MIS 221 - Management Information Systems

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Sue Solomon

OFFICE HOURS: Since the Business building is locked on Saturdays and the studio area is also locked after class, it is important that students who want to see me on that day be at LIB-53 promptly when class ends at 12:50 P.M. If you are unable to do that, please e-mail me to arrange for an alternate time and place.

OFFICE PHONE: 278-7120. I am generally not in my office, so you will probably reach my voice mail. The best way to contact me and get a quick response is to send an e-mail message to ssolomon@csus.edu . You are expected to have the ability to communicate via e-mail. If you do not, please contact me within the first two weeks of the semester to arrange to remedy this.

 COURSE DESCRIPTION FROM THE CATALOG:

The analysis, design and implementation of computer-based information systems. The course includes transaction processing systems, management information systems and decision support systems. Student teams will be required to develop an information systems project. Not open to M.S./MIS students nor to students with credit for MIS 116 or 210 or equivalent.

During 1997 the MIS Department voted to broaden this course description.

Instead, MIS 221 will be a survey of problems and prospects in various areas of the management of information systems.

 TEXT

Robert K. Wysocki and Robert L. DeMichiell, Managing Information Across the Enterprise, Wiley, 1997.

 SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Stacey L. Fong and Carol S. Honda, WWW/Intranet Development Methodology, CSUS Master's Project, 1997.

EXAMS

The two midterm exams and the final exam will consist of a choice of two out of three essay questions (50 points each) covering reading assignments, class discussion, videos, and guest speakers (if any).

Please bring two small bluebooks to each exam, one for each question you choose.

HOMEWORK

Each student is responsible for preparing materials to lead the class discussion for the end-of-chapter case study issues during the semester. The written commentary and oral commentary are each worth 10 points, for a total of 20 possible points. If the student is not in the studio on the day his/her assignment is due, this may be accomplished by electronic mail and a phone call at the appropriate point in the class.

The due date for each student's assignment is based on the last digit of the student's Social Security number. Here is a table of dates on which students will be expected to present the assigned material, given the last digit of their SSN:

The project consists of a library research paper covering topics related to MIS 221. Some possible subject areas are:

IS applications for strategic planning and policy development

IS applications for competitive advantage

The scope and role of IS management in the organization

Business process reengineering as it relates to IS

Systems analysis and design

Managerial issues in application development

Decentralization, downsizing and outsourcing

IS planning

IS as an investment vehicle

End-user computing

Please select five feature-length articles on any combination of the above topics, summarize each article and critique its assumptions, methodology and conclusions. A list of some IS publications follows. You are welcome to use other professional publications as sources when they publish substantive articles on the above topics. For example, The Wall Street Journal and Fortune occasionally have feature-length IS articles. However, at least three of the five articles you review must come from academic research journals such as the MIS Quarterly rather than from trade publications such as InfoWorld.

Your paper should be about 15 pages long (about 3 pages per article reviewed), with a complete bibliography. The summary and critique sections are weighted equally for grading purposes.

 Place a copy of each article reviewed in an appendix at the end of the paper.

Accounting, Management and Information Technologies

ACM Journal of Computer Documentation

ACM SIGCPR Computer Personnel Review

ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Bulletin

ACM SIGICE Bulletin

ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review

ACM SIGSMALL/PC Notes

ACM SIGSOFT Notes

ACM Transactions on Computer Systems

ACM Transactions on Information Systems

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology

Administrative Science Quarterly

Applied Computing Review

California Computer News

Computer-Aided Design

Computer Client/Server Journal

Computer Design

Computer Graphics World

Computer Journal

Computer/Law Journal

ComputerWorld

Computers and Security

Corporate Security

Decision Sciences

Decision Support Systems

EDP Auditor Journal

Expert Systems

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications

IEEE Multimedia

IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks

IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications

Information Systems Management

InfoWorld

Interfaces

The Internet Business Journal

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

I/S Analyzer

IS Audit and Control Journal

The John Marshall Journal of Computer and Information Law

Journal of Applied Systems Analysis

Journal of Computer and System Sciences

Journal of Information Systems Management

Journal of Management Information Systems

Journal of Systems Management

Management Science

MicroComputer Journal

MIS Quarterly

The Office Magazine of Information Systems and Management

PC/Computing

PC Magazine

Systems Practice

Systems Integration Business

Technology and Learning

 * ACM = Association for Computing Machinery

IEEE = Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

 GRADING

The grading of essays is necessarily more subjective than grading true-false or

multiple-choice tests. For that reason, I will ask that those students who scored the highest on each essay answer or project segment to permit other students to look at their work to clarify what I considered to be an excellent result. I may also ask for a duplicate copy of your project for "show and tell" for future MIS 221 classes.

When I read an essay answer, I mentally categorize it as an A, B, C, ..., essay and accordingly award 95%, 85%, 75%, ... , of the possible points. It is assumed that any graded material that is prepared at home will be checked to eliminate spelling and grammatical errors. While the standard for in-class examinations is not as stringent, spelling, grammar and composition should meet or exceed quality levels normally expected of graduate students.

 In addition, a top-quality essay will have the following attributes:

 1. Be thorough and relevant, yet as concise as possible.

2. Be creative and insightful.

3. Cover and integrate ideas from the source materials, class discussion and assignments without using the identical format and phraseology in these sources.

(In other words, paraphrasing shows a higher level of understanding than pure

memorization.)

4. Incorporate your own experience from work, other courses, or life in general

as it relates to the issue.

5. Use examples illustrative of the points you wish to make.

6. Apply logical steps to support your conclusion and disprove alternatives.

7. If you elect to use an outline format for your answers, also discuss each outline

item according to the above guidelines.

8. Define or place technical terms in sufficient context to show you understand them.

 Since I rarely give the same exam twice, I have no way to know in advance whether the students will consider it a blockbuster or a piece of cake. Therefore, while I try to grade each essay using A = 95%, and so on, the distribution of total points at the end of the semester can vary greatly. In my graduate courses, historically, about 20-40% of the students have received As, 50-70% have received Bs, and about 10% have received Cs or lower. Plus and minus grades will be used.

No materials other than two small bluebooks and a pen or pencil are permitted at examinations. Bluebooks with large erasures or pages torn out will not be graded. If you wish to delete material you have already written, you should place a large "X" through it. Students are expected to keep their eyes ONLY on their exam papers. Even the appearance of wandering eyes can cause your exam to be confiscated.

 It may be possible for a student to take an examination before the scheduled time and date, at a time and place mutually convenient with the instructor. No excuses are needed. A student who takes this option must sign a statement agreeing not to discuss the content of the examination with anyone. Violation of this agreement will result in a zero on the exam. Students may not take exams after the scheduled date. A student who misses an exam should see the instructor to discuss the situation.

Any violation of these policies will result in a penalty ranging from a reduced grade to expulsion from the university.

 You are expected to be up-to-date on your assigned reading. You are also expected to have completed and fully understand any hands-on assignments. While general class attendance and participation are not mandatory, these factors can positively influence your grade in a marginal way. For example, a student who regularly makes cogent, pertinent, yet concise contributions to class discussion may have his or her grade raised to the next category (e.g., B+ to A-) depending on the distance between the student’s raw total points and the grade boundary.