ISMN 4090
Design of Business Systems
Dynamic Syllabus
(Last modified 8/14/14)

Prerequisites:  ISMN 3830 or 3840 with grade of "C" or better.

Texts:  Hoffer, George, & Valacich (2014).  Modern Systems Analysis and Design, 7^th ed.  Pearson Education, Inc.: Boston.

Course objective: The objective of this course is to introduce students to systems analysis and design. Systems Analysis and Design methods will be studied and used to analyze and model an information system of a regional company or organization and to design, model, and prototype an appropriate new system that meets the needs of the user.

Policy: It is important for you to realize from the outset that there are components of this course that are far less structured than what you are normally accustomed to, especially in some areas relating to the project. This means that you are expected to take the initiative and responsibility in these areas.
        Deadlines are final and must be met. It is your responsibility to allocate time accordingly.  NO excuses will be accepted, including natural disasters and/or computer crashes.  Ensure that you have enough backups to allow for the worst case scenarios, such as loss of your homework or project. I expect a professional attitude in order to ensure project success.  "Whatever it takes" should be your guideline for the semester.
        All work must be printed double-spaced in high quality print.  Each student will bring a blue scantron sheet to the exams. A grade of "incomplete" will not be given for this course unless very unusual non-course-related circumstances are documented and approved.  While an effort is made to assign grades as objectively as possible, it is not possible in a course such as this for the grade to be entirely objective.  Therefore, some portion of your grade will be determined by the subjective evaluation of the instructor. Each student is expected to have read and studied the material before each class and to bring the textbook to each class session.  No make-up exams will be given unless (1) I am notified prior to the exam’s regular administration that you will miss the exam, and (2) an acceptable University-approved excuse is provided promptly.  Plagiarism of any type will result in an automatic report to the Academic Honesty Committee.

Evaluation:

Your grade will be assigned based upon the following traditional grade categories:
    A: 90% & up   B: 80%- below 90%   C: 70%- below 80%   D: 60%- below 70%  F:  below 60%

NOTE: Peer evaluations will be conducted and the results will HEAVILY influence individual student's
             project grade.  [Example: (PeerEval %) * (Project Grade) = Individual Grade]

Communication: We will use your Auburn University e-mail address (userid@auburn.edu) for course communication. It is your responsibility to contact the Information Technology Help Desk to have this address forward mail to the e-mail address that you regularly check.

Academic Honesty: ALL PORTIONS OF THE AUBURN UNIVERSITY HONESTY CODE (TITLE X11) FOUND IN THE TIGER CUB WILL APPLY TO THIS CLASS. All violations or alleged violations of the Student Academic Honesty Code (see SGA Code of Laws in the Tiger Cub) will be reported to the Office for the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Special Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: Students who need special accommodations should make an appointment as soon as possible with the faculty member in charge of your lecture section to discuss your Accommodation Memo. It is essential that the faculty member be aware of necessary accommodations at the beginning of the course. If you do not have an Accommodation Memo but need special accommodations, contact the Program for Students with Disabilities, 1244 Haley Center, 334-844-2096 (Voice T/O).

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Tentative & Dynamic Course Schedule:
 

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ISMN 4090 Project Notes

Teams: Each student will participate as a member of an assigned team to complete the very substantial project.  It will require MANY hours of work per week per team member to complete and will result in the iterative development of a substantial project notebook which documents your system analysis and design. In addition, students can expect to encounter a variety of interesting challenges in learning the concepts of system development and in applying them in a real-world situation. Learning to effectively use a systems modeling tool will be a part of this process.

Project Proposal: Project teams will be responsible for identifying a company within which the analysis & design process can be applied to a problem/opportunity. Each team will submit a typed written proposal of the business processes to be reviewed on the date indicated in the course schedule. Teams will be expected to logically explain and discuss the organization chosen. Do not expect approval if the team has a minimal grasp of the organization to be studied and is not adequately prepared.

Project Milestone Reports/Consultations: Each team will make milestone reports to the instructor during team consultations scheduled for that purpose.  The team should be prepared to discuss the requirements for that milestone assignment (refer to the Milestone Requirements for details). These are scheduled not only to serve as "milestones" for the team, but also to allow the instructor to monitor the progress of the teams, to evaluate the performance and contribution of each team member, and to provide feedback.  Bring the project notebook of previous and current requirements for review by the instructor during the consultation and to be left for later review. These materials will be returned.

Trouble Shooting: Students should exhaust every effort possible to resolve difficulties. This includes contacting other project teams. Each team will undertake unique projects so there is no direct competition among teams. Teams can therefore be information providers, working with and supporting others. Each team is expected to maintain adequate control of back up programs and data. Loss of a system or data is not an acceptable response to project requirements and consultation reviews. Each team must organize and manage itself to effectively meet the requirements of the instructor and the users for whom they will be developing the system. It is strongly recommended that members on each team be assigned tasks such as archive librarian, hardware specialist, quality assurance proof reader (text), DFD consistency proof reader, treasurer, prototype coordinator, presentation manager, etc. You may discover other major tasks that should be assigned as well. However, all team members should be knowledgeable in all aspects of the project, especially the system modeling using the CASE tool. The final project and documentation will be kept by the instructor for future reference. This copy should be of the highest professional quality in every way (graphics, text, grammar, spelling, etc.). If the team desire additional copies for the analyzed company or for personal reference, they should prepare them in advance of the final project submission. Each team should determine the deliverables to end users early in the semester, as they should receive at least a condensed bound copy of the project.

Presentation: Final project presentations will be done in the highest quality, professional manner. Representatives of the company analyzed are to be invited and your presentation should be aimed at them.  Therefore, presentations should be made in the language of the user. The presentations will be made in the class room during the time scheduled for the final exam, as indicated on the course schedule. Hardware, software, presentation, and materials are the responsibility of the individual teams. Presentation format should be approximately 35-45 minutes in length, and the following schedule is recommended (time in minutes):
-- Introduction / overview / history (3 to 4)
-- Current system & problems (6 to 7, primarily business related presentation)
-- Proposed system  (8 to 9, business related, some technical coverage, highlighting functionality and changes).
-- Prototype demonstration (12 to 18)
-- Estimated costs (2 to 5)
-- Question and answers / review (5 to 7)

Other Project Details: Decide on a standard, professional printing format early and be consistent with your word processing throughout the project. The final project prototype should be a functional system/user interface designed to resolve a particular need for that organization and should mirror the proposed DFDs. Access, Oracle, Visual Basic, web-based resources, etc., may be utilized for the prototype (should be approved by the instructor), and a separate soft copy of the prototype will be submitted with the completed project. Your project should meet the requirements of the end-user. It should also be creative and explained thoroughly and clearly. Disk copies of ALL work -- Designer, Oracle, Access, Visual Basic, word processing (preferably in MS Word) files -- should be included in the project documentation. MAINTAIN BACK UP COPIES WITHIN YOUR TEAM. DISKS DO FAIL! Place the completed project in White slant-ring binders; one or two is typically adequate. Be sure to label/title both the front and the spine of the binder(s) with the project name, team number and member names, and the semester and year. Use typed tab dividers (positioned as described in the Detailed Project Requirements) with reinforced holes.

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Detailed Project and Milestone Requirements Coming Soon...

Deliverables for Milestones -- I would consider these a minimum; other helpful/appropriate content at your discretion.

Section I.  (Milestone 1)
        A. Team member resumes (with photograph), in alphabetical order.
        B. Updated project proposal.
        C. A history and thorough business description of the company/unit.
        D. Organization Chart (unit and IS)
        E. Project Charter (See discussion around p. 55-56)
        F. Baseline Project Plan, including the Project Scope Statement (See discussion around p. 131-136)
        G. Preliminary project management analysis (Gantt or PERT)

Section II.  (Milestone 2)
        A. Business Requirements Statement -- A complete logical description/specification of the
               proposed system, which includes:
                1.  Logical process models (context diagram; decomposition diagram/hierarchy
                       chart (EXAMPLE); leveled set of data flow diagrams; and detailed entity, data store, data flow,
                       and process descriptions via dictionary/repository entries.
                2.  Logical data model and detailed data requirements/descriptions
                3.  Logical network requirements
                4.  Use Case Analysis: Use Case Diagram (see examples in Appendix 7a); Kite level written use case
                     (see example p. 232); Sea level written use case for one (1) use case (see example p. 233)
        *B. System Proposal
                1. Candidate system analysis (click HERE for an example of a candidate system matrix and
                        feasibility matrix) including:
                        a. Candidate system analysis matrix
                        b. Candidate system feasibility analysis matrix
                2. Recommendations
        *C. Appendix (analysis support material: sample documents, procedures, existing related
               documentation, etc.)

Section III.
        A. System Design Specification (A complete logical/physical description/specification of the
               proposed system.) (click HERE for information about and/or examples of physical DFDs, network
               architecture diagrams, and data distribution architecture diagrams
                1. Set of physical DFDs
                2. Network architecture diagram
                3. Physical Database Schema
                4. Data distribution/technology assignment diagram
                5. Data-to-Process CRUD Matrix
                6. Person/Machine Boundary Diagram (not required)
                7. Manual Design Unit Diagrams (not required)
                8. Structure Charts (not required)
        B. Test plan
        C. Data conversion plan

Section IV.
        A. Working prototype (multiple, iterative versions)
                1. Output screens/documents (hard and/or soft copy), samples
                2. Input screens/documents (hard and/or soft copy), samples
                3. Navigation screens
        B. Dialogue chart (click HERE to see an example)
        C. User Manual (hard-copy and/or on-line)

Section V.
        A. Training plan
        B. System conversion plan
        C. Support and maintenance plan
        D. Detailed system methodology overview (specific to your project) and justification

Appendix:  System development support material not included elsewhere (example: individual and team time/activity logs, project management working documents, etc.).

Note: This document/syllabus is subject to change by the instructor by either verbal or written statement. Verbal instructions will accompany these written instructions.

Team # and Name__________________                         Your Name: ____________________

Directions: List the names of all team members, including yourself, in the first column. Assign a letter grade to the items in columns two through nine for each team member. In column ten, if the total team contribution is 100%, give the percentage contribution that each team member has made to the overall project to this point (these should total 100%). Beneath the table, please provide written comments/justification for your assessments.
 

--------------1.------------- List team members, including yourself, below:	----2.---- Contri- bution to data collection effort:	----3.---- Contri- bution to Logical Model develop- ment:	----4.---- Contri- bution to Physical Model develop- ment:	----5.---- Contri- bution to prototype develop- ment:	----6.---- Contri-tion to other misc. areas	----7.---- Availa- bility & attend- ance at meetings:	----8.---- Coopera-  tion/ attitude within the team:	----9.---- Contri- bution to the present- ation:	----10.---- Overall assessment of contri- bution to the project (%):
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Comments/Justification (use back if needed):
 

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