1
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
THE CAPITAL COLLEGE
Middletown, Pennsylvania
School of Business Administration
INFSY 540.1
Fall 2001
Class Time: W 6:00-8:30 PM
Class Room: E 309
Instructor: Dr. Robert Kilmer
Office: E-354, Olmsted Building
Office Hours:
By appointment or before/after class on Wednesday
Instant Messenger Mon-Thurs 9:30-10:30PM
Instant Messenger Buddy Name: messcoll98
e-mail: rak13@psu.edu
INFSY 540 Information Resources in Management
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Information systems are a major part of business and in fact
provide the infrastructure for every type of organization. As the core information systems
course for graduate students, this courses addresses basic concepts and management issues
about information systems in organizations as well as improving the students ability to
personally use information technology at the managerial level.
TEXT:
 Management Information Systems: Solving Business Problems with IT, 2nd edition,
Gerald V. Post and David L. Anderson, 2000, McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-07-229756-5.
 Harvard Cases:
1. Adobe Systems Incorporated (2000)
2. Cisco Systems Architecture: ERP and Web-enabled IT (2001)
3. China Netcom (2001)
4. Novell: World's Largest Network Software Company (2000)
5. Drugstore.com (2000)
PREREQUISITES: Admission to the Graduate Program and Microcomputer Applications
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
 To increase student knowledge of the capabilities and benefits as well as the limitations
and burdens of information technology and information systems.
 To equip students with the basic skills and concepts they must apply to leverage the
benefits and minimize the burdens of using information technology.
Method of Instruction: This course emphasizes student learning by reading and doing.
While there are lectures the students are expected to do the reading and complete the
2
assignments on time, to participate in class discussions and do their share of group
work.
GRADES: There is only one exam. The exam is closed-book and comprehensive.
Class Participation
5%
Group Case Presentation & Report
25% (Presentation 15%, report 10%)
Class Assignments & Labs
35%
Comprehensive Final Exam
35%
Grading Scale:
95.00 and above
90.00 to 94.99
87.67 to 89.99
83.33 to 87.66
80.00 to 83.32
77.67 to 79.99
73.33 to 77.66
70.00 to 73.32
60.00 to 69.99
Below 60.00
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD
F
POLICIES:
Academic Integrity All the university policies regarding academic dishonesty will be
enforced. Cheating of any type may result in a grade of 'F' for the exam or assignment, a
possible 'F' for the course, and possible dismissal from the University. The Information
Systems Program faculty strictly adheres to Penn State University Policy on Academic
Integrity. This policy reads as follows: "Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity
free from fraud and deception and is an educational objective of this institution. Academic
dishonesty includes, but is not limited to: cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating of information or
citation, facilitating acts of dishonest by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations,
submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or
tampering with the academic work of other students." [Penn State's Policies and Rules for Students,
p. 33].
Attendance
Class attendance is not mandatory. However, it can significantly affect the course grade.
 Class participation (5% of the grade) depends upon class attendance.
 Attendance is often a prerequisite to understanding course content. In the case of a
missed class, it is the student's responsibility to find out what work was missed,
make up work and also to be responsible for any course related announcements.
 Active learning, team building, and collaboration are emphasized in this course. Case
discussions, team meetings, and labs are an integral part of the class. Thus, absences
from class could significantly impact the final course grade.
 No makeup or make ahead exams will be given without prior, legitimate excuse
accompanied by documentary evidence.
3
Late Submission of Assignments Penalty for being late less than 24 hours is 25%.
Penalty for being late more than 24 but less than 48 hours is 50%. Penalty for being late
more than 48 but less than 72 hours is 75%. Penalty for being more than72 hours late is
100%.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS:
HTML Labs
Tutorial (not graded)
Basic HTML
Portfolio
Ecommerce Research
Access Labs
Access97 Tutorial (not graded)
Access2000 Tutorial (not graded)
Video Rental
Homework Problems (To be announced)
Short In-Class Assignments Periodically short in-class problems will be provided to the
class. Usually these problems will be team problems where students can discuss it with
members of their team but each student will have to turn in his/her assignment during that
class. No make up assignments will be given (in the event a student misses an short in-class
assignment).
Group Case Presentation and Report
Each group will prepare a formal report and make a formal presentation of a Harvard case.
Written Case Report
All groups must prepare a written case analysis for your presentation. The case analysis
should contain overview/background of the case and lessons learned. The lessons learned
section may contain shortcomings of the case, how problems could have been avoided,
what did the company do right (if the case deals with a successful company), what did the
company do wrong (if the case deals with a failure) etc. The written report should be
professional (presence of page numbers, grammar etc. should be checked).
The group presentations will be evaluated by your peers (all other students in the class
except for students in your group). Each student will use an evaluation form (attached at
the end of the syllabus) to rate the quality of different group presentations. The presentation
grade will be a combination of peer evaluation and instructor evaluation. The weighting
factor for peer evaluation is 40% and the instructor evaluation is 60%. The presentation
must last between 40 and 50 minutes. Up to 20 additional minutes are available for
questions/answers.
______________________________________________________________________
You should determine whether the objective of the system was to improve or transform, to
consider whether this objective had merit, to contemplate the full set of consequences (not
just the obvious ones of profit or market share), to identify the salient elements of the model
4
that contributed to these outcomes, and to make recommendations concerning what could
have been done differently and how to proceed from where the organization is at the pointin-time of the case. Note that not every question is important for every case. You must
determine the salient issues for any given case.
General checklist of questions to consider when performing a Case Analysis:
Was the information system's design objective to IMPROVE the organization incrementally
or to TRANSFORM it?
What are the information system's FEATURES? What does it do?
How does the information system FIT the firm's EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT?
How does the system FIT the firm's STRATEGY?
How does the system FIT the firm's BUSINESS PROCESSES?
How does the system FIT the organizational STRUCTURE and CULTURE?
Can the organization's existing IT INFRASTRUCTURE support the system? Does the
information system leverage the infrastructure? Does it extend it?
How and how effectively was the system IMPLEMENTED?
Who USES the system and how do they USE it? As intended?
What are the CONSEQUENCES of the system for PERFORMANCE, PEOPLE, and
FUTURE FLEXIBILITY? Did the system accomplish its objectives?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Peer Evaluation Participation
After a group makes its presentation, all students, who are not members of the group that
presented the case, will evaluate the presentation and send their evaluations to the instructor
via e-mail. by 5:00 pm. of the Saturday following the presentation. Any e-mails that are
tardy will be discarded and the person sending the tardy e-mail will loose peer evaluation
participation points. Your peer evaluation participation points will depend on your critical
ability to evaluate your peers. For example a student who gives all 5’s or all 1’s with no
comments in strengths and weakness sections will loose points (as s/he is not helping the
other group in terms of suggestions for improvement or highlighting the other groups strong
points).
5
Course Outline*
#
Date
Topic
Assignments
Complete Before Class Begins
1
Aug 22
2
3
4
5
Aug 29
Sep 5
Sep 12
Sep 19
Introduction & Personal Productivity
"What should managers know about IT?"
Solving Problems & Web Lab
Information and Organizations
Organizational Decision Making
Systems Development
Read Chapters 1 and 2
Read Chapter 3 and Web Tutorial
Read Chapters 4 & 7
Read Chapters 8 & 9 and Case 1
Read Chapter 12 and IT Technology
Interaction Model http://equity.stern.nyu.edu/
~msilver/ mbacore/itimhdo.htm
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Sep 26
Oct 3
Oct 10
Oct 17
Oct 24
Oct 31
Nov 7
Nov 14
Database Management
Database Design and Access Lab
Networks & Telecommunications
AI: Intro & Expert Systems and CASE 1
AI: ANN & GA and CASE 2
Ecommerce and CASE 3
Strategic Analysis and CASE 4
Organizing IS Resources and CASE 5
14
15
Nov 28
Dec 12
IT Ethical and Societal Issues
Comprehensive Final Exam
_________________________
*
Subject to change based upon the pace of the class
Read Chapter 5 and Case 2
Read Access Tutorial
Read Chapter 6 and Case 3
Read Chapter 10 and Case 1
Read AI web sites and Case 2
Read Ecommerce sites and Case 3
Read Chapter 11 and Case 4
Read Chapter 13 and Case 5
All Written Case Reports Due
Read Chapter 14
Review Course Material
6
The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg
The Capital College
Middletown, PA 17057-4989
School of Business Administration
INFSY 540.1
Information Resource Management
Spring 2001
Date: ______________
Case: _____________________________________
Group Number: ________________________________
Your Name: (if submitting a hard copy; e-mail is recommended) ________________
Circle the appropriate response: (1= very poor, 2= poor, 3= average, 4= good, 5=very
good). You may use the fractions instead (if you like).
1. Focus on IT and Management of Information
1 2 3 4 5
2. Originality and innovation level of presentation
1 2 3 4 5
3. Clarity of presentation objectives
1 2 3 4 5
4. Informative nature of presentation
1 2 3 4 5
5. Clarity of explanations
1 2 3 4 5
6. Organization of presentation
1 2 3 4 5
7. Pace of presentation
1 2 3 4 5
8. Group coordination during the presentation
1 2 3 4 5
9. Quality of the presentation
1 2 3 4 5
10. Overall rating of presentation
1 2 3 4 5
7
Weakness of the presentation:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Strengths of presentation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.