Faculty Contact Information:
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Telephone +44-1423-844364 (from outside the U.K) or (01423) 844364 (within the UK). I can also be contacted using the e-mail address at the top of this syllabus.
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Consultation:
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I am always available for private consultation via e-mail. Telephone consultations will be by appointment only. Please schedule telephone appointments ahead of time via e-mail.
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Required Texts and Readings:
Meredith, J. and Mantel, S. (2003). Project Management: A Managerial Approach. New York John Wiley and Sons.
PMI Standards Committee. (1996). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge Upper Darby, PA: Project Management Institute. (Note that the 1996 edition can be downloaded from http://www.pmi.org/publictn/pmboktoc.htm).
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Supplementary Readings:
The standard for papers in the graduate program is the APA style. All participants in this course and all graduate INSS, MGMT, PUAD, and ECON courses should have a copy of the style guide:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition. Washington DC: Author.All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.umuc.edu/library/. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills.
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Recommended Journals:
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Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended. In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that MIS professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line.
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Course Description:
3 semester hours credit. Prerequisites: Either INSS 530, INSS 540, or permission of the Program Director. Provides an overview of the project management process as it relates to information systems. Project management techniques and methodologies for information systems development are examined. Important issues addressed include scheduling, resource allocation, risk assessment, contingency planning, management and user reporting, and automated project management systems. A survey of automated project planning tools is included.
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Course Goals:
Upon completion of the course, participants should:
1. Understand project management as applied to management of IT projects
2. Be aware of automated tools available to assist in project management
3. Be conversant with general guidelines for scheduling and planning of software projects
4. Be able to identify several standards for software development
5. Understand and appreciate the difficulties of estimating software projects
6. Be able to evaluate outsourcing as an alternative to in-house development
7. Discern variations on the software development cycle
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Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Define major terms and concepts related to project management
2. Describe current project management and related IS issues in a variety of organizations
3. Demonstrate basic project management proficiency
4. Apply project management principles to case situations
5. Evaluate project management tools
6. Increase teamwork wherewithal
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Grading Information:
Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 90% +
B 80 - 89%
C 70 - 79%
F Below 70%
Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F(a) is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion. Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog, available in your local Education Center or online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs.
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Course Requirements:
Graduate school at the masters level focuses on helping students obtain the education needed for success as professionals in their chosen fields. Thus, UMUC-Europe Graduate Programs and Bowie State University share the common goals of promoting excellence in academic scholarship through thoughtful inquiry and the skillful application of knowledge and theory for the betterment of society.
In order to maximize your graduate educational experience in general and this course in particular, you are required to:
10% - Participate in online conferences and discussions
40% - Complete a major individual written paper/project
25% - Complete an online open book/notes midterm examination
25% - Complete an online open book/notes final examination
Important note: Resubmission of course work from previous classes
(whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an
automatic failure on the assignment.
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Description of Course Requirements:
Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to engage in the online conferences. Usually this requires the student to log into the classroom five to six times per week for about a half an hour per session. Each week's conferences will have numerous informational topics as well as one or two mini assignments. In the mini assignments, students will be asked questions from the textbook, which they are required to answer to receiver participation points.
Additionally, each student will be required to prepare a written project on one of five instructor-provided project management topics. The student will choose one of the topics and prepare a graduate-level written paper.
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Course Schedule:
This schedule presents 15 units or modules, with each unit corresponding to a full week of DE. Please note that the midterm will occur in week seven of the term, with a break on week 8. The final examination will occur on week 15. So, although we have 15 weeks of class, we will only be working for 14 total weeks. The following course schedule is tentative, and may be modified if required. Every effort will be made to maintain this schedule, however I will notify all students in the event the schedule changes.
Week 1 (1 - 7 Nov 04)
Introductions
Review of syllabus
Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
Orientation to subject - Projects in contemporary organizations
Students should have read chapter 1 of the text
Week 2 (7 - 14 Nov 04)
Week 2 conferences - Strategic Management and Project Selection
Students have read chapter 2 of the text
Instructor will release project titles to students. Students
will select a project and submit their topic back to the
instructor in week 3
Week 3 (14 - 21 Nov 04)
Week 3 conferences - The Project Manager
Students should have read chapter 3 of the text
Students submit project topic to instructor
Week 4 (21 - 28 Nov 04)
Week 4 conferences - Project Organization
Students should have read chapter 4 of the text
Begin working on project
Week 5 (28 Nov - 5 Dec 04)
Week 5 conferences - Project Planning
Students should have read chapter 5 of the text
Continue working on project
Week 6 (5 - 12 Dec 04)
Week 6 conferences - Conflict and Negotiation
Students should have read chapter 6 of the text
Students continue working on project
Week 7 (12 - 18 Dec 04)
Online open book/notes midterm examination
Students continue working on project
Students provide project review (update)
Weeks 8 - 11 (19 Dec 04 - 16 Jan 05)
Christmas Break!
Students continue working on project
Week 12 (16 - 23 Jan 05)
Week 12 conferences - Budgeting and Cost Estimation
Students should have read chapter 7 of the text
Students continue working on project proposal
Week 13 (23 - 30 Jan 05)
Week 13 conferences - Scheduling
Students should have read chapter 8 of the text
Students continue working on project
Week 14 (30 Jan - 6 Feb 05)
Week 14 conferences - Resource Allocation
Students should have read chapter 9 of the text
Students continue working on project
Week 15 (6 - 13 Feb 05)
Week 15 conferences - Monitoring and Information Systems
Students should have read chapter 10 of the text
Students continue working on project
Week 16 (13 - 20 Feb 05)
Week 16 conferences - Project Control and Project Auditing
Students should have read chapters 11 and 12 of the text
Students continue working on project
Week 17 (20 - 27 Feb 05)
Week 17 conferences - Project Termination
Students should have read chapter 13 of the text
Student projects due by the end of the week
Week 18 (27 Feb - 6 March 05)
Online open book/notes final examination
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Academic Policies:
The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism
The official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."
Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center.
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Faculty Bio:
James Helton is a Senior software developer and analyst working for Lockheed Martion Corporation. He has been the software project lead for several medium to large size information systems projects and has experience in the project management field.
He has taught undergraduate computer science and information systems management courses for the University of Maryland since 2001, and graduate courses for Bowie State University since 2002. He has an undergraduate degree in Information Systems (1997) and a Master's degree in M.I.S. (2000).
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