HONORS 3060 Syllabus
Advanced Honors Seminar in Business:
Global
Information Systems Management
Winter 2005
Course Hours:
Tuesday, 1:00 to 3:30, 212 Computer Center Building
Course Instructor:
Dr. Mary C. Lacity
233 Computer Center Building
(314) 516-6127 (work)
(314) 516-6827 (fax)
Email: Mary.Lacity@umsl.edu
Homepage: http:/www.umsl.edu/~lacity
Course Description:
We truly live in a global information systems (IS) economy where customer and supplier organizations can buy or sell IS products and services from/to anywhere on the globe. Largely fostered by the spread of the Internet, global software development standards, global software packages, and fewer trade restrictions, U.S. organizations now regularly source software development, software maintenance, systems upgrades, platform transitions, help desks, and other IS-related work globally. Increasingly, the suppliers are located in countries such as India, Philippines, China, and Eastern Europe. CitiGroup, an example of an extremely large company, relies on many IT industry suppliers worldwide to help manage 260,000 employees and 200 million customers in over 100 countries. Small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) equally participate in the global IS market, such as renting the largest software packages from global suppliers of enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, or supply chain management software.
But global sourcing of IS requires a tremendous amount of management. Customers must first retain control of key IS capabilities, including strategy, governance, architecture standards, business requirements, and supplier relationship management before they can successfully source globally. Thus, the fundamentals of local IT management must be sound before an organization can consider global sourcing. Once ready, organizations must assess a county's governmental, educational, cultural, and infrastructure support to determine the extent to which suppliers based in that country are able to deliver a quality product at a good price. Organizations must assess the suppliers and manage a number of business, political, legal, workforce, cultural, logistical, and infrastructure risks.
This course is designed to help students understand what it takes to manage IS globally. Topics include:
Foundations of IS Management: Strategy, Governance, Architecture, Core
Internal IS Capabilities, IS Supplier Capabilities, Managing Large-Scale
IT-enabled Projects
Foundations of Culture: Hofstede
and Beyond
International Software Development
Standards (CMM and ISO)
Offshore Development of IS Work:
Best Practices
Offshore Development to India,
Eastern Europe, and China
Development of IT industry in
Africa, Finland, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, Central Europe
How SMEs partake in the Global IS
Economy
The last class focuses on the macroeconomic question:
Is offshore outsourcing good or bad
for the U.S. economy? We will have
an informed debate based on readings and lessons learned throughout the
semester.
Students will also participate in a group research project on a global IS topic. Groups will present findings orally and document findings in a group paper.
Course Instructor:
Dr. Mary Lacity is a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Research Affiliate at Templeton College, Oxford University, and Doctoral Faculty Advisor at Washington University. Her research interests focus on IT management practices in the areas of sourcing, IT privatization, relationship management, and project management. She has conducted case studies in over 75 organizations and has surveyed both US and European IT managers on their management practices. She has given executive seminars world-wide and has served as an expert witness for the US Congress. She was the recipient of the 2000 World Outsourcing Achievement Award sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Michael Corbett and Associates. She has written five books : Netsourcing Business Applications (Prentice Hall, 2002; co-authors Thomas Kern and Leslie Willcocks); Global IT Outsourcing: Search for Business Advantage (Wiley, 2001; co-author Leslie Willcocks) ; Strategic Sourcing of Information Systems (Wiley, 1997;co-author Leslie Willcocks); Beyond the Information Systems Outsourcing Bandwagon: The Insourcing Response (Wiley, 1995; co-author Rudy Hirschheim) and Information Systems Outsourcing: Myths, Metaphors, and Realities (Wiley, 1993; co-author Rudy Hirschheim). Her articles have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, IEEE Computer, Communications of the ACM and many other academic and practitioner outlets. She is Senior Editor for MIS Quarterly Executive and US Editor of the Journal of Information Technology. She has previously worked as a consultant for Technology Partners International and as a systems analyst for Exxon Company, USA.
Course
Materials:
Readings
to be downloaded by students (some papers will be distributed by instructor)
Books
may be ordered from Amazon.Com
Course Grades:
|
PERCENT |
REQUIREMENT |
DUE DATE |
|
15% |
Active Class Participation |
|
|
25% |
Oral Group Presentation |
See Schedule |
|
25% |
Group Paper |
April 26 |
|
25% |
Weekly Quizzes |
See Schedule |
|
10% |
Paper Summary/Critiques |
See Schedule |
|
|
|
|
It is vital that students attend all sessions. Please make attendance your number one priority. This class will only be valuable if each and every one of us makes a commitment to be prepared. That means that each student must have carefully read all the reading assignments prior to class. I will assess the class participation grade based on my impression of your weekly preparation, meaningful insights, plentiful comments, intellectual curiosity, and enthusiasm.
In a rare circumstance that a student has to miss class (such as the birth of a child or severe illness), please contact me immediately.
Weekly Quizzes:
At the start of class each week, I will administer a brief quiz on the assigned readings. The purpose of the quiz is to give an extra incentive to read all assignments prior to class. The quizzes will assess basic understanding of the material, while the subsequent class discussion will provide more erudite analysis. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped.
Paper Summary/Critiques:
Each student will also be asked to write a summary and critique of selected readings and present/lead the class discussion for that reading. See the following website as an example of a summary: http://www.umsl.edu/~lacity/readexample.htm
Group Project:
The class will be divided into groups of 2/3 students. Each group will research a different global IS topic. The group will give a 60 minute presentation to the class and write a group paper. Each group will select a different topic. Topics may be country-focused or topic-focused.
County-Focus. Groups may wish to select one or two countries and research the IS industry in depth, including the overall economy, major IS suppliers located within the country (major products or services, current and targeted customers, revenues, profits, stock price), government support (trade policies, tax exemptions, infrastructure support), educational system, culture. Etc. In addition to secondary data, students are encouraged to interview several people from foreign suppliers and/or a few of their U.S. customers.
Topic-Focus. Groups might consider a topic and research how the topic is managed globally. Topics might include the following (descriptions are generic, your group will have a global focus on that topic):
In addition to secondary data, students are encouraged to interview several people from organizations dealing with global implementations of the topic selected.
RESEARCH
BASE:
Each
group should research at least 20 external references such as journal articles,
newspapers, or relevant websites. At least 10 of these references must be from
refereed journals, such as Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, and Academy
of Management Executive. Refereed journals assure some level of validation.
The best source to find refereed journal articles is ABI-INFORM, available
online to UMSL students. Be sure to also check high-quality but non-refereed
publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal,
Economist, etc for relevant articles.
Students
are highly encouraged to conduct original case studies. Most students chose one to three
organizations. Case studies comprise original interviews and internal and
external company documents, but refer to guidelines for your specific
topic. In rare cases, none of the
students in a given group may have access to organizations to conduct original
case studies. I will try to help
you gain access to relevant companies.
As a last resort, students may use relevant teaching cases from
reputable teaching case outlets such as the Harvard Business School (See http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/), McGraw
Hill Primis Online, (see http://www.mhhe.com/primis/catalog/pcatalog/casebook.htm),
Idea Group Publishing IT Cases (see http://www.it-case-studies.com/)
or Case Clearing House (see http://www.ecch.cranfield.ac.uk/
or http://www.ecchatbabson.org/) The
main drawback is that it is very difficult for students to answer questions if they
base their presentation on second-hand material.
PRESENTATION TIMING:
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? (See specific
statistics suggested for each topic in associated webpages.) 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? (~10 minutes)
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, date of data collection. You'd be surprised how surveys report very different figures because of sample diversity.
Case-based Data: Explain
your topic using real organizations.
Why did you select these cases?
How are they representative of the lessons you are trying to
demonstrate? (~30 minutes)
Generalizations: Do a cross
case comparison of similarities and differences among the cases. Extract a set
of lessons or best practices for the general manager; tie these lessons back to
the case studies. (~10
minutes)
Each group should only plan 50 minutes of content to allow 10 to 15 minutes of audience interaction during the entire presentation. Think of yourselves not as formal speakers, but as teachers.
PRESENTATION
MATERIALS:
q
Each group will
develop power point slides and provide a copy of the slides for the instructor
and classmates prior to the presentation. Please print only 2 slides per
page.
q Please also provide instructor with an electronic copy of the presentation so it may be posted to the honors 3060 website. Please use the following naming conventions for you slides & final paper:
Group
Number
|
Power Point Name
|
Paper Name
|
Group 1
|
honorsw05g1.ppt
|
honorsw05g1.doc
|
Group 2
|
honorsw05g2.ppt
|
honorsw05g1.doc
|
etc.…
|
|
|
CITATIONS:
Make sure that every slide appropriately credits sources, be it an interview, printed material, or web site. Printed material should be referenced with Author, Title, Journal (if appropriate), Month, Year, and page numbers. For example:
Book: Lacity, Mary, and Willcocks, Leslie, Global Information Technology Outsourcing: Search For Business Advantage, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2001.
Journal Article:
Subramanian, A., and Lacity, M., "Managing Client Server Implementations:
Today's Technology, Yesterday's Lessons" Journal of Information
Technology, Vol. 12, 3, 1997, pp. 169-186.
If your slides get too busy, then simply use end notes, such as embedding (1) on actual slide and attaching a list with numbers:
(1)Lacity, Mary, and Willcocks, Leslie, Global
Information Technology Outsourcing: Search For Business Advantage, John
Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2001.
(2) Subramanian, A., and Lacity, M., "Managing Client Server
Implementations: Today's Technology, Yesterday's Lessons" Journal of
Information Technology, Vol. 12, 3, 1997, pp. 169-186.
(3) Ibid, p. 184.
Websites:
Please indicate full URL for web site references, and date viewed. For example:
www.umsl.edu/~lacity/ms480sum.htm, viewed January 1, 2002.
Interviews:
Please indicate name (if not anonymous), title of interviewee, type of interview (in person, phone, videoconference) ,people at the interview, and date of interview. For example:
John Smith, CIO of BigCompany, interviewed in
person by Jane Doe and Fred Davis, January 6, 2004.
Ian Jones, Director of Applications, BigCompany, interviewed by phone by Jane
Doe and Fred Davis, February 8, 2004.
DO NOT PLAGERIZE!!!!
You may not copy directly from sources unless you indent the text and put it in quotes. This would normally be reserved for a few sentences of specific quotations.
You must RE-WORD sources! You are using external references as INPUT to your originally created OUTPUT.
I take this very seriously and any student who copies directly from the web or printed sources will be turned over to Academic Affairs.
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. Please feel free to email, call, or make an appointment.
Oral
Group Presentation Grades:
Oral presentations are graded as a group grade rather than as individual grades. See how I will grade the oral presentation: oral group grade form
After each group's performance, I will go home and tentatively fill in the evaluation for each group, making notes as to why I assigned the score I did. I might tweak the evaluation as the course progresses as I witness more presentations.
Group Paper:
Just as your group will prepare slides for an oral presentation, your group will also prepare a paper based on your topic.
The paper should be written for an executive business audience.
The paper should include an executive summary which includes a brief description of the topic, why the topic is important to managers, the size of the market in terms of dollars, the promised benefits of this topic, the potential pitfalls, the research method your group used to help executives realize the potential of the topic, and a brief summary/list of your overall lessons and findings. The executive summary should be 1-2 pages.
The body of the paper should be written to make headings, lessons, and important findings jump out at the reader. Headings should be intriguing. For example, instead of starting a case study off with the heading, "Company History", make the heading more informative and intriguing such as, "Company X, started by Joe Smith in 1998, has never generated a profit". Use bolding, italics, color, textboxes, graphs, and tables as tools to make items standout.
Write exquisite prose.
Make sure to use meaningful transitions--this is not a cut and past from 2/3 individuals' efforts, but a well-organized, integrated piece of research.
Be sure to motivate the selection of certain case studies before delving into them. Why was this case study selected? Is it representative of the topic or is it a unique departure? What will the reader learn from reading the case?
Please be sure to fully cite all references as described above. You should put all your references in either alphabetical order in a bibliography then embed the (author, year of publication) in the text of the paper. Alternatively, you may number the sources in the bibliography and then embed the relevant number in the text [1]
As with your oral projects, I am happy to quickly pre-read drafts of your paper for high-level feedback. Try to do this as early as possible because sometimes I get 9 papers the day before they are due and I can't possibly help all of you at the last minute.
q You must hand in one hard copy to me as well as an electronic copy to be posted to HONORS 3060 website. Please use the naming convention described above.
The papers are typically 25-30 pages long, single-spaced, including embedded figures and references. But my main concern is quality. Again, I am happy to quickly look through drafts as you develop your paper.
I am a strong believer in learning from
examples. Please take a look at a very good class paper:
http://www.umsl.edu/~lacity/olpaperf04g5.pdf
This paper reads as one integrated piece of
research; the paper is well motivated & positioned (why am I reading this
what will I learn?); the paper has best practices that stand out to the reader;
the paper has killer subheadings--look how the whole text section that follows
is encapsulated with those intriguing titles! Tables and Figures are properly
labeled; references are excellent, text layout is so inviting. Great paper in both content and form!
I will grade the paper using the following criteria: paper grade form.
Adjusting Group Grades For the Oral Presentation and Written Paper
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, writing, slide design, presenting, and preparing the final document.
All group members will receive the same grade for the oral presentation and the paper, provided that all members agree that each individual made a contribution. 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 last day of class, along with your paper submission.
Please print a copy of: group contribution form .
CLASS SCHEDULE, READINGS, AND ASSIGNMENTS
Tuesday, January 11: Course Overview
Nature
of IT within Global Organizations
Assigned Readings:
Luftman, J., and McLean, E., "Key
Issues for IT Executives," MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 3, 2,
2004, pp. 89-104.
Please print a copy of class overheads for the course overview no sooner than two days before the start of class.
Assign Groups
Tuesday,
January 18:
Foundations
of Information Systems Management
How do organizations need to structure and govern
IT?
Assigned Readings:
Weill, P., "Don't Just Lead:
Govern: How Top Performing Firms Govern IT," MIS Quarterly Executive,
Vol, 3, 1, March 2004, pp. 1-17.
Ross, J., Creating a Strategic IT
Architecture Competency, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 2,1, March 2003, pp.
Feeny, D. and Willcocks, L., “Core IS
Capabilities for exploiting Information Technology, Sloan Management Review,
Vol. 39, Spring, 1998, pp. 9-21.
Feeny, Lacity, and Willcocks, "12
Supplier Capabilities,"
Working Paper, Oxford Institute of Information Management, 2004.
Please print a copy of class overheads for the IT governance no sooner than two days before the start of class.
Tuesday,
January 25
Foundations
of Information Systems Management
Managing
Large Scale IT-enabled Projects
Assigned Readings:
Keil, M., and Montealegre, R.,
"Cutting Your Losses: Extricating Your Organization When A Big Project
Goes Awry,"
Sloan Management Review, Spring 2000, pp. 55-68.
Subramanian, A., and Lacity, M.,
"Managing Client Server Implementations: Today's Technology, Yesterday's
Lessons" Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 12, 3, 1997, pp.
169-186.
Brown, C., and Vessey, I.,
"Managing the Next Wave of Enterprise Systems: Leveraging Lessons from
ERP," MISQ Executive Vol.2, 1, March 2003, pp. 65-77. (Alma)
Badir, Y., et al., "Management
of Global Large-Scale Projects" Project Management Journal, Sept
2003, Vol. 34, 3, p. 40-47. (Christopher)
Please print a copy of class overheads for the Large-Scale Projects no sooner than two days before the start of class.
Tuesday,
February 1
Foundations of Culture & Cultural
Differences
Assigned Readings:
Harvey, F., "National
Cultural Differences in Theory and Practice," Information Technology
& People, Vol. 10, 2, 1997, pp. 132- (Luis)
Kolman,
L., et al., "Cross Cultural Differences in Central Europe," Journal
of Managerial Psychology, 2003, Vol. 28, 1/2, p. 76-88. (Abram)
Fang, T., "A Critique of Hofstede's Fifth
National Culture Dimension," International Journal of Cross Cultural
Management," Dec 2003, Vol. 3,3, p. 347-368 (David)
Corbitt, B., et al., "Cultural
Differences: Information and Code Systems, Journal of Global Information
Management," Jul-Sept 2004, Vol. 12, 3, pp. 65-85.
Tuesday,
February 8
International Software Development Standards
Assigned Readings:
BOOK: Jalote, P. CMM in
Practice, Addison Wesley, Boston, 2000.
Koch, C., "Bursting the CMM
Hype," CIO Magazine, March 1, 2004, Vol, 17, 10, p. 1. (Alma)
Anthes, G., "Model Mania,"
Computerworld, March 8, 2004, Vol. 38, 10, P. 41 (Christopher)
Glazer, H., "What is CMMI and
why should you care?," The Daily Record, Baltimore, MD, Sept 5,
2003. (Luis)
BOOK: Beaumont, Leland, IS 9001: The Standard Interpretation,
ISO Easy, New Jersey, 2002. (Abram)
Tuesday, February 15:
Offshore Development of IS Work: Best Practices
Assigned Readings:
Rottman, J., and Lacity, M.,
"Twenty Eight Proven Practices in Offshore Sourcing of IT Work,"
Cutter Consortium, Vol 5, 12, 2004. (David)
Carmel, E., and Agarwal, R., "The
Maturation of Offshore Sourcing of Information Technology Work," MIS
Quarterly Executive, Vol. 1, 2., June 2002, pp. 65-77.
Kaiser, K., and Hawk, S., "Evolution
of Offshore Software Development: From Outsourcing to Co-Sourcing," MIS
Quarterly Executive, Vol. 3, 2, June 2004, pp. 69-81.
Tuesday,
February 22
Country Focus: Offshore Development in India, Eastern
Europe, and China
Assigned
reading:
Nair, K., and Prasad, P., "Offshore
Outsourcing: A SWOT Analysis of a State on India," Information Systems
Management, Summer 2004, Vol. 21, 3, P. 34-40. (Alma)
Zatolyuk, S., and Allgood, B., "Evaluating a
Country for Offshore Outsourcing: Software Development Providers in the Ukraine,"
Information Systems Management, Summer 2004, Vol. 21, 3, p. 28-33.
(Christopher)
Qu, Z., and Brocklehurst, M., “What Will it Take for
China to become a Competitive Force in Offshore Outsourcing? An Analysis of the
Role of Transaction Costs in Supplier Selection, “ Journal of Information
Technology, Vol. 18, 2003, pp. 53-67. (Luis)
Tuesday, March 1
Country Focus: Development of IT Industry in Africa, Finland, Israel, New Zealand,
Singapore, & Central Europe
Assigned
reading:
Bruno, G, et al., "The ICT
Service Industry in North Africa," Journal of Global Information
Technology Management, 2004, Vol. 7, 3, p. 5-26. (Abram)
Ein-Dor, P., "IT Industry Development and the
Knowledge Economy: A Four Country Study," Journal of Global Information
Management, Oct-Dec 2004, Vol. 12, 4, pp. 23-49. (David)
Mbarika, V., "A Disconnect in Stakeholder's
Perceptions from Emerging Realities of Teledensity Growth in Africa's Least
Developed Countries, Journal of Global Information Management, July-September
2004, Vol. 12, 3, pp. 1-20.
Pook, L., and Pence, N., "Evaluation
of Information Infrastructures and Social Development Among the Visegrad-Four
Countries of Central Europe, Journal of Global Information Management,
Apr-June 2004, Vol. 12, 2, pg. 63.
Tuesday, March 8
How
SMEs partake in Global Information Systems Economy
Small to Mid-sized companies partake in the global information systems economy as
Assigned reading:
Kern, T., Willcocks, L., and Lacity,
M., "Application Service Provision: Risk Assessment and Risk Mitigation,"
MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 1, 2, 2002, pp.113-126. (Alma)
Ekanayaka, Y. et al., "Delivering
Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Through ASPs," Logistics
Information Management, 2002, Vol. 15, 3, pp. 192-203. (Christopher)
Kaarst-Brown, M., and Wang, C., "Doing Business
in Paradise: How Small, Information Intensive Firms Cope with Uncertain
Infrastructure in a Developing Island Nation, Journal of Global Information
Management, Oct-Dec 2003, Vol. 11, 4, 2003, p. 37-57. (Luis)
Tuesday,
March 15
Effects of Globalization of
IS Work on U.S. IS Careers
Assigned
reading:
Lindsey, B., "Job Losses and Trade:
A Reality Check," CATO Institute, Trade Briefing Paper, #19, March
17, 2004. (Abram)
Pfannenstein, L., and Tsai, R.,
"Offshore Outsourcing: Current and Future Effects on American I.T. Industry,"
Information Systems Management, Fall 2004, Vol. 21, 4, p. 72-80. (David)
Drezner, D., "The Outsourcing Bogeyman," Foreign Affairs,
May/Jun 2004, Vol. 38, 3, p. 22
Cocheo, S. "The Dobbs Effect," American Bankers Association, ABA
Banking Journal, May 2004, Vol. 96, 5, p. 32-38; 65.
Challenger, J., "Outsourcing and the Economy," Vital
Speeches of the Day, Aug 1, 2004, Vol. 70, 20, p. 634-637. (Alma)
Carr, N., "IT Doesn't Matter","
Harvard Business Review, Vol. 81, 5, May 2003, pp. 41-49. (Christopher)
Tuesday, March 22: SPRING BREAK, NO CLASS
Tuesday, March 29
Group 1 Presentation
Group 2 Presentation
Tuesday, April 5
Group 3 Presentation
Group 4 Presentation
Tuesday, April 12
Group 5 Presentation
Group 6 Presentation
Tuesday, April 19
Group 7
Presentation
Group 8 Presentation
Tuesday,
April 26
Summary of Lessons Learned