Syllabus
DIS624/MGT624-420: Management of Information Resources
Spring, 1999
Mon, 6:00-8:30 PM, 308 B&E Bldg.
Instructor: Prof. Al Lederer
Office: 425C Gatton B&E Bldg.
Office phone: 257-2536
Fax: 257-8031
Home phone: 278-4499
Internet: lederer@ukcc.uky.edu
URL: http://www.uky.edu/~lederer
Office hours: Monday, 3-5 PM; by appointment
Organizations today face increasingly complex challenges in
identifying the most appropriate information systems applications
in which to invest, implementing them on time and within budget,
realizing their anticipated benefits in response to top
management's needs, and then maintaining and upgrading them. To
meet these challenges successfully, today's managers need not
only a firm understanding of the basics of information technology
- hardware, software, database management, and the like - they
also need to grasp the application of planning and control
principles to the use of that technology.
Information Resources Management is a course concerned with
the planning and control issues relevant to information
resources. In effect, it guides the student first in asking what
information technology should do for an organization and second
in ensuring that it was done. The course focuses on the use of
information resources from a top management perspective while
also considering end users' and information systems
professionals' views.
In effect, anyone today who has felt dissatisfaction with
the service provided by vendors, consultants, or other computer
professionals has likely has suffered from flaws in the
organization's information resources management. Such a person
would gain by a better understanding the planning and control of
information resources from this course.
Objectives
The objectives of this course are to prepare students better to:
1. Understand and analyze the major issues related to the
management of information resources.
Sample issues include the role of information technology in
the management of the organization; organizational learning and
the assimilation of information technology; the make-or-buy
decision; the relationship between top, user, and information
technology management; the role of information technology in
business competition; strategic alliances and planning and
control in interorganizational systems; centralization vs.
decentralization of management planning and control;
responsibilities of users and information systems professionals;
design of an information systems department; the use of
chargeback for control; managing computer center operations;
transnational information management; planning methodologies.
2. Evaluate the current state of the management of information
resources within an organization.
The teaching approach uses the case method in which students
evaluate existing organizations' practices and experiences and
contrast them with prescription. The approach is augmented by
having students analyze a local organization by asking related
questions of a practicing manager.
3. Participate in the management of information resources
within an organization.
The intended outcome of this course is that the student be
better prepared to participate in the planning and control of
information resources either as a manager, user, or information
systems professional. More specifically, the student should be
better able to understand the information management challenges
the organization faces and how he or she can provide assistance
in meeting those challenges.
Day Topic
1/25 Course Overview
2/1 Introduction: Verifone (1-1); Chapters 1, 2
2/8 Manageable Trends: KPMG Peat Marwick (2-1); Ch 3
2/15 Electronic Commerce: Burlington Northern A (3-2);
Singapore Tradenet (4-1, 4-2); paper topic due
2/22 Electronic Commerce: Hong Kong Tradelink (4-3); Ch 4, 5
3/1 IT Architecture: Open Market (4-4); Air Products (6-3)
3/8 Organizing IT Function: Air Products (7-1); Ch 6, 7
3/15 No class - spring break
3/22 IT Operations: Aerospace Technology (8-1); Ch 8, 9;
paper outline due
3/29 IT Planning: Toyworld (9-1); Ch 10,11
4/5 Speaker
4/12 IT Project Management: Chemical Bank (11-3); Ch 12
4/19 Transnational IT: Finpapp; Avalon (13-1)
4/26 Case: To be determined; Chapter 13; final paper due
5/3 To be determined (exam week)
Text: Applegate, McFarlan and McKenney. Corporate Information
Systems Management: Text and Cases, 4th ed., Homewood, Ill.:
Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1996.
Supplemental readings: To be made available as required.
Grading:
Case Presentations 25%
Class Participation 20%
Homework 25%
Paper 30%
Case Presentations
"The case plan of instruction may be described as democratic in
distinction to the telling method, which is in effect dictatorial
or patriarchal. With the case method, all members of the
academic group, teacher and students, are in possession of the
same basic materials in the light of which analyses are to be
made and decisions to be arrived at. Each, therefore, has an
identical opportunity to make a contribution to the body of the
principles governing business practice and policy. Business is
not, at least not yet, an exact science. There is no single
demonstrably right answer to a business problem. For the
businessman it cannot be a matter of peeking in the back of a
book to see if he has arrived at the right solution. In every
business situation, there is always a reasonable possibility that
the best answer has not yet been found -- even by teachers."
Charles I. Gragg, "Because Wisdom Can't Be Told," Harvard
Alumni Bulletin, October 19, 1940.
General Guidelines for Case Preparation
Although each student must prepare every case, only one
student or small group of individual students will present each
case to remainder of the class. Discussion to elicit different
points of view will follow. Evaluation will be based on the
quality of analysis and presentation.
Specific guidelines to presenters are:
1. Read the case quickly to discover broadly what it is about.
Stress the first few and final few paragraphs.
2. Read the case very carefully, underlining key facts. Then
ask yourself, "What are the basic problems this manager has to
resolve? Why did they come about? How might they have been
avoided? What should be done now?" Try to put yourself in the
place of the manager to develop a sense of involvement in the
problem.
3. Note the key problems on scratch paper. Then review the
case again, sorting out relevant considerations for each problem.
4. Develop a rough set of recommendations supported by analysis
of case data.
5. Plan your presentation. Rely on material from the case,
this course, previous courses, and any outside readings.
Additional special constraints include:
1. Presenters must not read their speeches.
2. Each initial presentation should not exceed 15-25 minutes. A
PowerPoint slide presentation should accompany it. An additional
20-30 minutes is budgeted for class discussion of the case.
3. Each presentation may include some explicit review of the
case. Relevant facts must be included with the analysis and/or
recommendations.
4. Presenters must distribute a print-out of their slide
presentation. They should print in outline format if they do not
use graphics. They should print in handouts format (3 or 6
slides per page) if they use graphics. They must distribute this
print-out to the instructor and each member of the class at the
beginning of the presentation.
5. Observers will hold their questions until presenters have
finished their presentations.
Evaluation Criteria for Case Presentations
The basis of case evaluation is content and exposition.
Stronger answers to some of the following questions could negate
weaker answers to others.
Content Criteria:
To what extent did you find at least some significant issues?
To what extent did you provide some analysis?
To what extent did you demonstrate some learning from this class?
To what extent did you provide some analysis or information from
outside class?
To what extent did you say something that we could dispute?
Exposition Criteria:
To what extent could I follow your exposition?
To what extent did you make your exposition interesting (such as
via your delivery style, handouts, overheads, class
involvement, etc.)?
Class Participation
Class participation is extremely important. Each student
should make oral contributions in each class. Each student
should participate in the discussion of each case to demonstrate
his or her understanding of it by asking questions, responding to
questions, and/or offering opinions. There will also be
opportunities to discuss homework assignments and chapters in the
text.
A student who must miss a class may write a 5 page analysis
of the case to avoid lost class participation credit.
Homework
Several homework assignments will require students to
investigate the applicability of class topics to an organization
of their choice. Students should find an IS professional with
some supervisory or management responsibility in that
organization. If a student has no contact with a local
organization, the instructor plans to help find one.
Late homework receives partial credit. To avoid such a loss
of credit, the student should mail or fax it to the instructor if
an absence is unavoidable.
Paper
Each student will write a paper on a management of
information resources issue. The student must select the topic
from one covered in the textbook.
The paper will integrate references to journal articles
and/or other published material. By the date specified in the
syllabus for "paper topic due," the student will provide the
instructor a single statement identifying the proposed topic. A
brief discussion of the topic with the instructor either in
person or by phone may follow within two weeks.
A one page outline of the paper will be due on the syllabus
date with "paper outline due." The outline must include several
references that will appear in the final paper.
The final paper will be due on the syllabus date with "final
paper due." The final paper needs to include one reference to
the textbook to show that the paper is related to the topics in
the course. Papers should be 1200-1500 words (not counting the
references section) and in 12 point Courier or Times New Roman
font.