http://www.umsl.edu/~lacity/umsllogo.gif IS 5800 Syllabus

Management of Information Systems: SPRING 2016

 

Course Hours: Thursdays: 6:55-9:00 pm, Room 005 Express Scripts Hall

This section is based on a “flipped” classroom, a form of blended learning in which students learn content online by reading and watching recorded lectures outside the classroom.  Class time is used for the technology assignment, group project work, group presentations and exams.

Course Instructor:

Dr. Mary C. Lacity
233 Express Scripts Hall
(314) 516-6127 (work)
(314) 516-6827 (fax)

Email: Mary.Lacity@umsl.edu
Homepage: http://www.umsl.edu/~lacitym

Office Hours:  Thursdays: 5:30 pm -6:30 pm (no appointment needed—just stop in!); other times by appointment

Course Description:

  

Bulletin description:  This course provides an overview of the established and contemporary issues related to managing information systems within organizations.  Topics include:

*             Global IT spend

*             Role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO)

*             IT-enabled business processes (e.g., ERP, CRM, SCM)

*             Managing IT within and across organizations (i.e., IT strategy, governance, organizational structures, technology acceptance)

*             Impact of IT on organizational competitiveness and global economies—if machines do everything, what will people do?

*             Managing IT-enabled projects; Systems analysis and design; Change management

*             Business Intelligence and Big Data

*             IT sourcing arrangements (outsourcing, cloud computing)

*             IT issues related to security, privacy, intellectual property rights, and ethics

*             Societal impacts of IT such as Green IT and Digital Divide

*             E-business technologies (HTML)

*             Business value of emergent technologies (e.g., RFID, Internet of Things, Social Media; Natural language programs, GPS driven cars, machine learning)

 

Course Instructor:

 

 

Dr. Mary Lacity is Curators’ Professor of Information Systems and an International Business Fellow at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.  She is also a Senior Editor of MIS Quarterly Executive and on the Editorial Boards for Journal of Information Technology, MIS Quarterly Executive, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal.  She has held visiting positions at the London School of Economics, Washington University, and Oxford University. She is a Certified Outsourcing Professional ®, Industry Advisor for the Outsourcing Angels and the Everest Group, and Co-editor of the Palgrave Series: Work, Technology, and Globalization. Her research focuses on the delivery of business and IT services through global sourcing and automation.  She has conducted case studies and surveys of hundreds of organizations on their outsourcing and management practices. She has given executive seminars world-wide and has served as an expert witness for the US Congress.  She was inducted into the IAOP’s Outsourcing Hall of Fame in 2014, one of only three academics to ever be inducted. She was the recipient of the 2008 Gateway to Innovation Award sponsored by the IT Coalition, Society for Information Management, and St. Louis RCGA and the 2000 World Outsourcing Achievement Award sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Michael Corbett and Associates. She has published 24 books, most recently Service Automation: Robots and the Future of Work (Brooks Publishing, 2016, UK, co-author Leslie Willcocks) Nine Keys to World-class Business Process Outsourcing (Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2015; co-author Leslie Willcocks), and The Rise of Legal Services Outsourcing (Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2014; co-authors Leslie Willcocks and Andrew Burgess). Her publications have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, MIS Quarterly Executive, IEEE Computer, Communications of the ACM, and many other academic and practitioner outlets. She was Program Co-chair for ICIS 2010. Before earning her Ph.D. at the University of Houston, she worked as a consultant for Technology Partners International and as a systems analyst for Exxon Company, USA

 

 

Course Materials:

 

I have tried to select the highest quality readings.  Readings are available on MYGATEWAY. You may also download readings from the online libraries available to all UMSL students.

 

We will also read selected chapters from two books.  Check Google Books, as sometimes the first two chapters can be read online for free.  New and used books may also be purchased from Amazon.

 

 

Citation

Required Reading

http://www.umsl.edu/~lacitym/SecondMachineAge.jpg

Brynjolfsson, E. and McAfee, A. The Second Machine Age, 2014, Norton, New York, ISBN 9780393239355

 

Chapters 1 & 2

http://www.umsl.edu/~lacity/rogers-2003-diffusion-of-innovations.jpg

Rogers, E.M., Diffusion of Innovations, New York, Free Press, 2006, fourth or fifth edition.

ISBN: 0743222091

 

 

Chapters 1

 

 

 

 

You will need access to an HTML guide. Choose any HTML guide that includes HTML Extended Color Names and HTML Tag References.  If you do not wish to buy an HTML reference book, you may find all the HTML help you need online:

Use this for extended codes:  http://immigration-usa.com/html_colors.html

http://www.htmldog.com/reference/htmltags/

 

Course Grades:

PERCENT

REQUIREMENT

DUE DATE

10%

Web Page Assignment

February 8; Monday, 8:00 am

 

10 points are deducted for each day the assignment is late.  First 10 points deducted at 8:01am of due date.

20%

Exam I

Thursday, February 18 in class

20%

Exam II

Thursday, March 17 in class

30%

Oral Group Presentation

See schedule below

20%

Exam III

Thursday  May 5 in class

 

Because students may drop an exam, the final average is calculated using the following formula:

 

(Web grade *.10) + (Best Exam Score *.20) + (Second Best Exam Score *.2) + (Oral Grade *.30)

                                                                      .80

Exams:

Students will take 3 exams, but may drop the lowest exam score.  If students are satisfied with their first two exams, they do not have to sit for the third exam provided they attended all the student oral presentations or write 250 word essays on each missed presentation. The essay questions are: "Why is the topic important to general managers? What are the promised benefits of this topic, the potential pitfalls, and overall lessons you learned from the presentation?"

 

The instructor will email a tentative grade after all of the oral group presentations have been graded.  The student may accept the tentative grade as the final grade, or may elect to sit for the third exam. 

 

The exams will cover material from the assigned readings, assigned videos/webinars, professor’s lectures, group presentations, handouts, and assignments.  Exams are NOT cumulative. No make up exams will be given without prior instructor permission or under extreme documentable circumstances.

 

Based on years of experience, students are much more likely to perform well on exams if students:

 

A. Closely read required readings

B. Closely watch webinars and required videos

C. Actively participate in your learning—take notes, ask questions if you have any, engage in discussions with your group members

D. Reviewed the Study Guide

 

If student have done A through D, studying for the exam is much easier because students may primarily study from the slides and briefly review readings.  Students who have earned As on past exams report that they have followed A through D and studied for the exam for 5 to 10 hours the week prior to the exam.  I suggest you schedule time each week to read assignments and schedule 5 to 10 hours the week prior to the exam for studying.

 

If students have not done A through D, students find it overwhelming to read all the assignments and watch all the webinars in the week prior to the exam.

I want you all to succeed!  Please follow my advice! 

Webpage Assignment:

The first assignment in IS 5800 is to create a personal web page following a standard format.  In addition to providing a context for learning HTML, these pages help me and other students get to know one another. Students will be responsible for building their own web pages. While the technical skills will be taught during the class sessions, the assignment allows for personal creativity. Most students find this exercise fun and worthwhile.

 

Web page assignment
Standard Home Page

http://www.umsl.edu/~lacitym/mis480a.htm

How Web Pages will be Graded

 

Oral Group Presentation:

The class will be divided into 8 groups. Each group is responsible for presenting a 45 to 50 minute presentation to the class. Each group will be assigned a different IT topic:

 

Group 1: The role of the CIO

Group 2: Emerging Technologies: RFID

Group 3: Green IT
Group 4: Emerging Technologies: Internet of Things

Group 5: IT Security and Privacy
Group 6: Emerging Technologies: organizational uses of social media

Group 7: Digital Divide
Group 8: IT Entrepreneurs

 

 

Important Information for Group Projects:

 

Advice and Checklists for Oral Group Presentations

Information about required Secondary Sources

Watch recording on finding academic articles (in mygateway under GROUP PROJECT MATERIALS folder)

Information about required Primary Sources

Watch webinar on interview tips (in mygateway under GROUP PROJECT MATERIALS folder)

Information about Citations

PRESENTATION TIMING: The entire presentation should be between 45 and 50 minutes

Each group should spend their time in approximately the following way: (Again, some topics lend themselves to a slightly different format, so be sure to look at my links to your topic.)

Overview of the topic. Provide general statistics about your topic; why is your topic important to general managers? How much money do companies spend on your topic? What are the promised benefits of this topic if properly managed?  What are the potential pitfalls if mis-managed?  What will we learn from your presentation? If you cite surveys, YOU MUST TELL US ABOUT THE SAMPLE in terms of size of organizations that participated (such as Fortune 500), geographic dispersion (such as U.S. or global), sample size, and date of data collection.  You'll be surprised how surveys report very different figures because of sample diversity. (~10 minutes)

Real–world examples: Explain your topic with rich examples based on your primary and secondary sources.  (For the CIO group, “examples” would be stories of actual CIOs.  For organizational uses of social media, “examples” might include examples of how specific companies engage customers in social media sites; for RFID group, “examples” may include how RFID is used in medicine, or business, etc.)  Why did you select these examples?  How are they representative of the lessons you are trying to demonstrate? (~20 minutes)

Generalizations/Lessons Learned/Best Practices: Do a cross-case comparison of similarities and differences among the examples. Extract a set of lessons or best practices for the general manager; tie these lessons back to the examples.  (~5 minutes)

Audience Activity. Each group should only plan 35 to 40 minutes of content to allow 5 to 10 minutes of audience interaction. In the past, students have done very creative things for audience participation including “Name that Entrepreneur”, a short Jeopardy game, a short survey, Taboo game, stand up sit down, etc.  Groups normally reward participation with small prizes like candy.  (~5 to 10 minutes)

PRESENTATION MATERIALS:

 

Each group will develop power point slides (or Prezi).

 

On the day of your presentation, please provide a STAPLED, hardcopy set of slides for your instructor. Please print only 2 slides per page.

 

Please load your final power point slides in GROUP X Group Pages under FILE EXCHANGE. 

 

Please name the final version of your power point slides exactly as indicated below:

 

 

 

Group

Oral Presentation File Name

File names are case sensitive

Group 1: The role of the CIO

CioSpring16.pptx

Group 2: Emerging Technologies: RFID

RfidSpring16.pptx

Group 3: Green IT

GreenSpring16.pptx

Group 4: Emerging Technologies: Internet of Things

InternetSpring16.pptx

Group 5: IT Security and Privacy

SecureSpring16.pptx

Group 6: Emerging Technologies: Organizational uses of social media

SocialSpring16.pptx

Group 7: Digital Divide

DigitalDivide16.pptx

Group 8: IT Entrepreneurs

EntreSpring16.pptx

I am very happy to work with groups on their specific topic. I strongly suggest that I meet with your groups several times.  At a MINIMUM, I want to review your power point slides at least a week before your presentation.

Oral Group Presentation Grades:

Oral presentations are graded as a group grade rather than as individual grades.  Oral group presentations will be graded using the following form: oral group grade form

 

Individuals in a group never contribute the exact equal amounts of time, content, and value. This often leads to some people feeling they worked more than others, and some people feeling left out. Usually a leader emerges, one who will hopefully help find the gifts of each individual. Unfortunately, I cannot effectively intervene in these matters, and rely on you as adults to ensure that all members of your group meaningfully contribute to the data gathering, interviewing, analysis, slide design, and presenting the final project.

All group members will receive the same grade for the oral presentation, provided that all members agree that each individual made a significant contribution. If a group member has not meaningfully or fully participated, I will assume that group member was legitimately distracted by other life issues such as illness or heavy work travel. I do expect that members who do not fully participate show their integrity by willingly reducing their percentage of contribution. It is no shame to not fully participate because of legitimate reasons.  It is a great shame to expect other group members to falsely report contribution percentages.

In order to provide some accountability, albeit imperfect, I will ask that each group fill in the following form and each group member must sign it. This form is due on the day of presentation.

Please print, fill in, and have every member sign a copy of: group contribution form .

Grading Policy

 

The letter grades use the following scale:

 

92.00 or above

A

90.00 to 91.99

A-

88.00 to 89.99

B+

82.00 to 87.99

B

80.00 to 81.99

B-

78.00 to 79.99

C+

72.00 to 77.99

C

70.00 to 71.99

C-

Below 70.00

F

 

Grading Philosophy. Professors do not “give” grades.  Students “earn” grades.  I take grading very seriously.  I thoughtfully grade each assessment item on the assessment sheets.  A sub-culture has emerged among some (certainly not all) graduate students that graduate students are “customers” and that everything they do should be given an A.  Such a view dilutes the value of your education.  I am morally obligated to clearly define expectations (which I do on a very detailed syllabus), to help you as much as I can before your exams and oral presentations (which I do for each individual and group), and to grade the actual performance using the assessment sheets.  

 

Protesting grades on these grounds are not effective: ignorance about when something is due (that never works-read the syllabus for due dates), ignorance of an assessment item (that never works), different perception of performance (as an outside and experienced observer, I am certainly more objective than the student who self-assesses!), personal problems (must be documented and discussed before an exam or presentation), all the hard work they did (that’s an input, not an output), etc. 

 

I must treat and assess each student the same—fairly and consistently.  I cannot make exceptions for some students.  All that said, I have great empathy for college students, having been one myself for nine years!   I care about your learning. No one would be happier than I to see all students earn high grades!

Attendance Policy:

Attendance is required on two exam days, group project work days, and ALL group project presentations.

 

Attendance will be taken at the start of each scheduled class on REQUIRED attendance days.

 

Students must attend all group presentation or students will be required to write 250 word essays on each missed presentation. The essay questions are: "Why is the topic important to general managers? What are the promised benefits of this topic, the potential pitfalls, and overall lessons you learned from the presentation?"

 

If a student misses a class, he or she is responsible for the material covered.

CLASS SCHEDULE, READINGS, AND ASSIGNMENTS

Date

Topic/

Agenda

Read or Watch

Learning

Objectives

Attendance Required?

Thursday,

January 21

Course Overview;

Assign Oral Group Projects

Read:  Why General Managers Need to Actively Participate in Information Technology Decisions

Watch webinars:

5800CourseOverviewPARTA.m4v 5800CourseOverviewPARTB.m4v 5800CourseOverviewPARTC.m4v

Understand:

·Why general managers need to participate in IT governance

·IT spend-world, country, firm

·IT-enabled competitive advantage, business process excellence, and cost containment

Yes

Thursday,

January 28

Building Web Pages

Do: Please print a copy of web pages associated with WWW assignment & instructions prior to class.

 

Able to develop and deploy:

·   Basic html

·   Web pages file management

 

Yes

Thursday,

February 4

Complete webpages

If your webpages are completed by class, I will grade them at the start of class and allow you to fix any errors.  For students who need more assistance, I will find help for each of you; Also, exam review

Yes

Week of Thursday,

February 4

IT Technology and Management

Trends

Read: Kappelman, L., McLean, E., Johnson, V., and Gerhart, N. (2014), The 2014 SIM IT Key Issues and Trends Study, MISQ Executive, Vol. 13, 4, pp. 237-263.

Read: Androile, S. (2012), “Seven Indisputable Technology Trends That Will Define 2015,” Communications of the AIS, Vol. 30, 1, Article 4.

Watch Webinars: ITManagementTrendsPARTA.m4v ITManagementTrendsPARTB.m4v ITManagementTrendsPARTC.m4v  ITManagementTrendsPARTD.m4v

Understand:

·   IT services performed by IT departments

·   Practices for managing IT commodities

·   Practices for managing IT differentiators

·   Governance practices for Different Types of IT

·   IT management concerns

·   IT technology trends

 

Do readings and listen to webinars on your own;

Week of Thursday,

February 11

 

Effects of  IT on organizational competitiveness and global economies

 

 

Read: Brynjolfsson, E. and McAfee, A. The Second Machine Age, 2014, Norton, New York .Chapters 1 &2.

Watch: TED talks by the authors:

Andrew McAfee at TED: What will future jobs look like?

 

Erik Brynjolfsson at TED: The key to growth? Race with the machines

 

TEDtalks available at you-tube and also at

http://secondmachineage.com/press-media/

Understand:

·      First and second machine age

·      How have the bounds of technological capabilities changed from 2009 to 2014? What will technology’s capabilities likely be in the future?

·      What does the Second Machine Age imply for the nature of work and global economic prosperity?

NO CLASS; Meet with groups on your own; Read chapters and Watch videos by the authors;

Thursday,

February 18

In-class

EXAM I

 

 

You must take 2 out of 3 exams

Week

of Thursday

February 25

Management of Large Scale IT-enabled Business Projects

 

Read: short except on Project Management from Lacity, M. (editor), (2008), Major Currents in Information Systems: The Management of Information Systems, Volume 4 (series editors: Willcocks, L., and Lee, A.), Sage, London.

Read: Nelson, R., (2007), "IT Project Management: Infamous Failure, Classic Mistakes, and Best Practices," MISQE, Vol. 6, 2, pp. 67-78.

Read: Nelson, R. (2014), “IT Project Estimation: Contemporary Practices and Management Guidelines,” MISQE, Vol. 13, 1, pp. 15-30.

Watch Webinars:

ProjectManagementPartA.m4v

ProjectManagementA Supplement

ProjectManagementPartB.m4v

ProjectManagementPartC.m4v

ProjectManagementPartD.m4v

Watch You-tube videos on Project failures

Understand:

·   Waterfall vs. Agile methods

·   Systems Analysis and Design tools, diagrams & approaches

·   Statistics on project success rates

·   Project management best practices

·   Change management objectives and practices

CLASS OPTIONAL: Professor will go over Exam I results; Meet with groups in class; Read and Watch Webinars on your own

Week of Thursday

March 3

Organizational Acceptance of Information Technologies

Read the readings and listen to the two webinar lectures

on your own:

Read: Rogers, E.M. (2006), Diffusion of Innovations, New York, Free Press, fourth or fifth edition. Read Chapter 1.  

Watch & listen: Webinar Adoption of Innovations I

 

Read: Swanson, B. (2012), “The Manager’s Guide to IT Innovation Waves,” Sloan Management Review, Vol. 53, 2, pp. 75-83.

Watch & listen: Webinar Adoption of Innovations II

Understand:

·   Determinants of Individual Adoption

·   Determinants of Organizational Adoption

·   Consequences of innovations

·   Swanson Wave Model

·   Innovation Research biases

NO CLASS; Meet with groups on your own; Read chapters and Watch webinars on your own;

Thursday,

March 10

IT Sourcing & Cloud Services

Read: Lacity, M. and Willcocks, L. (2013), “Sourcing of Information Technology Services,” The Computing Handbook Set, Information Systems and Information Technology (Volume II)(Heikki Topi, ed.), Article 60.

Read: Loebbecke, C., Thomas, B., and Ulrich, T., “Assessing Cloud Readiness at Continental AG,” MIS Quarterly Executive, (11)1: 11-23.

Read: Lacity, M., and Reynolds, P. (2014), “Cloud Services Practices for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises,” MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 13, 1, pp. 31-44.

Watch Webinars:

ITsourcingPARTA.m4v ITsourcingPARTB.m4v ITsourcingPARTC.m4v

Understand:

·   What value do clients seek from outsourcing and cloud services?

·   What practices ensure success?

·   Is cloud services is becoming the “great equalizer” between large and small-sized firms?

Yes, COME TO CLASS TO WORK ON GROUP PROJECTS WITH PROFESSOR; Do IT Sourcing & Cloud Services Module on your own

Thursday

March 17

In-class

EXAM II

 

 

You must take 2 out of 3 exams

Thursday,

March 24

WORK WITH GROUPS ON GROUP PRESENTATION; Attendance REQUIRED

Professor to review slides for groups 1 and 2 during class

 

 

YES;  GROUP PROJECT WORK DAY

Thursday,

April 7

Group 1: The role of the CIO

Group 2: RFID

Professor to review slides for groups 3 and 4 before class

 

 

YES

Thursday,

April 14

Group 3: Green IT

Group 4: Internet of Things

Professor to review slides for groups 5 and 6 before or after class

 

YES

Thursday,

April 21

Group 5: IT Security and Privacy

Group 6: Organizational uses of Social Media

Professor to review slides for groups 7 and 8 before or after class

 

 

YES

 

Thursday,

April 28

Group 7: Digital Divide

Group 8: IT Entrepreneurs

 

 

YES

Thursday

May 5

Exam III

See Instructions Above

 

You must take 2 out of 3 exams