Faculty Contact Information:
Instructor: Nancy V. Cox
Mailing Address: UMUC – Unit 29216, APO AE 09102
Email Address: ncox@faculty.ed.umuc.edu
Class meets four weekends: January 24/25, February 7/8 and 21/22, March 6/7
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Consultation:
In classroom 30 minutes before and after class, otherwise by
appointment.
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Required Texts and Readings:
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Satzinger, J., Jackson, R., and Burd, S. (2002). Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World (2nd ed.). Boston: Course Technology.
In addition, a case tool will be utilized.
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Supplementary Readings:
None required. The standard for papers in the graduate program is the APA style. All participants in this course and all graduate INSS, MGMT, PUAD, and ECON courses should have a copy of the style guide:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition. Washington DC: Author.All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.umuc.edu/library/. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills.
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Recommended Journals:
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Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended. In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that MIS professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line.
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Course Description:
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3 semester hours credit. Prerequisites: Undergraduate statistics and quantitative methods, and either INSS 510, INSS 520, INSS 530, or permission of the Program Director. Provides an in-depth look at all phases of information systems development. Requirements acquisition methodologies are reviewed and evaluated with respect to different application areas. Logical design is reviewed and implementation issues are addressed. Data-centered as well as process-centered approaches to system design are reviewed. Particular design methodologies including structured design and object-oriented design are discussed. Life cycle as well as heuristic approaches to system development are examined and discussed. Organizational and behavioral issues with respect to information system development are examined. An analysis and design project will be required. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: INSS 540 or INSS 610.
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Course Goals:
Upon completion of the course, participants should understand and be able to describe/explain:
1. The systems development life cycle (SDLC)
2. The reasons for formal systems analysis and design
3. Ethical, organizational and behavioral issues
4. Non-traditional systems development
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Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Compare and contrast methods for systems security and controls
2. Describe the processes and phases of IS development, and the deliverables associated with each phase of the SDLC
3. Distinguish methods for requirements acquisition
4. Justify the importance of structured logical analysis
5. Explain the difference between data centered and process centered methodologies
6. Compare and contrast conventional and object-oriented design methodologies
7. Discuss the steps involved in systems prototyping and Rapid Application Development
8. Design plans for systems implementation, operations and maintenance
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Grading Information:
Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 92%
B 80 – 91%
C 70 – 79%
F Below 70%
Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F(a) is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion. Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog, available in your local Education Center or online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs.
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Course Requirements:
Graduate school at the masters level focuses on helping students obtain the education needed for success as professionals in their chosen fields. Thus, UMUC-Europe Graduate Programs and Bowie State University share the common goals of promoting excellence in academic scholarship through thoughtful inquiry and the skillful application of knowledge and theory for the betterment of society.
In order to maximize your graduate educational experience in general and this course in particular, you are required to:
10% Class Participation and Class Work
30% Midterm Examination
30% Final Examination
20% Team Systems Design Project
10% Project Presentation
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Description of Course Requirements:
Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to come to class prepared to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. Usually this requires two to three hours for every hour of a face-to-face class and approximately ten hours of preparation per week for a DE class.
Complete graduate level projects or programming assignments, write graduate level papers or case studies: You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Plan on committing approximately 150 hours over the duration of this course to producing professional level deliverables, to include programs, projects, papers, and/or case studies.
Orally/visually present prepared material: You are required to present your results in a professional manner. In a face-to-face course, this typically means an oral presentation accompanied by appropriate visual material. In a DE class, this means creating a visual/textual presentation for your instructor and classmates.
Complete one or more written examination(s): The examination process in this class will assist you in developing the writing and critical thinking skills necessary for successfully passing the comprehensive exam required of all graduate students. The examination questions used for this course will either be taken directly from past comprehensive exams or written as though to be included on a comprehensive exam.
There will be a mid-term and a final examination as well as extensive in-class review questions and problem assignments. The mid-term will fall on Sunday afternoon of Weekend Two and will cover all readings, lectures, and problems to date. The final examination will fall on the last class session of Weekend Four and will cover all readings, lectures, and problems since the mid-term exam. Exams will consist primarily of essay questions.
In addition, this course will give small project teams the opportunity to propose, design, develop, document and present a system design project that solves a typical business problem. Additionally, a quality User Manual describing the use of the system will be produced. The class, performing as organization executives, will hear and evaluate each proposal. Students are expected to produce a complex system design as well as a formal presentation. Detailed project and presentation guidelines will be distributed during the first class meeting.
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Course Schedule:
Session 1 (Saturday, January 24)
Introductions and Team Building Exercise
Review of Syllabus
Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
Orientation to subject
Part I: The Modern Systems Analyst
Chapter 1: The World of the Systems Analyst
Chapter 2: The Analyst as Project Manager
Session 2 (Sunday, January 25)
Appendix A - Principles of Project Management
Chapter 3: Approaches to System Development
Select Term Project Topic
Session 3 (Saturday, February 7)
Part II: Systems and Analysis Tasks
Chapter 4: Beginning the Analysis
Chapter 5: Modeling System Requirements
Review for Mid-term
Team Project Planning
Session 4 (Sunday, February 8)
Chapter 6: Traditional Approach to Requirements
Chapter 7: OO Approach to Requirements
Chapter 8: Evaluating Alternatives
Mid-term Examination
Session 5 (Saturday, February 21)
Part III: Systems Design Tasks
Chapter 9: Moving to Design
Chapter 10: Designing Databases
Session 6 (Sunday, February 22)
Chapter 11: Designing the User Interface
Chapter 12: Designing System Interfaces
Project Presentations
Session 7 (Saturday, March 6)
Part IV: Implementation and Support
Chapter 13: Rapid Application Development
Chapter 14: Packaged Software and ERP
Project Presentations
Review for Final Examination
Session 8 (Sunday, March 7)
Chapter 15: Making the System Operational
Final Examination
Course evaluations
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Academic Policies:
Please refer to the UMUC - Europe Graduate Catalog, available online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs/index.html or from your local Education Center, for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
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Faculty Bio:
Before joining UMUC, Nancy Cox was the Manager of New Technology Integration for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, a role that included strategic planning and implementation of core infrastructure applications such as directory services, electronic messaging, calendaring, workflow and e-business technologies for over 55,000 users. She managed over $7M in complex application deployment projects. In the Y2K Electronic Calendar project she implemented a new calendaring system for 8,500 users (on time and under budget). In the Microsoft Exchange implementation project she replaced cc:Mail with a new electronic messaging system for 23,000 users. This project was the largest and most successful infrastructure project in the year 2000, completed ahead of schedule by 3 months and under budget by 10% with a high degree of end user acceptance. Cox then managed the implementation of a new Metadirectory system that linked strategic information in six separate directories, CastView (the human resources database), Exchange, phone directory, Novell LAN, Microsoft NT LAN, and Active Directory, to form a unique “e-persona” for over 55,000 Cast members.
Prior to joining Disney, Cox was the Sr. Technology Editor for Network Computing magazine covering collaborative computing products and services. She created and managed the Real World Lab at Disney where she tested products and shared her findings with the magazine readership and Disney Information Services. She also served as an on-site consultant to Disney for product research, strategic trend analysis, requests for information and focus groups.
Previously, Cox was the Messaging Systems Architect for Lockheed Martin Corporation in Orlando, Florida, a role that included the planning and implementation of large-scale messaging system interconnectivity, directory services and multimedia technologies for 190,000 users. She was the recipient of the Renaissance Award for “Author of the Year” in 1995 and a Bronze Vision Award for her work in multimedia networking.
Cox has published seven books on a variety of technical subjects. Her latest title, Directory Services: Design, Implementation and Management (Digital Press), was published in 2002. She authored Building and Managing a Web Services Team (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1997) and was the editor of Auerbach's Handbook of Electronic Messaging (1998 and 1999 editions) and Electronic Messaging - Best Practices (2000 edition). She co-authored the LAN Times Guide to Multimedia Networking (Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1995) and the LAN Times E-Mail Resource Guide (Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1994). Cox is the author of over two dozen magazine articles on computer applications in publications such as Information Week, Network Computing and Network Administrator.
Cox served as a Board Member of the Electronic Messaging Association (1995-1997). She is an Advisory Board Member for Florida Technical College planning relevant programming curriculum. Cox was an adjunct instructor for Florida Southern College, Barry University and Valencia Community College. She holds a BS in Education from the University of Georgia (Magna Cum Laude) and an MBA in Information Systems from the Florida Institute of Technology.
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