Software Concepts

MGT - 6342: MIS Software Concepts

Spring 1998: Time: Thursday Evenings, 6:30 - 10:00pm

�Class Overview:

The MIS Software Concepts class has been established to provide students with knowledge and exposure to software development metrics and project management concepts. This course has been designed to give MIS students grounding and established methods for managing software projects.

Class and Case study will demonstrate to students the implications to time and cost constraints of different paradigms of software development methods. Students will learn through class room lectures, homework assignments, CASE tool use, and use of project management tools.

Upon completion of this course, Students will be able to:

� Understand and utilize models for project cost estimation.

� Understand and utilize models for project size and risk estimations.

� Understand and apply different Life-Cycle models to project planning.

� Appreciate the implications of Prototyping and Rapid Application Development.

� Competently discern the relative merit and trade-off's of different analysis methods and approaches.

Furthermore, this course hopes to instill the need for critical thinking and thorough review required of systems professionals through the analysis of different systems which serve business and humanity.

The key word in the above header is attending. Students must attend classes regularly to gain a thorough understanding and mastery of the material that will presented in this course. Material presented in class may not be covered in the assigned text, therefore lack of attendance may be detrimental to a students understanding and participation in the course.

Students are expected to behave in an ethical and moral manner as well as adhere to the University of Dallas' ethical and academic honesty policies. Unethical behavior will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade for the course.

Required: Kemerer, Software Project Management, Readings and Cases, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 1997

Suggested Reading: Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month, Addison-Wesley, 1982

�The instructor will assign grades in accordance with the GSM Grading Policy using the following scale:

There will be four assignments that will be required of the students during the course of this semester. Each of these assignments will involve use of computer based tools. Two of the assignments focus on different methods for managing project tasks and two focus on different methods for software analysis and design.

The rate of change in the information, communication and computing environment is phenomenal. In order to succeed as a systems professional, you will need to read, understand and apply techniques that are learned far beyond the academic setting. Additionally, MIS professionals are required to present their findings and new ideas to their peers and executive management.

In order to enable students to critically review current industry literature and publications, each student is required to turn in two research summaries. Each student will be required to select one of their research assignments for presentation to the class. The subjects of the research will be articles in current industry periodicals having to do with Project Management, Project Cost/Size/Risk estimation, object-oriented methods and implementation, and other MIS issues. Articles cannot be repeated by any other class member. Additionally, each article submitted by a student must be from a different source. The instructor will maintain a list of chosen articles and will review with each student the acceptability of a student's potential choices.