PUAD 680: Managing Information Resources

Spring 2002

Basic Course Information
Paper Guidelines
Required Texts
Honor Code Policy
Course Organization & Objectives
Schedule
Requirements and Grading
Instructor


 
 

Basic Course Information

Time & Place:  Tues., 7:20 p.m. – 10:00 p.m., Enterprise, rm. 277
Instructor:  Darrene Hackler
Office Location:  Dept. of Public & International Affairs, Robinson Hall A216
Telephone:  703-993-1418
Fax:  703-993-1399
E-mail:  dhackler@gmu.edu
Office Hours:  Tuesday 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. & Thursday, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.; or by appt.
 

Textbooks:

The texts below have been ordered through the campus bookstore and should be available for purchase.
  1. Steven Alter.  2002.  Information Systems: Foundations of E-Business (4th ed.). NJ: Prentice Hall.
  2. Thomas H. Davenport.  "Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System."  Reprint 98401.  Harvard Business Review (July-August 1998): 121-31.
  3. G. David Garson.  1999.  Information Technology and Computer Applications in Public Ad-ministration: Issues and Trends. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.
  4. Andrew Grove. 1999. Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company (Revised). New York: Currency, Doubleday.
  5. Steven Kelman.  1990.  Procurement and Public Management.  Washington, D.C.: AEI Press.
Note that Peter F. Drucker’s Management Challenges for the 21st Century (New York: HarperCollins, 1999) is not required but offers many examples of management in the public and private sector.
 
In addition to the above, the instructor will provide selected outside readings, which will be made available at student expense or on the Library’s electronic reserves (http://ers2000.gmu.edu/ers/srch.html). To use electronic reserves, go to this URL, select course PUAD 680 002, select instructor Hackler, Darrene and enter the password "jewel" (don't use quotes, spaces or caps).

 

Course Organization and Objectives

This course is concerned with the information age—its broad impacts on society and how these impacts create a new environment for organizations, especially government and nonprofit organizations. The course examines how technology and information systems can improve infor-mation management and can enable or inhibit organizations’ successful achievement of desired results.

Developing, modifying and enhancing systems pose 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 requirements to ensure that acquired systems manipulate and analyze in-formation to satisfy the business process requirements of all users.  In addition, the 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 informa-tion systems.

The manager must recognize the organization’s mission in order to develop and maintain infor-mation systems and collect the information necessary to lead change and support workers. Meeting this challenge can be all the more difficult in public and nonprofit 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 nonprofit organizations. Topics include the role of information in public sector management and the use of information systems in re-engineering organizational processes.

In addition to these functional topics, the course surveys applications of information systems in a variety of public and nonprofit 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 the need for understanding the business process before re-engineering and applying technological solutions;
  4. Recognize and describe the value and performance of information systems relative to mission results;
  5. Recognize the practical, managerial and ethical dilemmas related to the development, implementation and use of information systems; and
  6. Understand the role of information in managing change.
  7. Finding, reading and critically reviewing scholarly and professional literature.  The latest information on managing information resources is often available in scholarly journals and government and consulting reports.
  8. Writing clear, understandable, concise, balanced and technically accurate papers, complete with easily understandable charts, tables and graphs. The tendency to use jargon and unneces-sarily technical language is often a serious problem for writing in this subject area.
  9. Professional presentation and communication.  Both discussion of issues and options and the presentation of analyses and results are important to ensure clear understanding and further learning.
  10. Fair and objective peer review of analytical procedures, conclusions and recommendations.

Requirements and Grading

Paper 1 (30% of grade)

Write a 2,500-word paper describing and evaluating information technology applications in a public or nonprofit organization or sector of your choice. The instructor must approve your selection by week 4. The paper should be a description of state-of-the-art and emerging approaches to managing information resources in the organization or sector of interest to the student. You should identify two technology applications or information systems to use as the focus of your paper. These applications or systems will necessarily be linked to business processes and functions within the organization or sector of interest. Use the work system framework, data flow diagrams (DFDs) and/or entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) to aid the description of these business processes or functions that the applications or systems enable.
 
Additionally, the paper should critically analyze the potential of these state-of-the-art technology applications or information systems for improving business processes. You should look at improvements from internal management and end users’ perspectives as well as external customers perspectives. Refer to Alter’s criteria for evaluating business process performance, information used in business processes and the “product” to strengthen your analysis and evaluation. These will help you identify quantified results showing improvement or not. A thoughtful analysis will also discuss any management and implementation challenges that confront or have confronted the technology applications or information systems in your sector.
 
The paper does not have to be limited to a single organization. You could look at several organizations across a sector—for example, you are interested in county sheriff’s and FBI business processes dealing with digital imaging of fingerprints. The sector is law enforcement, and the application or information system may be the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). You would look at how these organization use AFIS and how it has changed/improved business processes, making sure to address all components addressed in the paragraphs above. Other sectors include education, health and human services, highway operations and management, medical information systems, personnel management, housing administration or university data warehousing. You should identify some emerging technology applications or systems that are enabling new business processes and functions within the sector of interest to you and focus on them and how they are affecting organizations that are using them.
 
The paper should be approximately 2,500 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.  Be careful not to simply report unsubstantiated vendor claims. Also make appropriate use of other assigned class readings.

Paper 2 (40% of grade)

Write a final paper of approximately 3,000 words on how the information age affects public or nonprofit organizations. You should examine both organizational and management issues like training, culture, management hierarchy, reporting and achievement of mission goals, the relevance of strategic planning and technology budgeting. The paper should use examples of how information technology applications and information systems can positively or negatively impact an organization’s ability to respond to its environment—both external and internal changes to an organization’s environment.
 
The paper is due the last week of class. During that class, we will discuss your papers. Please be ready to give a short presentation of your major conclusions.
 
Your paper should use and cite in a bibliography 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, i.e. the work system framework and measuring business process performance.

Presentation (10%)

You must signup for a chapter(s) of Garson’s text to present. You will work with a partner to develop and deliver a 45-minute class presentation describing the major points and conclusions of the chapter. This should not just be a verbal outline of the chapter. You should work to integrate material from other readings and your research papers. If you have 2 chapters, seek to integrate around the theme instead of sequentially moving through each chapter.
 
In addition, you will be responsible for encouraging and conducting class discussion on the chapter(s). This would include provision of discussion questions or a case study to which students can apply the principles from the chapter(s). These activities should be included in the 45-minute time frame.
 
An electronic presentation (PowerPoint or other presentation software) should accompany your verbal presentation. Both the instructor as well as your peers will evaluate your verbal and electronic presentation. Presentation note slides should be provided for the instructor. Each partner will upload the joint slide presentation to WebCT. Below is a list of the following chapters and the week that they will be presented:

 
Date
Chapter
2/12 
Ch. 9:  Heeks, MIS in the Public Sector
2/12 
Ch. 2:  Rocheleau, Political Dimensions of IS
2/19 
Ch. 12: Carr, GIS
2/26 
Ch. 3:  Seneviratne, IT and Organizational Change
3/5 
Ch. 6 & 13:  Duncan, Information Privacy, & Prysby & PrysbyLegal Aspects of E-mail 
3/19 
Ch. 8:  Norris, IT Adoption in US Cities
4/9 
Ch. 4 & 5: Holden, Federal IT Management, & Fetcher, State Strategic IT Management Planning
4/16 
Ch. 7:  Warren & Weschler, E-government

Class Participation (10% of grade)

Your participation in class discussions and group exercises should demonstrate a command of the assigned material and the ability to relate the concepts to other management issues. You will also be responsible for reviewing a few computer-oriented periodicals and scanning them regularly for items related to your areas of interest. Candidate publications can be found below:
 
Government issues:  Government Computer News (www.gcn.com), Federal Computer Week (www.fcw.com), Government Technology (www.govtech.net), FirstGov.gov (www.firstgov.gov), PlanetGov (www.planetgov.com), IT Association of America (www.itaa.org), Telecom Industry Association (www.tiaonline.org), Computer and Communications Industry Association (www.ccianet.org), Insider’s Guide to Using Information in Government (www.ctg.albany.edu/guides/usinginfo), and TR Reports/Daily (www.tr.com)
 
You will be responsible for submitting one article for each week of class starting January 29th to the WebCT discussion board (see section below on WebCT).  You will also be expected to contribute to the discussion of an article submitted by another student on 7 separate occasions during the semester. You should bring your article to class and be ready to discuss it as well as any other articles you commented on for that week.
 
All homework is denoted in the last column of the course schedule.

 

WebCT

We will use an online program called WebCT to facilitate communication and discussion in this course. You should try to become familiar with WebCT between the first and second week of class. Below are instructions to help you to locate the web site and log on for the first time. If you are unable to log on, contact Buz Grover (hgroveri@gmu.edu or 993-1430).

Logging On and Registration

To log on to your WebCT Course(s):
  1. Open your web browser and go to http://webct.gmu.edu.  The "Welcome to WebCT" screen appears.
  2. Click on the "Log on to myWebCT" link.  An "Enter Network Password" window pops up.
  3. Type your user name and password in the window (using all lower case letters), and click “OK”.  Your “myWebCT”  page appears.  Hint: bookmark your "myWebCT" page to skip step #1 in the future.  (Your user name is the part of your GMU e-mail address that comes before the "@" sign.  You can find your user name by entering your last name into GMU's "People Finder" at http://www.gmu.edu/mlnavbar/finder/findex.html.  Unless you have used this version of WebCT before, your password is the last four digits of your student ID, usually your social security number.  Note that WebCT user names and passwords are case-sensitive; your assigned user name and password are typically all lower case letters.)
  4. Click on your PUAD 680 WebCT Course.  The "Homepage" of that course appears.
You should change your WebCT password immediately. (Note: You cannot change your WebCT ID.)  To change your password:
  1. From your "myWebCT" page, click “Change Password”, at the top right of the screen.  The "Change Password" page appears.
  2. Type in your old password, your new password (a combination of numbers and letters is most secure), and your new password again.  Make a note of your new password, keeping in mind that WebCT is case-sensitive, and click “Update Password”.  A screen appears that says “Success: Your password has been updated".
  3. Click “Continue.”  Your "myWebCT" page reappears.
You should browse the site to become familiar with WebCT. Do the following:
  1. You should forward you WebCT email (internal to the online program only) to your most frequently checked email account—under Communication, then Forward my WebCT E-mail gives you instructions.
  2. Post short bio on yourself to the discussion list under the “Bio” topic.
  3. You should try submitting a discussion message to the Current Events Week 2 topic—on the Discussions page. See “Class Participation and Homework” section above for information.

Grading

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. Given the intensive nature of this course, absences are inappropriate.  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.

A   = 93-100
A- = 90-92.9
B+ = 87-89.9
B   = 83-80
C   = 79.9-70
F   = 69.9 & below
 

Paper Guidelines

  1. You cannot use a paper from another course without explicit instructor approval.
  2. Papers must be typed with 1” left, right, top and bottom margins, size 12-point font. Pages must have page numbers. Either endnotes or footnotes are required (see “Style” below) as well as a bibliography.  Papers should have section headings and be double-spaced.
  3. A copy of all interview transcripts and/or e-mail should be attached to the paper.
  4. Papers must have a title 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. Papers are due at the beginning of class. If turned in any later but on the same day, a grade reduction will occur as well as for every day it is late.
  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: (i) http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla_archive.html#citing_sites. (ii) “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

George Mason University has an Honor Code, which requires all members of this community to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity.  Cheating, plagiarism, lying, and stealing are all prohibited. Please consult the Student Handbook for a full definition of these terms. All violations of the Honor Code will be reported to the Honor Committee. Violations include but are not limited to the following:


In addition, the Honor Code policy is relevant to the types of academic work indicated below:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

Schedule


Week
Date
Subject
Readings
Homework Due
1 
1/22 
Review of syllabus, WebCT (see section of syllabus)
 
* Submit Current Event each week starting in week 2*
2 
1/29 
Moving Toward E-Business as Usual
*Grove (all)
*Alter 1
Short Bio—post to WebCT Discussion Topic “Bios”
3 
2/5 
Understanding Systems
Business Processes
*Alter 2-3
[1]
Work System Framework  exercise
4 
2/12 
Information & Databases
*Alter 4 
*Garson 2
*Garson 9
Paper no. 1 sector selection
2 Garson Group Presentations
5 
2/19 
Types of Information Systems
*Alter 5
*Davenport
*Garson 12
[2] 
DFD exercise
1 Garson Group Presentation
6 
2/26 
Customer, Product & E-Commerce
*Alter 6
*Garson 3
[3]
1 Garson Group Presentation
7 
3/5 
Human & Ethical Issues
*Alter 7
*Garson 6 & 13
[4]
Paper no. 1
1 Garson Group Presentation
 
3/12 
Spring Break
 
 
8 
3/19 
Hardware & Software 
Networks & Telecommunications
Alter 8-9 (skim)
*Alter 10
*Garson 8
[5] 
1 Garson Group Presentation
9 
3/26 
System Development
*Alter 11-12
 
10 
4/2 
Procurement
*Kelman
 
11 
4/9 
IT Planning & Management: Federal Government
*Garson 4 & 5 
[6-8]
1 Garson Group Presentation
12 
4/16 
IT Planning & Management: Local and E-Gov
*Garson 7
[9-11]
1 Garson Group Presentation
13 
4/23 
E-Business Security & Control
*Alter 13
[12-13]
[14-15] (skim, Exec Sum, examples)
 
14 
4/30 
Information Age and the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
 
Paper no. 2 due, discuss paper conclusions
* indicates required text, or see numbered reference list below

Reference List

NOTE: If you cannot find an assigned reading, please contact your instructor or other students in your class for assistance in locating it.
  1. U.S. General Accounting Office. 1998. Executive guide: Measuring performance and demonstrating results of information technology investments. GAO/AIMD-98-89, www.gao.gov/special.pubs/ai98089.pdf.
  2. Harris, Blake. 2001. “Drawing the line.” Government Technology, May, 38-42, http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.phtml?id=2530000000001996&issue=05:2001.
  3. Sonntag, Alison. 2001. “Car 54, where are you? Government Technology, May, 48-50, http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.phtml?id=2530000000002006&issue=05:2001.
  4. Robb, Drew. “From silos to success.” Government Technology, May, 68-70, http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.phtml?id=2530000000002007&issue=05:2001. (9/27)
  5. Eugster, Christopher C., Gregory J. Besio, and Jeff Hawn. 1998. Builders for a new age. www.mckinseyquarterly.com (to access this article you will have to sign up for a free account with the McKinsey Quarterly). McKinsey Quarterly, 1998, no. 3: 92-103.
  6. Federal CIO Council. 2000. Capital Planning and IT Investment Committee – Industry Advisory Council. Smart practices in capital planning. (On CIO Council’s website under Governmentwide IT Issues, then Capital Planning if the following link doesn’t work: http://cio.gov/Documents/smart%5Fpractices%5Fbook%2Epdf).
  7. U.S. General Accounting Office. 2000. Information technology investment management: An overview of GAO’s Assessment Framework. GAO/AIMD-00-155, www.gao.gov/special.pubs/aimd_00-155.pdf.
  8. ———. 2001. Executive guide: Maximizing the success of chief information officers: Learning from leading organizations. GAO-01-376G, find on this page: www.gao.gov/special.pubs/pubshort.htm.
  9. Smith, Douglas L., James F. Campbell, Ashok Subramanian and David A. Bird. 2001. “Strategic planning for municipal information systems: Some lessons from a large U.S. City.” American Review of Public Administration, 31:2, 139-157. On ELECTRONIC AND REGULAR RESERVES.
  10. Ho, Alfred Tat-Kei, James Fielding Smith. 2001.  “Information technology planning and the Y2K problem in local governments.” American Review of Public Administration, 31:2, 139-157. On ELECTRONIC AND REGULAR RESERVES.
  11. Leigh, Andrew and Robert D. Atkinson. 2001. Breaking down bureaucratic barriers: The next phase of digital government. Washington D.C.: Progressive Policy Institute. Available online: www.ppionline.org/documents/digigov_Nov01.pdf.
  12. U.S. General Accounting Office. 1998. Executive guide: Information security management—learning from leading organizations. GAO/AIMD-98-68, www.gao.gov/special.pubs/ai9868.pdf(if link doesn’t work, go to www.gao.gov, click on “Other Publications”, then on “Computer and Information Technology” under Subject Category Listings, the report should be on the “Special Publications: Computer and Information Technology” page.
  13. ———. 1998. Information security: Serious weaknesses place critical federal operations and assets at risk. GAO/AIMD-98-92, http://w3.access.gpo.gov/gao/index.html, click on “GAO Reports” and scroll down to search by report number AIMD-98-92.
  14. ———. 1999. Information security risk assessment: Practices of leading organizations. GAO/AIMD-00-33, www.gao.gov/special.pubs/ai0033.pdf(if link doesn’t work, go to www.gao.gov, click on “Other Publications”, then on “Computer and Information Technology” under Subject Category Listings, the report should be on the “Special Publications: Computer and Information Technology” page.
  15. ———. 1999. High risk series: An update. GAO/HR-99-1, www.gao.gov/pas/hr99001.pdf.

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 nonprofits; 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:

Her professional experience includes working as an editor and analyst for RHK, a telecommuni-cations 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 specializing 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.