Syllabus IS 390-102 System Analysis and Design – Spring 2007
Course Meetings:
Wednesdays FMH Room 412, 7:40PM - 9:05 PM. This is a Hybrid Course combining
on-line material and assignments with only one physical 1.5 hour meeting per week.
Instructor:
Michael Chumer, Ph.D.
i
Telephone: 973-596-5484
Office: GITC 4107
E-mail:chumer@njit.edu
Office Hours: Mon. 3 PM - 4:30 PM
Wed. 2 PM - 4:30 PM or after class
By Appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces the student to the System Development Life Cycle, from the initial
stages of information requirement analysis and determination to the ultimate activities
involving system design, development, and implementation. Theory, methodologies, and
strategies for information requirements analysis, including the assessment of transactions
and decisions, fact-finding methodologies, structured analysis development tools,
strategies of prototype development, and an overview of computer-aided software
engineering (CASE) tools are introduced in the course. Theory, methodologies and
strategies for system design, including design of user-interfaces (some HCI stuff),
particularly menu-driven and keyword dialogue strategies, and issues in the proper design
of computer output are also introduced.
This course is an excellent preparation for the capstone project in your senior year. You
will be introduced to project management skills, cost benefit analysis, how to gather
requirements and represent those requirements in dataflow diagrams and entity relation
diagrams, as well as the use of Webct collaborative technologies to communicate with
project members.
We will focus early on in the course on the final project and address the tools (Microsoft
Project, Visio, and Excel) you will need to successfully complete the various project
components.
TEXBOOK & OTHER RESOURCES
This course has one textbook assigned. The required textbook is:
“Essentials of Systems Analysis & Design, 2nd Ed (or current edition) , Valacich,
George, Hoffer, Prentice Hall, 2004” ISBN 0-13-101605-9
This text book is very helpful, well-structured and full of examples and illustrations.
However, live lectures and in class discussions will always add more information,
examples, and extensions to the book. In addition articles will be periodically added to
Webct to enhance understanding of each topic.
Current editions of the text are on reserve in the NJIT library.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The overall course objective is to give you the concepts and skills needed to begin to
analyze and design information systems. The course concentrates on the front-end of the
systems development process (the collection, abstraction and communication of user
requirements). The course only lightly touches on the design and development of
computer programs and their testing and maintenance (although you will work through
some elements of the whole development process on the final project). This course
provides an excellent framework for IS 490 and IS 491 because you will acquire the
foundational skills needed in those two courses.
Upon successful completion of the course, you are expected to be able to:
 Describe the major methodologies used in developing information systems and
the considerations involved in choosing which methodology to use.
 Analyze business information needs and develop an appropriate strategy to
address these needs.
 Prepare and use various information gathering techniques for eliciting user
information requirements and system expectations.
 Construct and interpret a variety of system description documents, including
physical and logical data flow diagrams, entity –relationship diagrams, Structured
English, structure charts, state-transition diagrams, as well as screen, form, and
report layouts.
 Communicate effectively, in both written and oral forms, systems specifications,
and to be persuasive in these presentations.
 Develop a personal plan for improving yourself to become a better systems
professional or user/manager of a system, by understanding you own strengths
and weaknesses and matching those with the critical success factors of a modern
business manager.
Grading and other Requirements:
1. “A” breakers - There are 3 things that you must do in this course to be a
candidate for an A. The first is completing implications on time, the second is
turning ALL assignments in on time, the last is being present for each class or emailing me ahead of time that you will not be in attendance.
2. All assignments are due as per the syllabus time table. You will not receive an
“A” for the course if ANY assignment is late. All late assignments “may” receive
an automatic “F”.
3. Grades - I grade on a letter basis according to the following scheme:
A = 4.0
B+ = 3.5
B = 3.0
C+ = 2.5
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
C = 2.0
D+ = 1.5
D = 1.0
F= 0
All grades for assignments, projects, midterm and final are converted to their
letter equivalents The percentages for all course work are as follows:
Chapter Implications
20%
Assignments/ Class
15%
Participation
Final Project
35%
Term 1 Exam
15%
Term 2 Exam
15%
Assignments - These will be turned in as per the Webct electronic syllabus/time
table in class with your name, course and section number clearly on the top of the
page.
Chapter Implications - These will be sent to me by Webct e-mail (see the time
table). The format for these is in the course content section on Webct.
Discussion and Argumentation- I am a big fan of discussion and debate I
encourage both in all my courses. We will use the Webct bulletin board for this.
Final Project - The final project will be a group project. Instructions on the
project and the required deliverables will be posted on Webct. As a minimum it
will require the construction of data flow diagrams, data models (ER, IDEF1X, or
UML), critical path diagram, Gantt chart, and a break even analysis.
Academic Honesty, Integrity and Cheating
During the first week of the course I will give my ethics lecture. Both NJIT and
Rutgers students are expected to follow published guidelines on academic honesty
and integrity. You must acquaint yourself with these policies before submitting
any assignments. All written work must be original. Violations of NJIT/Rutgers
policies will be reported to the Dean of Students at both institutions and may
result in failure on a particular assignment, failure in the course, failure in the
course and probation, or failure in the course and expulsion. Honor Code
violations will be pursued immediately and aggressively.
IS 390: Systems Analysis and Design (see Webct electronic syllabus/ course
timetable for specific due dates)
Generic Timetable
Date
Week 1
Topic
Course Overview
Chapters
Introduction
Implication/Assignment
Week 2
Systems
Development
Environment
Managing the
Information Systems
Project
Chapter 1
Chapter Implications 1
Chapter 2
Chapter Implications 2
CPM assignment
Week 4
Systems Planning
and Selection
Chapter 3
Chapter Implications 3
Spreadsheet Assignment
Week 5
Determining System
Requirements
Structuring System
Requirements:
Process Modeling
Mid term Review
Term Exam 1
Structuring System
Requirements: Data
Modeling
Selecting the best
Alternative Design
Strategy
Chapter 4
Chapter Implications 4
Chapter 5
Chapter Implications 5
Term Exam 1
Chapter 6
Term Exam 1
Chapter Implications 6
Chapter 7
Chapter Implications 7
Week 10
Designing the
Human Interface
Chapter 8
Chapter Implications 8
Week 11
Designing Databases
Chapter 9
Chapter Implications 9
Week 12
Systems
Implementation and
Design
Alternative Analysis
and Design
Approaches plus a
discussion about any
final project
concerns
Project Presentations
in powerpoint
online.
Term Exam 2
Chapter 10
Chapter Implications 10
See UML
material on
webct
Alternative design
assignment (only no
implications)
Week 3
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Project
See Introduction to
Final Project
Keep reviewing Final
Project
Creation of Project
Teams
Term Exam 1
Project Group
Assignment 1 - context
level diagram
Project Group
Assignment 2 level 0 diagram
Project Group
Assignment 3 - level 1
and ER diagram
Project Group
Assignment 4 - Gantt/
network/ cost benefit
Project Status
(Integrate all
components into the
final project)
Final Projects due and
project presentations
Term Exam 2
Term Exam 2
Term Exam 2