Florida Gulf Coast University

Welcome
ISM 4331 (Fall '98) Students

ISM4331: Information Systems Capstone I
(Information Systems Design)

[Course Info| Readings| Teaching Philosophy| Learning Objectives| Grading Policy|
Students Honesty Policy| Schedule| Project|]
Course Information
Reference # 80036
Description: Students will gain an understanding of the information system development process (subsequent to the Systems Analysis). This course focuses on the problem of determining an efficient design to meet the requirements specified by the user. Topcis such as consideration of alternative designs, design selection, basis of structure and design, and conversion of the design into programming specifications will be covered. Teams will learn and use software project management techniques such as software estimation and planning, metrics and measurement, quality control etc. Teams will develop a prototype system that satisfies the functional requirements of a "real" organization. Computer-aided planning and scheduling tools are used to plan the project. The project will be jointly selected by the students and the course instructor.
School: College of Business
Subject Area: Information Systems Management
Credit Hours: 3
Class Meetings: T-TH 11:55 a.m to 12:15 p.m
Location: AB2: 256
Limitations: Graduating Seniors Only; Instructor's permission required
Instructor: Rajendra (Raj) Bandi
Phone #: 590-7361
E-mail: rbandi@fgcu.edu
Office: Academic Building II; Room 131
Office hours: TTH 9:30am - 10:30am; TTH 3:00pm - 4:30 pm
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Readings
Required Textbooks:
  1. Page-Jones, M., The Practical Guide to Structured Systems Design (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Yourdon Press / Prentice Hall, 1988). ISBN: 0-13-690769-5
  2. Pressman, R.S., Software Engineering (New York: McGraw Hill, 1997) ISBN: 0-07-052182-4
Additional Readings
  1. Norman, D.A. (1988). "The Psychopathology of Everyday Things," Chapter 1 in D.A. Norman, The Psychology of Everyday Things, Basic Books, pp. 1-33.
  2. Markus, M.L. and Keil, M. (1994). "If We Build It, They Will Come: Designing Information Systems That Users Want to Use," Sloan Management Review, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 11-25.
  3. Freedman, D. (1990). "The ROI Polloi," CIO, Vol. 3, No. 7, pp. 30-40.
  4. Beyer, H.R., and Holtzblatt, K. (1995). "Apprenticing With the Customer," Communications of the ACM, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 45-52.
  5. Gibbs, W.W. (1994). "Software's Chronic Crisis," Scientific American, pp. 86-95.
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Teaching Philosophy
Learning is an active and collaborative process. As your teacher my role is to select relevant resources and assignments, to clarify and summarize complex material, to motivate and help you become a reflective practitioner. The field of CIS is changing so rapidly that every course is a learning experience for the students as well as for the teacher. I look forward to working with you and in making it a mutual learning experience.
An ancient Chinese proverb says: "A Teacher may open the door but you must enter by yourself." I hope you take the challenge and enjoy the experience!
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Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
and Assessment:
  1. Understand the role of systems design in the systems development process (exams, class discussion)
  2. Understand and use the main principles of design like abstraction, modularity, coupling and cohesion (exams, assignments, project)
  3. Understand alternative software engineering approaches, and the importance of project management, quality assurance, configuration management, and reuse. (exams and class discussion)
  4. Be able to use a specific Computer Aided Software Engineering tool, a project management tool and a prototyping tool (project)
  5. Be able to design software to satisfy the processing requirements as specified in the "deliverables" that result from a systems analysis. (project)
  6. Develop a working prototype based on the design. (project)
    7.
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Grading Policies
Mid-Term exam 25%
Final exam25%
Project20%
Term Paper20%
Class Participation / other assignments10%
 The following criteria will be used for assigning grades
based on the overall score:
>= 90% A
>= 80% and <90% B
>= 70% and <80% C
>= 60% and <70% D
<= 60% F
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Students Honesty Policy
Students must do their own work. Working in teams on individual assignments, or viewing another student's exams during testing, all constitute academic dishonesty. Please refer to the university policies regarding issues of honesty which can be found at the Students Services web site. Any one found to be cheating will at a minimum fail the course. Other more severe academic sanctions may also be pursued.
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Tentative Course Schedule Information
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Date Topics Readings
08/25-27/98 Overview
 Structured Analysis - Recap
Jones 8, 9
09/01-03/98 Structured Systems Design:
Design Basics		 Norman
Jones 1,2
09/08-10/98 Structure Chart: A design tool Jones 3,4
09/15-17/98 Abstraction & Modularity Pressman 13
09/22-24/98 Coupling Jones 5
09/29-01/98 Cohesion Jones 6
10/06-13/98 Design Guidelines & Strategies
Deriving Structure Charts
Data Design: Normalization 		Markus & Keil
Jones 7,10
Pressman 14
10/15/98 Mid-Term Exam
10/20-22/98 Software Engineering Approach
Different Development Paradigms 		Gibbs
Pressman 2
10/27-29/98 Project Management:
software metrics, estimation, & planning 		Pressman 3, 4, 5
Jones 13
Freedman
11/03-05/98 Software Testing
Quality Assurance & Walkthroughs		 Pressman 16, 17
Pressman 8, Jones App. B
11/10-12/98 S/W Maintenance & Configuration Management
Automation & CASE 		Pressman 9
Pressman 29
11/17-19/98 Software Reuse & Reengineering
 Pressman 26, 27
11/24/98 Presentations
12/01-03/98 Presentations
The Road Ahead 		Beyer & Holtzblatt
Pressman 30
12/08/98 Final Exam
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Project
The students will design and develop prototype of an information system applying software engineering principles
The project will be one of the primary learning tools in the course. By using the concepts, methods, and tools from the course in real-life business situations the students will learn how to design information systems applying the tools and techniques discussed in the class. The students will also assess the adequacy and appropriateness of these tools and techniques to various design problems. I will give incremental instructions for project requirements as the course progresses and as students learn new tools and techniques.
The project will be conducted in teams of about three students. The project will be a real-life design and prototyping project in a business organization. During the class periods I will try to set aside some time to get status reports from the project teams and to provide consulting advice to those teams which may need help.
Project Notebook
While working on the project, each team should maintain a project notebook or diary. The purpose of the notebook is threefold: (1) to document the actions taken by the project team, (2) to document the decisions that were behind those actions, and (3) to record any lessons learned along the way. Toward that end, each team should take care in documenting why a certain task step was performed, what the rationale was behind selecting a particular tool or technique for the task, and what were the lessons learned from actually performing that task. The emphasis here is not on if the "right" sequence of tasks were chosen or if the "correct" decisions were made regarding the use of tools and techniques, but on the rationale, the experiences, and the results (both positive and negative) of making the decision. The project team should therefore maintain a project notebook or diary in which week by week decisions and experiences are recorded. The task of maintaining the notebook can either be assigned to one member of the team or may be rotated among team members. It will also be useful to maintain the notebook since it will provide much of the material needed for your project presentation at the end of the quarter.
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Last Updated: August 12, 1998
Raj Bandi