DESCRIPTION:
In this course, we study information analysis and specifications of the information systems development process. The course covers fundamental topics on two main stages of information systems development life cycle: analysis, and design. Students will become familiar in techniques to investigate, collect, organize, and structure requirements for an information system as well as understanding how to design different component of the information system to satisfy the requirements.
PREREQUISITES:
The course does not have any prerequisites; Come to class with passion to learn new topics!
TEXT:
The course does not require any textbook. The course materials will be from Modern Systems Analysis and Design and Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World plus Web materials. All lecture notes will be posted on Courseweb before each class
GRADING:
- Class participation [10%]
- Assignments [45%]
- Assignment 1 [15%]: Modeling (Due Oct1)
- Assignment 2 [15%]: Writing project proposal (Due Oct 20)
- Assignment 3 [15%]: Design (Due Nov 23)
- Final project [45%] (Dec 7: presentation - final report due Dec 14)
- Step 1 - Assignment 2
- Step 2 - Collecting information and structuring requirements [25 points]: (Nov 2 and Nov 16)
- Step 3 - Design databases and user interfaces [20 points]: (Dec 7)
OFFICE HOUR:
Tuesday 9:00-11:00, 709 Information Science Building (135 North Bellefield Avenue) or by appointment.
TOPICS TO BE COVERED:
- Approaches to system development: traditional approach and Object-Oriented approach
- Investigating and structuring system requirements
- Modeling system requirements
- Understanding elements of design
- Designing databases
- Designing forms and report
- Designing user Interface
- Designing system interfaces, controls, and security
SYLLABUS:
| # | Date | Topic | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aug 31, 2015 | Introduction and overview | Introduction to course Course logistics Students' introduction |
| 2 | Sep 7, 2015 | No class | Labor day |
| 3 | Sep 14, 2015 | Investigating System Requirements | Functional and technical requirements Stakeholders Techniques for information gathering Build prototypes Validating requirements |
| 4 | Sep 21, 2015 | Modeling system requirements Assignment 1 posted | Purpose of modeling Three types of models Events and Items |
| 5 | Sep 28, 2015 | Modeling system requirements | Data model E-R Diagram Class Diagram |
| 6 | Oct 5, 2015 | Traditional approach to requirements Assignment 1 Due Assignment 2 posted | Traditional methods for determining system requirements Joint Application Design Data Flow Diagrams Documentation of DFD |
| 7 | Oct 12, 2015 | Object-Oriented approach to requirements | Unified Modeling Language Class diagram Object interactions Object behavior |
| 8 | Oct 20, 2015 | Agile Methodologies Assignment 2 Due | Class meets on Tuesday Requirement determination Agile user-centered design eXtreme programming |
| 9 | Oct 25, 2015 | Understanding elements of design | Inputs and outputs The system flowchart The structure chart Module algorithm design: pseudocode Object-oriented approach to designing |
| 10 | Nov 2, 2015 | Project day | In-class working on project |
| 11 | Nov 9, 2015 | Designing databases Assignment 3 posted | Databases and database management systems Relational databases Object-Oriented databases Data types Distributed databases |
| 12 | Nov 16, 2015 | Designing forms and report Final Project Step 2 Due | Process Formatting forms and reports Assessing usability |
| 13 | Nov 23, 2015 | Designing user interfaces Assignment 3 Due | Understanding and guidelines for user interfaces Designing interfaces and dialogs Interaction methods and devices Graphical environment |
| 14 | Nov 30, 2015 | Designing system interfaces, controls and security | Identifying system interfaces Designing system inputs and outputs Desiging controls: integrity and security |
| 15 | Dec 7, 2015 | Final presentation | Poster and demo session |
COURSE POLICIES
Academic Integrity: You are expected to be fully aware of your responsibility to maintain a high quality of integrity in all of your work. All work must be your own, unless collaboration is specifically and explicitly permitted as in the course group project. Any unauthorized collaboration or copying will at minimum result in no credit for the affected assignment and may be subject to further action under the University Guidelines for Academic Integrity. You are expected to have read and understood these Guidelines. A document discussing these guidelines was included in your orientation materials.
Attendance: Class attendance, while not mandatory, is required if you want to succeed in this course, especially since the course does not have any course book and it involves a lot of in-class discussions. If you have missed the lecture, make sure that you have a copy of the slides. All the lecture materials will be uploaded online. The class participation credit is engineered to encourage your attendance.
Late Submissions: Homework or projects submitted after due date will be accepted, but your objective grade will be scaled so that you lose 10% of the grade for every late working day. I.e., if you will submit your work one week late, you will lose 70% of the grade.
Concerning Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890/(412) 383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.
An important note on plagiarism: Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students caught cheating or plagiarizing will receive no credit for the assignment on which the cheating occurred. Additional actions -- including assigning the student a failing grade in the class or referring the case for disciplinary action -- may be taken at the discretion of the instructors. You may incorporate excerpts from publications by other authors, but they must be clearly marked as quotations and properly attributed. You may obtain copy editing assistance, and you may discuss your ideas with others, but all substantive writing and ideas must be your own or else be explicitly attributed to another, using a citation sufficiently detailed for someone else to easily locate your source.