KENT STATE UNIVERSITY

Graduate School of Management Course Syllabus

BAD 74045
"Systems Development Methodologies"

What Are Systems "Methodologies" ??

Methodologies are "off-the-shelf", step-by-step procedures, specifications of individual and group roles, lists of deliverables, collections of quality assurance standards and techniques, descriptions of preferred techniques, and tools for completing all steps of an entire systems development life cycle. (Adapted from Systems Analysis and Design Methods, Whitten, Bentley, and Barlow, Irwin.)

TERM TIME/DAYS ROOM CALL NUMBER INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFO
Fall 2002 6:15 - 8:45 PM W 117 SFH 19315 Geoff Howard Office: A427 BSA    E-Mail: ghoward@kent.edu      Home Phone: 330.62.-5707

OFFICE HOURS: 2:00 - 5:00 Wednesday, or by appointment. You're strongly encouraged to get to me by e-mail ( ghoward@kent.edu) which should usually yield a very fast response.

COMMUNICATING: E-mail is the main way we will communicate in the course outside of the classroom. Not that you can't come to office hours, but the e-mail is usually faster and more efficient. In addition, you should have FTP capability at the computer where you work the most, as this will make it easier for us to transfer files around.

TEXT: None. We will use a mix of handouts and material available from electronic sources. There are many links to methodology material in the Course Schedule.

COURSE CONCEPT: Systems development methodologies and the tools that support them are the sole focus of this course. There is an alarming tendency in commercial systems work to leap into construction without much of a plan or design. This results in the cost and schedule overruns and overall customer dissatisfaction which has, unfortunately, become legendary in the information system business. Use of a well-conceived system development methodology goes a long way toward correcting these ills. Amazingly, though, few practicing analysts or programmers know or even care much about methodologies. Even worse, radically new approaches to system development such as object orientation, non-linear hypermedia, rapid prototyping, and packaged system-in-a-box tools are beginning to be widely used, mostly with nearly zero formal methodology support. Thus, the course is designed to fill methodology knowledge gaps for practitioners, to create special awareness of "new" methodologies, to motivate meaningful methodology research, and to equip you to keep yourself "up to speed" on methodology developments in the future.

COURSE DESIGN: The course will be a mix of seminar and lecture. This means that much of the material will be student-generated and student-presented. We’ll divide into specialized groups of two people each based on interest and background. Each group will gather and present material on a methodology topic of their choice. We will make very heavy use of resources on the Internet. The "Course Schedule" which follows details what we will be doing, day by day, throughout the semester.

GUEST SPEAKERS: IS is an applied discipline. It makes little sense to study anything about Information System development without close liaision with industry practitioners. Accordingly, the course will include some guest presenters who are practicing IS managers from area corporations.

DELIVERABLES

STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Most of you will be participating on a presentation team. A "team" can consist of one or two people. Your "presentation" is actually to be a complete package of materials about your topic -- readings, lecture notes, demonstrations (where appropriate), video, if available, lists of references, and suggestions for further study for folks who want to delve deeper on their own. In some cases, exercises, problems, or discussion questions should be included. Package the material in the way you would want it packaged for YOU, if you were the student.

ARTICLE CRITIQUES: Working individually or in groups of two, each group will be asked to present an article review, and then lead a class discussion. Plan for a moximum of about 25 minutes for this whole activity. The articles will be provided by the instructor for everyone to read well prior to your scheduled article date. There is no explicit format you need to use for these critiques, but in general you are asked to provide a brief summary of the article, to evaluate its strengths and flaws, to evaluate its contribution both to methodology theory and methodology practice, and then to lead a class discussion on the article. (There is nothing written to be turned in.) The purpose of these critiques is to help us to understand the connection between academic research and methodology practice, as well as to hone our critical thinking skills.

TESTS: We'll have two midterms and a final. The format and scheduling of these is negotiable. Sample questions will be available on this web site well ahead of the test dates.

CLASS WEB PAGES: As the semester progresses, we will expand the course pages on the Web. Your presentation and research will be disseminated on the World Wide Web. Instead of writing up your presentation in the form of a term paper, you will package your presentation, notes, references, suggestions for further work, and practice assignments electronically, we will post it on the WWW. Our course material is currently registered with the University of Texas World Lecture Hall, and is being accessed worldwide. Your contribution to the web site will help others with their work related to your presentation topic.

DOCTORAL STUDENTS: In addition to the above requirements, you will be working on a research article. This will result in your getting one published article on your resume. Details will be discussed individually. Non Ph.D. students are also absolutely welcome on these research teams.

KSU BOILERPLATE

  1. Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the class.
  2. Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes. You are advised to review your official class schedule during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section. Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until September 7, 2001 to correct it with your advising office. If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.
  3. Academic Honesty: Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit. The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense. It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work or course. Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.
  4. For Fall 2001 the course withdrawal deadline is Saturday, November 3, 2001. Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.
  5. Students with disabilities: In accordance with University policy, if you have a documented disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this course, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester or when given an assignment for which an accommodation is required. Students with disabilities must verify their eligibility through the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) in the Michael Schwartz Service Center (672-3391).

GRADE WEIGHTS

Midterm (held on Oct 24) 20 %
In-Class Presentation (Peers) 20 %
In-Class Presentation (Instructor) 20 %
Article Critique 10 %
Final (take home format) 30%

COURSE OBJECTIVES

(Asterisked (blue) tems apply mainly to those who in the course for PhD credit.)

1. Review the fundamentals of classical systems analysis, including the phases of the linear SDLC, modeling techniques for data and process, and the standard deliverables of each phase.

2. Comprehend the relationship between the SDLC and systems development methodologies that support it.

3. Develop moderate familiarity with three or four of the most important commercial systems development methodologies for the classical life cycle, such as Method/1 (Andersen Consulting). Compare and contrast these methodologies in terms of completeness, implementability, training cost and complexity, and success rate in the industry. Determine the market penetration and sales success of each methodology. Project how each may evolve in the next few years, and make supportable projections about the long-term survivability of each methodology product.

4. Based on the above knowledge, make (and be able to support) your own personal assessment of whether using a methodology in support of classical systems development yields tangible benefits.

5. Appreciate the current state of CASE technology. Understand the need for congruency between a CASE tool and the methodology it supports. Determine which tools are dominant in the full-life-cycle and point-solution submarkets. Assess the track record of some of these key tools in terms of documented systems development cost savings, cycle time reductions, and customer satisfaction. Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of tools in each of the two submarkets.

6. Develop good familiarity with how methodolgies are currently applied in actual practice through presentations and panel discussions involving senior industry IS managers.

7. For each of the following modern systems development approaches: rapid prototyping, object orientation, hypertext/WWW, and integrated development tools (PowerBuilder, for example), do the following.

A. Know the state of development of methodologies currently extant that support each approach

B. Determine methodology/product names, vendor identities (if any), and the technical and sales success of the important methodologies for each approach

C. Compare, contrast, and critique the effectiveness of each of the important methodologies for each approach in terms of completeness, implementability, and trainability

D. Where there are gaps, invent new methodologies

E*. Find, study, and evaluate any research that has been accomplished that specifically addresses methodology for each of these four approaches

F*. Propose an agenda of research that is needed to fill knowledge gaps important to practitioners in each of these four approach areas.

8. Develop an understanding of the fundamental differences between classical methodologies and the "new" methodologies (rapid prototyping, object orientation, hypertext/WWW, and integrated development tools) in terms of their true contribution to system development success, their complexity, their costs, and their present state of maturity.

9*. Create a written analysis (about 15 double-spaced pages) that summarizes the present state of development of "new" methodologies, summarizes existing knowledge about how well they work, contrasts their fundamental differences, and recommends key factors by which potential adopters should evaluate each methodology. The target audience is practicing analysts and IS managers at an Information Resources Management Journal level.

10. Emerge from the course knowing where to look in journals, vendor announcements, and on the Internet in order to stay abreast of methodology developments in the future.

11*. Gain a comprehensive mental picture of the present body of research literature on system development methodologies. Know the seminal pieces, key authors, main areas of debate and contention, and areas where future research is most needed.

12*. Produce one piece of empirical research in the methodology area, complete and ready for submission to an journal by mid-May.

13. Develop an appreciation of the attitudes of programmers and analysts toward the use of methodologies in commercial systems development.

14. Be aware of the location of centers of methodology activity research, development, and study on the WWW.

15. Be able to make reasonable and well-founded projections about the future role of methodology in systems work using advanced technologies, purchased systems, and flexible systems approaches.

16. Understand the role of methodologies as they apply to ERP packages such as SAP. Does the importance of methodologies increase or diminish in an specialized environment such as SAP?