the effort to be complete. In other words,
·
Serve as
the Authority to Proceed (ATP) to the next phase.
Exams:
At the discretion of the professor, a mid-term exam may be given. There will be a final exam covering lectures, readings and topics covered over the entire semester. Exams must be taken at the scheduled time and place unless prior arrangements are made. Missed exams cannot be made up without these prior arrangements.
Professor’s Discretion:
Participation is a portion of both the group project and individual
grades. This has been a particular
challenge that we will be addressing throughout the semester in various, ad-hoc
manners – depending on how proactive the class is in averting “ad-hoc
manners”.
Warning: “ad-hoc” manners are not necessarily the preferable option
either.
Other exceptional conditions, either positive or negative, comprise
Professor’s Discretion as well.
All Sumissions
All work must be submitted at the scheduled time and place unless prior arrangements are made. Missed reports cannot be made up without these prior arrangements.
All assignments will be graded on correctness as well as style and presentation. Each assignment is due on the announced date before 12 midnight. There will be a strictly enforced 10% penalty per day for late submissions unless otherwise specified.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1.
All submissions’
file names need to indicate student or group names.
a.
For individual
submissions, use this format:
Last Name_First Name_AssignmentName
b.
For group
submissions, questions, etc. for the Professor,
i. CLEARLY mark the subject of the item as w/ ATTN TO PROFESSOR: subject
ii. (I do not monitor group discussion areas
iii. Send a follow-up email to the Professor that the item has
been posted
iv. For Submissions, use this format:
Group#, ArtifactName, State (eg.,Initial, Draft, Final),
Version (e.g. #)
v. Submit on group’s File Exchange area on blackboardons
2.
ALL submissions
should be in MS Word, unless otherwise specified. In other words, DO NOT submit .PDF’s – I cannot provide feedback easily w/ .PDF’s.
3.
At the professor’s
discretion, a 10% penalty may be assessed for not following these instructions!
MORE
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Academic Integrity. It is your responsibility to know and to
follow Mason’s policy on academic integrity (http://academicintegrity.gmu.edu/honorcode/).
SafeAssign. The
professor utilizes the tool provided as part of Blackboard to check assignments
against published resources AND other students’ work.
Honor Code Statement:
As with all GMU courses, INFS 622 is governed by the GMU Honor Code. In this course, all assignments, exams, and project submissions carry with them an implicit statement that it is the sole work of the author, unless joint work is explicitly authorized. Help may be obtained from the instructor or other students to understand the description of the problem and any technology, but the solution, particularly the design portion, must be the student's own work. If joint work is authorized, all contributing students must be listed on the submission. Any deviation from this is considered an Honor Code violation. (© Jeff Offutt) . For more information, see http://honorcode.gmu.edu/.
To stay safe:
· Provide citations for your work – group and individual – even if it is “adapted from”.
· Do not work in groups to complete individual work. The approach to individual work is allowed, but the work itself must reflect the individual student’s efforts – unless otherwise specified.
· Do not copy and paste material from the text unless short, pithy definitions that cannot necessarily be re-worded easily.
ODS Statement. If you have a disability and wish academic
accommodations, please see the Professor and contact the Office of Disability
Services (703) 993-2474, (http://www2.gmu.edu/depts/unilife/ods//).
INFS62 Integrated Lecture & Project Class Schedule
V1.0: Session 1
Schedule Notes:
· Order is (re-)arranged to facilitate more time to apply the discussion to the project artifacts
·
Project Artifacts w/in Lectures are highlighted
in yellow.
·
Schedule WILL change as needed to facilitate
learning according to personality & makeup of the class
·
Items marked w/ a “[D] party:” indicate a
deliverable from the party: listed
(e.g., Students, Groups, Professor)
·
Color Legend:
|
Red: Changed
/ Changing Items |
Yellow: Project Artifacts |
Mauve: Items are due |
Pale Blue: Milestones or Events |
Project Work Time Allowed in Class |
|
Session # |
Date |
Lecture
Session Focus |
Due
Dates & Deadlines |
|
Session 1 |
August 29 |
o
Introductions o
Course &
Text Overview ü Class Resource Guide Overview ü Analysis & Design Proposal Artifact Relations o
Professor
Supplement: Overview & Scoping a Project ü Analysis & Design Life-Cycle ü Professor’s position vs. Text ·
Context before
formal requirements ·
Use Case
Diagram before formal use cases (scenarios) ü Walk-thru a “typical” project ü Simple Exemplar Case Study o
Project Teaming & Topic Time |
o
VW Case Study
Assigned (Read & Prepare to
Discuss at a later session) (www.hbr.org) o
DFD Context
& Use Case Readings |
|
|
August 31 |
|
·
[D] Students:
Member Profiles & Request ·
[D] Groups:
Initial Project Topic Requests Due |
|
|
Sept 3 |
|
·
[D] Professor: Group & Topic Confirmations |
|
|
Sept 4 |
Last Day to Add/Drop (w/ no tuition liability) |
|
|
Session 2 |
Sept 5 |
o
Carryover from
Session 1 (as needed) o
Review
Project Teams’ Core Artifacts TEXT: PART ONE PLANNING
PHASE o
Chapter 1 The
Systems Analyst And Information Systems Development o
Visio &
PowerPoint Tips o
Preview
Homework o
Project Work Time |
o
[D]Mock Trial Test |
|
Session 3 |
Sept 12 |
o
Chapter 2
Project Selection And Management ü Multi-Criteria
Decision / Analysis Table ü Analysis of
Alternatives ü Breakeven
Analysis ü Risks &
Risk Mitigation Table ü Project Plan ü Project
Schedule ü Cost/Benefit
Analysis ü PERT Diagrams o
Preview Final
Exam? o
Project Work Time |
o
[D]Homework #1 Due ·
[D]Discuss VW Case
Study |
|
Session 4 |
Sept 19 |
PART TWO ANALYSIS PHASE o
Chapter 3
Requirements Determination o
Chapter 4 Use
Case Analysis o Review Level-0
DFD Diagrams o
Project Work Time |
·
|
|
|
Sept 22 |
Out of Class Work Sessions
for Product #1 (If Needed) |
|
|
Session 5 |
Sept 26 |
o
Chapter 5
Process Modeling ü DFD ü Decision
Trees ü Decision
Tables o In-class Exercise o
Pulling the
Analysis Proposal Together o Project Work Time |
o
|
|
Session 6 |
Oct 3 |
o Presentation
Tips o
Chapter 6 Data
Modeling ü Data Model ü Class Diagram o In-class Exercise o
Project Reviews ü
Exec Summary
Review ü
Presentation
Review ü
“Final Touches” o
Analysis
Project Time |
o
[D]Homework #2 Due |
|
Session 7 |
Oct 10 |
PART THREE DESIGN PHASE o
Chapter 7
Moving Into Design o
Chapter 8
Architecture Design o
Project Work Time |
|
|
Session 8 |
Oct 17 |
o
Chapter 9 User
Interface Design ü Usability
Slides o
Chapter 10
Program Design o In-class Exercises o
Chapter 11 Data
Storage Design |
|
|
Session 9 |
Oct 24 |
o
PART FOUR
IMPLEMENTATION PHASE o
Chapter 12
Moving Into Implementation o
Chapter 13
Transition To The New System |
·
[D] Groups: Analysis Proposal Product Due |
|
Session 10 |
Oct 31 |
o
Analysis
Proposal Feedback o
Chapter 14 The Movement
To Objects ü Use Case
Diagrams ü Activity
Diagrams ü Sequence
Diagrams o In-class Exercise o
Project Work Time |
o
[D]Homework #3 Due |
|
Session 11 |
Nov 7 |
o
Open Session |
|
|
|
Nov 10 |
|
Out of Class Work Sessions
for Product #1 (If Needed) |
|
Session 12 |
Nov 14 |
o
Project Work Time ü
Exec Summary
Review ü
Presentation
Review ü
“Final Touches” |
|
|
|
Nov 21 |
Thanksgiving Break |
|
|
Session 13 |
Nov 28 |
o
Current Events
Discussions o
Wrapup o
Course Evals |
o
|
|
Session 14 |
Dec 5 |
o
Analysis & Design
Proposal Presentations |
[D] Analysis & Design
Proposal Products & Presentations Due |
|
Session 15 |
Dec 12 |
o
Final Exam |
[D]: Students: Final Exam Due |