PUAD 680: Managing Information Resources

Fall 2000 Syllabus

Basic Course Information

Time/Place: Thur., 7:20 p.m. – 10:00 p.m., Enterprise Hall, rm. 277

Instructor: Darrene Hackler

Office Location: Dept. of Public & International Affairs, A216 Robinson Hall

Telephone: 703-993-1418, fax 703-993-1399

E-mail: dhackler@gmu.edu

Office Hours: Tues., Thur., 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.; or by appt.

Course Organization and Objectives

This course is about the Information Revolution, its impacts on society broadly, and how these impacts create a new environment for organizations, with particular focus on government and non-profit organizations. The course examines how information and information systems and technology can enable or inhibit organizations’ successful achievement of desired results.

Modifying and enhancing systems poses a challenge to both the line manager and the information technology manager/professional. The line manager needs the skills and capacity to define the information needed and the ability to ensure that systems acquired to manipulate and analyze information meet the business process requirements of all users. In particular, information needs of senior executives and their ability or inability to develop a vision for the potential use of information and information technology can seriously impede successful deployment of information systems.

For the manager, the challenge is developing and maintaining the systems and information necessary to lead change and support workers in producing the services and goods needed to fulfill the organization’s mission. Meeting this challenge can be all the more difficult in public and non-profit organizations because of the procedural, personnel and budgetary limitations that they face.

PUAD 680 considers the need for management of information resources in public and non-profit organizations. Topics include the role of information in the management of the public sector, the use of information systems in re-engineering organizational processes and in adapting approaches to providing information to mission accomplishment.

In addition to these functional topics, the course surveys applications of information systems in a variety of public and non-profit settings of the students’ choosing. Candidate application settings include associations, human services, defense and national security, public works, law enforcement, legislative bodies, and the judiciary.

The specific course objectives are to teach students to:

1.Understand the impacts and opportunities of the new information age for government and non-profits;

2.Recognize the value and problems of using systems to meet management challenges;

3.Recognize and describe the value and performance of information systems relative to mission results;

4.Recognize the practical, managerial and ethical dilemmas related to the development, implementation and use of information systems; and

5.Understand the role of information in managing change.

In addition, the course seeks to enhance student skills in several areas:

Finding, reading and critically reviewing scholarly and professional literature, since the latest information on managing information resources are often available in scholarly journals and government and consulting reports;

Writing clear, understandable, concise, balanced and technically accurate papers and memoranda, complete with easily understandable charts, tables and graphs. The tendency to use jargon and unnecessarily technical language is often a serious problem for writing in this subject area;

Professional presentation and communication, both discussion of issues and options, and the presentation of analyses and results; and

Fair and objective peer review of analytical procedures, conclusions and recommendations.

Requirements and Grading

Paper No. 1 (15% of grade)

Complete a “Business Process Description and Evaluation,” approximately 500 words in length, plus appendices if desired (due in week 5), describing and evaluating a business process with which you are familiar. Include, as appropriate, work-centered analysis (WCA) framework, data flow diagrams (DFD’s) and/or entity-relationship Diagrams (ERD’s).

Paper No. 2 (25%)

Write a 2000-word “Sector Application Survey” about information technology applications in a sector of your choice (due in week 9). The instructor must approve the sector you select by week 6. The paper should be a description of state-of-the-art and emerging approaches to managing information resources in a sector of interest to the student. The paper should not be limited to a single organization or single application. The point is to look at a sector—for example, law enforcement, highway operations and management, medical information systems, personnel management, housing administration or university data warehousing. Of course, the paper cannot survey an entire sector like law enforcement or higher education completely. You should identify some emerging business processes and functions within the sector of interest to you and focus on them.

Additionally, the paper should not only describe the technology but also critically analyze its potential for improving business processes, and touch upon some of the management and implementation challenges it poses, if any. Be careful not to simply report unsubstantiated vendor claims. Use the Alter text’s work-centered analysis (WCA) framework and its five perspectives for evaluating systems. Also make appropriate use of other assigned class readings. Try to identify quantified results.

The paper should be approximately 2000 words in length, and may include appendix material at your option.

You should carefully identify and cite source material. For a paper of this type, you will probably need to rely on a wide range of sources, including subject area experts, industry and trade publications, and promotional and marketing materials by vendors. Some of these may be from the Internet.

Presentation (10%)

Develop and deliver a 15-minute class presentation on the sector about which you are writing your second paper. Presentations will be scheduled throughout the semester.

Paper No. 3 (40%)

Write a final paper of approximately 2500 words on how the information age, along with other broad trends in the management of public or non-profit organizations, affects the environment of organizations and can be used (positively and negatively) to respond to changes in an organization’s environment, both externally and internally. At your option, the paper may focus on the sector that was the subject of the “Sector Application Survey” (paper no. 2). You may wish to review and critique a recent, ongoing or anticipated technology acquisition or procurement.

Your paper should use at least five of the assigned readings from the course, as well as additional readings you may have found on your own. As appropriate, use the tools and concepts examined in the course, including the work-centered analysis (WCA) framework and concepts of system performance.

Class Participation (10%)

Participate in class discussions demonstrating command of the assigned material and the ability to relate the concepts to other management issues. You should also subscribe to a computer-oriented periodical and scan it regularly for items related to your areas of interest. Candidate publications include Government Computer News (www.gcn.com), Government Technology (www.govtech.net). You may select another relevant publication if you wish. You can read these on-line, or subscribe to the hard copy version. (Note: eligibility for free hard copy subscriptions sometimes depends on how you answer the questions on the subscription form, which the publishers use to promote their publication to advertisers. Don’t lie, but make the most of anything that would make you attractive to their advertisers.)

Note: Students who are unable to attend classes during which graded work is to be submitted or presented will be asked to provide appropriate documentation of the necessity for their absence. Also, note that the GMU’s unusual graduate grading system allows grades of A, A-, B+, B, C and F. There is no B-. Work that does not merit at least a B is generally not considered acceptable graduate quality work.

Textbooks

The texts below have been ordered through the campus bookstore and should be available for purchase.

Steven Alter, Information Systems: A Management Perspective, 3^rd ed. (Addison-Wesley, 1999);

Steven Kelman, Procurement and Public Management (Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 1990);

Thomas H. Davenport, "Putting the Enterprise Into the Enterprise System," reprint 98401, Harvard Business Review (July-August 1998): 121-31;

Peter Jacobs, "Data Mining; What General Managers Need to Know," Reprint U9910D, Harvard Management Update [Cambridge, MA] (October 1999);

Andrew S. Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company. 1996. Revised. New York: Currency, Doubleday, 1999.

Note that Peter F. Drucker’s Management Challenges for the 21st Century (New York: HarperCollins, 1999) was ordered for the course but will not be required.

Instructor

Darrene Hackler is an assistant professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs.Her teaching interests include the planning, analysis and development of information systems in government and non-profits; public policy analysis; and information technology and economic development in regional economies.Her primary research interests include industrial location of high-technology industry and its relationship with regional and local economic development policies.

Recent research topics include:

Business location determinants of high-technology manufacturing and the effect of local economic development policies upon them;

Effects of information technology on business location and process, urban form, and telecommunications deployment and social interaction; and

Telecommunications infrastructure and economic competitiveness in Minnesota.

Her professional experience includes working as an editor and analyst for RHK, a telecommunications industry analysis firm, a senior research associate with Claremont Information Technology Institute, and an independent telecommunications consultant to executive real estate developers of commercial real estate, resort communities and master-planned communities.

She received her M.A.P.P. in public policy and Ph.D. in political science and economics, with specializations in information technology and quantitative methods, from the Claremont Graduate University in California, and a B.A. in political science and economics from Albertson College of Idaho.

Computer Proficiency Requirements

Students enrolling in PUAD 680 for fall must have basic proficiency in the use of a spreadsheet, database, word processing and presentation packages. Students lacking proficiency in spreadsheet or database but otherwise conversant in the use of computers may take PUAD 680 and PUAD 730 simultaneously. PUAD 730 may not be substituted for PUAD 680.

Students who need to gain proficiency have several options to do so. The right one for you depends on your situation, including how much you already know. Here are some options:

15.Enroll in 730.

16.Video-based tutorials for Excel, Access and PowerPoint are available from STAR (Student Technology Assistance and Resource Center), JLC rm. 229, 993-8990.

17.Complete training in Microsoft Office through an off-campus training program. Such programs are sometimes available through an employer.

General Paper Guidelines

1)You cannot use a paper from another course without explicit instructor approval.

2)Paper Length. Word counts specified for papers are exclusive of footnotes, endnotes, or appendix material.

3)Papers must be typed.

4)Papers should have a cover page, but do not put papers in covers, binders or any other kind of package.

5)No late assignments will be accepted without the instructor’s prior approval.

6)Papers with unacceptable errors in spelling and grammar will be returned for correction prior to grading and penalized 5 points per day until turned back in correctly. Students who feel they are weak in this area should seek help from the Writing Center.

7)The instructor may ask to review your source material. Do not discard it for at least a month after your final paper is turned in.

8)Finding and evaluating sources. The “Research Handbook” (see below) contains some good pointers for finding and evaluating sources. Remember that some sources are more credible than others, and it’s up to you the researcher to evaluate the credibility of a source and the particular facts, ideas or positions it advances. All sources are not created equal!

9)Plagiarism. Be careful and systematic in the way you quote and credit source material in order to avoid plagiarism, which may result in Honor Code violations.

10)Style

a)The term “style” refers to the way a paper treats headings, footnotes, bibliographic citations, illustrations, tables, etc. In professional writing, it is important to be aware of style and to follow the appropriate style guidelines for what you are writing.

b)You should choose and adhere to a particular style. You may wish to use the style outlined in the department’s “Research Handbook,” located at http://www.gmu.edu/departments/pia/research/resch-hk.htm. This guide is somewhat dated, especially with respect to the use of the library’s on-line capabilities. However, it provides useful information on writing and on evaluating source material.

c)For the citation of e-mail messages, World Wide Web sites, and other items on the internet, you may follow the format specified in 1) http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla_archive.html#citing_sites ; 2) “Beyond the MLA Handbook: Documenting Electronic Sources on the Internet” <http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla_archive.html> (June 10, 1996).

d)In addition to the guidelines in the “Research Handbook,” papers for this course require the following: (i) identify your sources in footnotes; (ii) include source information for all figures and tables; (iii) include a bibliography of all source material at the end of your paper.

11)Grading criteria

a)Technical content: 65%.

b)Writing quality: 25%.

c)Style and appearance: 10%

Honor Code Policy

The Honor Code policy endorsed by the members of the Department of Public & International Affairs relative to the types of academic work indicated below is set out in the appropriate paragraphs:

18.Quizzes, Tests and Examinations. No help may be given or received by students during the taking of quizzes, tests or examinations, whatever the type or wherever taken, unless the instructor specifically permits deviation from this standard.

19.Course Requirements. All work submitted in fulfillment of course requirements is to be solely the product of the individual(s) whose name(s) appears on it. Except with permission of the instructor, no recourse is to be had to projects, papers, lab reports or any other written work previously prepared by another student, and except with permission of the instructor no paper or work of another type submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of another course may be used a second time to satisfy a requirement of any course in the Department of Public Affairs. No assistance is to be obtained from commercial organizations, which sell or lease research help or written papers. With respect to all written work as appropriate, proper footnotes and attribution are required.

20.Required Reading. A signed pledge that reading required for a course has been completed may be made a condition of receiving credit in that course. Inability to sign the pledge when required on the final exam will result in the assignment of a grade of I.

Schedule


Class	Date	Subject	Readings	Homework Due
1	8/31	Introduction, review of syllabus
2	9/7	Systems analysis	^*Alter chaps. 1-2	Short Bio WCA exercise
3	9/14	Business processes	^*Alter chap. 3 [1]	DFD exercise
4	9/21	Databases	^*Alter chap. 4	Database problem
5	9/28	Communication, Decision Making, & Different Types of Information Systems	^Alter chap. 5 ^Davenport ^*Jacobs 1999	Paper no. 1
6	10/5	Product, Customer & Competitive Advantage	^Alter chap. 6 ^Grove	Paper no. 2 sector selection
7	10/12	Ethical Issues	^*Alter chap. 7
8	10/19	Computer Hardware	^*Alter chap. 8
9	10/26	Software, Programming & Artificial Intelligence	^*Alter chap. 9	Paper no. 2
10	11/2	Networks & Telecommunications	^*Alter chap. 10 [2]
11	11/9	System Development	^*Alter chaps. 11-12
12	11/16	Procurement	^*Kelman
	11/23	Thanksgiving Recess
13	11/30	IT Planning & Management in the Federal Government	[3-6]
14	12/7	Security & Control	^*Alter chap. 13 [7; 8]
	12/14	No class meeting		Paper no. 3
^* indicates required text, or see numbered reference list below