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UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

EUROPEAN DIVISION

BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

INSS 680 INFORMATION SYSTEMS PRACTICUM (3s.h.)

Location : RAF Mildenhall

Lecturer : Chris Payne PhD

Dates : Term 3 2001/2002 Weekends 12/13 January; 2/3, 16/17 February; 2/3 March 2002

Times : 0900-1600 (Lunch 1200-1300)

Prerequisites : Advancement to Candidacy and INSS 620

Course Description : This practicum provides the student with practical experience in analyzing, implementing and evaluating an information system within an industrial, government or military environment. The student is assigned a systems development project in which all the phases of the systems development life cycle will be experienced. Students can be placed in practicumsites independently or in a team to acquire practical experience.

Course Requirements : This practicum requires that the student work singly or as part of a small team to attempt to solve a problem in some aspect of information systems design. ( The advantages and disadvantages of individual effort versus team co-operation should be considered carefully before choosing one or the other mode. ) On the first day of the course, students will be provided with a list of problems they might like to solve or they could take a problem of their own and develop that. Students will be required to present their ideas to the class for critical appraisal via four class presentations. Each presentation should take about 30 minutes , followed by 30 minutes or more of questioning from their peer group and the instructor. These presentations will detail work in progress and will count towards the final grade. Team presentations will not be permitted - every student must make a full presentation. The presentations will take the form of structured walkthru’s as would be used for quality control in professional systems development. Students should be prepared for a rigorous and detailed examination of their work. The detailed schedules for the presentations will be made when class numbers are finalized.

At the end of the course, the students will submit a written report of their work . Team reports must show clearly which students were responsible for each section.(It is expected, of course, that the effort expended by a team should be in direct proportion to the size of the team. ) The report should show relevant sections of the solution process as described in courses INSS 540 Information Systems Analysis and INSS 550 Database Management and Decision Systems and the phases should be clearly demarcated . It is impossible to prescribe the length a report should be - each problem is unique. However, it is suggested that students select a small problem which they can complete in the set time in preference to one which is too large and which can only be partially solved within the time constraints. It is preferred that students do not attempt a problem from their everyday work .

Experience shows that most student projects are necessarily quite small so that excessive time spent on the formal aspects of system development may not be justified. Students frequently choose projects which involve the prototyping of small office systems based on some common applications development package such as Micsrosoft Access with the aid of various visual tools. When this approach is taken, the grading criteria will include the consistency and rigor with which the prototyping process has been undertaken.

Grading : Grades for this course will be assigned Pass(P) or Fail(F) only. A grade of Pass will be one for which the student has achieved a least 75 % of the marks awarded according to the following scheme. (The grade of ‘I’ - Incomplete is awarded only rarely and then only in exceptional circumstances e.g. an im ortant TDY or PCS or some serious problem.)

Grading Scheme

Presentations(4)

Presentation #1	Initial Proposal	Content 15%	Spoken 5%	Visuals 5%
Presentation #2	Work in Progress	"	"	"
Presentation #3	Work in Progress	"	"	"
Presentation #4	Final Report	"	"	"

Report

Content	25%
Correctness	25%
Degree of Completion	25%
Quality of English etc.	25%

Schedule of Classes

Weekend #1 Introduction

Discussion of course requirements

Review of Systems Analysis and Design

Discussion of Systems Development Life Cycle

Presentation of proposals by students

Weekends #2 and # 3 Student presentations of work in progress

Weekend #4 Student presentations of final results and final report hand-in

Your Instructor

See Instructor Website at http://www.uomd.freeserve.co.uk/

Office Hours : Before or after class or by appointment out of class hours.

Email : chris_payne@uomd.freeserve.co.uk

Phone : 01895 257627 or 0771 046 1770 ( Mobile )

Addresses : Graduate Program, University of Maryland, IM Bosseldorn 30 ,69126 Heidelberg

Graduate Program, University of Maryland, Unit 29216,APO AE 09102

Dr. Chris Payne

London,UK

November 2001