Challenging the Traditional Graduate Information Systems Program

Transcription

1 IT EducaTIon Challenging the Traditional Graduate Information Systems Program John Baker Sr., Johns Hopkins University How do you make a graduate program more relevant? Develop a project-based capstone course that combines theoretical knowledge with practical application to offer students even those enrolled only part-time a more comprehensive, integrated experience. The components of graduate programs in information systems are about the same everywhere: cover the technology basics as a prerequisite, delve deeply into managerial issues (such as budgeting, organizational planning, and management philosophy), and wrap up with a completion course. Case studies are often used throughout the program and in the completion course. The challenge of today s programs is finding ways to have students solve real problems rather than just review past experiences or solve theoretical problems. How do you focus on both the research process (emphasized in elite graduate programs) and on practical application? A capstone course, offered in the last semester of a program, challenges students to solve real problems for real organizations either by writing a research paper or by working on a project. Its importance has been recognized in the model curriculum for the Master of Science in Information Systems degree. 1 Providing a project-based capstone course in particular can help bring together both the theoretical and practical aspects of a program. Unfortunately, capstone courses of graduate programs for part-time students don t typically involve a project. Because most part-time students are working professionals, they have only a limited amount of time for school work. The numerous challenges of planning, organizing, executing, and managing successful capstone courses are compounded when the program is intended for part-time students. However, it is possible to design and execute a course that fulfills program requirements while still meeting the needs of students who already have full-time jobs. Developing a Project-Based Course Finding appropriate projects for a capstone course is challenging and time consuming. It requires someone dedicated to the process, especially if you need multiple projects for each 22 IT Pro November/December 2011 P u b l i s h e d b y t h e I E E E C o m p u t e r S o c i e t y /11/$ IEEE

2 academic term. Projects can come from any type of organization private industry, government, quasi-government, or non-profit but there are several key ingredients. A typical graduate project will challenge the students to apply the academic work they ve completed. In addition, it will expose them to unexpected situations that require creativity, advanced thinking, and interpersonal and organizational skills. Possible projects include developing strategic technology or systems plans, researching new technologies for organizational fit or benefit, developing localized data systems or integration plans, analyzing or designing complex systems, auditing prior system work, finding and recommending fixes for information system organizational problems, or helping develop technology partnerships. When working on real projects, students are more driven to succeed, but the expectations must be realistic. You don t want the project to involve so much work that it becomes a second job for the students and can t be finished on time. Yet it must be sufficiently difficult to challenge the students and fulfill program requirements. Project Requirements Each project must be important but not so critical that the organization could have serious problems if the project fails. In addition, you need a committed organizational sponsor who can shepherd the project from start to end, addressing any internal political issues or problems that might arise and ensuring staff commitment and availability. In working with the sponsor, the academic coordinator must make sure the project is sufficiently challenging for graduate students yet can be completed in one term by a small team of three to six students. Furthermore, the project shouldn t require additional funds from students or the academic institution, and it should be local. Students can t be expected to travel far to work on the project. Complicating Factors Occasionally, a project can present some complicating factors when data is made available to students that the organization doesn t want revealed to potential competitors. This is particularly challenging when there s a conflict of interest a student might work for a competing company (or a subsidiary or subcontractor of a competing organization). Usually, you can address this concern with a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that requires confidentiality of the project and organizational data. However, the NDA shouldn t be too inclusive it can t be so broad that it restricts legitimate classroom discussion. On the other hand, an NDA that s too narrow won t protect the students, academic institution, or sponsoring company. Having an NDA, even when the sponsoring organization doesn t require one, helps the educational institution protect itself and its students from potential unforeseen problems. Any NDA should be reviewed by the institution s legal Each project must be important but not so critical that the organization could have serious problems if the project fails. department, but it s useful to develop a standard institutional NDA. This will give strength to the institution when negotiating with the sponsoring organization to ensure the NDA best protect its interests. (To see a sample NDA, see MITP ). Another option is to assign the student to a different project, which can require rebalancing team skills and needs. Teaching the Course Typically, the instructor holds a kick-off meeting with the students and all participating sponsor representatives. In addition, students present their findings and discuss the work at interim presentations with the same group. In between, the students might do some work on site, but usually they just work with the sponsor and each other electronically (online or via phone or , updating group documents). However, it s vital that the students schedule computer.org/itpro 2 3

3 IT Education and organize sponsor communication. You don t want each team member randomly contacting the sponsor, using any means available. Usually, the team leader will work with team members to organize the data requests and questions and plan the sponsor meeting. He or she will then communicate the information during the regularly held meetings (typically an hour per week) to minimize sponsor interruption. Scope Statement Before a project starts, the instructor or a faculty team assesses the work, related activities, and potential effort involved. From that initial concept, the instructor or team will identify appropriate students for the project, determine major activities to be accomplished, develop an initial timeline, and work with the sponsor to define what constitutes project success. Upon project assignment, the instructor gives the students an overview of the project, but then the students must immediately work with the Academic projects have two major goals: fulfill the program s academic requirements and provide a quality product for the sponsoring organization. sponsor to obtain a detailed understanding of the work involved, unfiltered by the instructor. Students can then develop their own comprehensive project plan and create their scope statement. This statement defines the major accomplishments to be achieved, identifies the players, and sets limits for the work and participants. It protects both the students and sponsor from unspoken, and often unrealistic, expectations. As with typical organization projects, academicbased projects can develop scope creep, which occurs when incremental activities are added to the project as it s executed. While seemingly small at the time, each activity can add a little to the project time frame. Change management techniques can keep this from becoming a major problem affecting performance and deliverables. Documenting each change request helps all parties understand the exact nature of the request and make sure a quality, usable product can still be delivered. Unlike organizational projects, you can t change the time frame for an academic project it must be done within the course semester or term. Consequently, scope changes are rare and almost always require modifying or deleting some other scope item. Execution If the project plan and scoping have been done properly, execution is much easier. The instructor should step away from the process and let the team do its work. The faculty role during this part of the process is as a guide, resource, mentor, and arbitrator of last resort. The instructor shouldn t be deeply involved in the research, execution, or problem solving. This helps ensure the intended learning process for an academic-based project. The instructor should only become involved if there are serious team, sponsor, or execution problems. For example, one semester at Johns Hopkins, we had a project where the team was having a difficult time dealing with the sponsor. The team asked the instructor to resolve the issue. Instead, the instructor acted as a mentor and discussed the problem with the team, helping them develop their own solution. The instructor never suggested or dictated a specific solution. The team eventually determined that the team leader was the problem, so the instructor then asked them to consider how a typical organization would resolve this issue. The team s solution was to replace the team leader with another member who worked better with the project sponsor, and the project ended up being successful. Monitoring the project to make sure it stays on track and within scope is a major activity of the instructor. He or she should participate (in the background) in team discussions with the sponsor and should obtain frequent updates on progress and problems. Weekly reports, done in class or online, can help. One successful approach is to require the various project teams to help each other. A team working on a project can get so involved in the details that the members can t step back to see the bigger picture or think outside the box. In this situation, periodic classroom discussions with other teams can be valuable. Other teams often ask questions or propose solutions that the project team members hadn t considered. 24 IT Pro November/December 2011

4 At times, project solutions can be tricky for the team to finalize. A sponsor might be expecting a specific solution, which the team finds infeasible or inferior to another option. There might be a better technical, operational, or managerial solution, or the costs might not be in line with the expected return. In these cases, the instructor advises the team to propose the best solution, even if it s not one the sponsor is considering. The mantra is, If it s the right thing to do (recommend), then do it. Evaluating the Project Academic projects have two major goals: fulfill the program s academic requirements and provide a quality product for the sponsoring organization. Presentations and Reports After completing the project, students must prepare a presentation and written report for the sponsoring organization. However, prior to submitting it, the students must first give the presentation to a faculty committee. Comprising three to five faculty members, the committee s role is to ensure the team has done a complete job in developing its solution, has put together a quality sponsor presentation, and is prepared to handle the variety of questions a sponsor might ask. The committee also ensures the team has achieved the required learning outcomes. The sponsor documentation focuses on the scope of work performed and the recommendations (or final product) developed. It s intended to help the sponsor implement the team s solution. The report is fairly straightforward but sometimes must be formatted to meet the sponsor s specific writing guidelines. The sponsor presentation provides an executive summary of the report and can be fairly short (30 minutes) or up to two hours long. Students also must write an academic and trouble-shooting report, which should focus on lessons learned from the project, team-member participation, the applicability of prior coursework in performing the project, potential program improvements, potential process improvements, and the possibility of deriving additional projects from the sponsoring organization. Finally, the report should include any difficulties the students experienced with the sponsoring organization, including the sponsor s availability and responsiveness, and any recommendations on improving future relations. Additional Benefits Other learning objectives intended to accrue from the project-based capstone courses include learning to work in teams and solve real-life problems; developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills; sharpening communication, organizational, and information-literacy skills; managing complex processes; and improving interpersonal skills. Project sponsors have a unique opportunity of previewing the capabilities of potential employees; students can similarly preview the potential employer. Furthermore, the course doesn t just benefit the students. It lets potential employers (and employees) review each other. Project sponsors have a unique opportunity of previewing the capabilities of potential employees (and students can similarly preview the potential employer). The projects also offer the school potentially long-term, valuable connections to industry, which can lead to follow-up projects, advisory committee commitments, or even increased funding. The funding could be a small (program specific) or large donation. Projects can also lead to connections to other organizations. Finally, they can impact an organization s operations or strategic planning. For example, a successful project could lead to a new system or product being offered to the public. computer.org/itpro 2 5

5 IT Education New approaches to education are always risky even more so when they take the education out of the classroom and move it to a real business. Traditional educators are usually skeptical about such changes. The concern is making sure the project-based course contains educational components while working on real needs for recognized organizations. But when designed, planned, and executed right, these courses can create a better approach to learning and increase student interest. Reference 1. Gorgone, et al., MSIS 2006: Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Graduate Degree Programs in Information Systems, Comm. AIS, Jan. 2006, pp John Baker Sr. is currently on the faculty of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University. His research interests include information systems technology and management, information security, and digital forensics. Baker received his MS in administrative science from Johns Hopkins University. He s a member of several organizations that focus on information security. Contact him at jb@ jhu.edu. Selected CS articles and columns are available for free at PURPOSE: The IEEE Computer Society is the world s largest association of computing professionals and is the leading provider of technical information in the field. MEMBERSHIP: Members receive the monthly magazine Computer, discounts, and opportunities to serve (all activities are led by volunteer members). Membership is open to all IEEE members, affiliate society members, and others interested in the computer field. COMPUTER SOCIETY WEBSITE: Next Board Meeting: Nov., New Brunswick, NJ, USA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE President: Sorel Reisman* President-Elect: John W. Walz;* Past President: James D. Isaak;* VP, Standards Activities: Roger U. Fujii; Secretary: Jon Rokne (2nd VP);* VP, Educational Activities: Elizabeth L. Burd;* VP, Member & Geographic Activities: Rangachar Kasturi; VP, Publications: David Alan Grier (1st VP);* VP, Professional Activities: Paul K. Joannou;* VP, Technical & Conference Activities: Paul R. Croll; Treasurer: James W. Moore, CSDP;* IEEE Division VIII Director: Susan K. (Kathy) Land, CSDP; IEEE Division V Director: Michael R. Williams; 2011 IEEE Division Director V Director- Elect: James W. Moore, CSDP* *voting member of the Board of Governors nonvoting member of the Board of Governors BOARD OF GOVERNORS Term Expiring 2011: Elisa Bertino, Jose Castillo-Velázquez, George V. Cybenko, Ann DeMarle, David S. Ebert, Hironori Kasahara, Steven L. Tanimoto Term Expiring 2012: Elizabeth L. Burd, Thomas M. Conte, Frank E. Ferrante, Jean-Luc Gaudiot, Paul K. Joannou, Luis Kun, James W. Moore Term Expiring 2013: Pierre Bourque, Dennis J. Frailey, Atsuhiro Goto, André Ivanov, Dejan S. Milojicic, Jane Chu Prey, Charlene (Chuck) Walrad EXECUTIVE STAFF Executive Director: Angela R. Burgess; Associate Executive Director, Director, Governance: Anne Marie Kelly; Director, Finance & Accounting: John Miller; Director, Information Technology & Services: Ray Kahn; Director, Membership Development: Violet S. Doan; Director, Products & Services: Evan Butterfield COMPUTER SOCIETY OFFICES Washington, D.C.: 2001 L St., Ste. 700, Washington, D.C Phone: Fax: hq.ofc@computer.org Los Alamitos: Los Vaqueros Circle, Los Alamitos, CA Phone: help@computer.org MEMBERSHIP & PUBLICATION ORDERS Phone: Fax: help@computer.org Asia/Pacific: Watanabe Building, Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo , Japan Phone: Fax: tokyo.ofc@computer.org IEEE OFFICERS President: Moshe Kam; President-Elect: Gordon W. Day; Past President: Pedro A. Ray; Secretary: Roger D. Pollard; Treasurer: Harold L. Flescher; President, Standards Association Board of Governors: Steven M. Mills; VP, Educational Activities: Tariq S. Durrani; VP, Membership & Geographic Activities: Howard E. Michel; VP, Publication Services & Products: David A. Hodges; VP, Technical Activities: Donna L. Hudson; IEEE Division V Director: Michael R. Williams; IEEE Division VIII Director: Susan K. (Kathy) Land, CSDP; President, IEEE-USA: Ronald G. Jensen revised 24 August IT Pro November/December 2011

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