INFO 360-903/ Spring ‘06
Dr. John Sutherland
Office: Bus. Bldg #4173
email:
SCOPE: This course will (hopefully, at least) provide you with an understanding of the substance and structure of management support systems (MSS). This, in turn, requires some comprehension of the two broad families of technical instruments underlying MSS constructs: Information system facilities qua instances of information technology (IT), and the various types of decision technology (DT) based instruments (quantitative and qualitative, decision aids and directive decision devices, etc.). A properassessment of the contribution that IT/DTcan make to management involves not just an appreciation of those applications that are currently technically well-served; it also requires a recognition of the types of tasks that as yet remain somewhere beyond thereach of the sorts of instruments that are currently available…and hence some sense of what next-generation MSS might look like.
REFERENCE MATERIALS: The textbook for this course is Jessup & Velacich, Information Systems Today. This is a survey of rudimentary business information systems vocabulary, common practices and ordinary applications; it’s written at a very low level of argument. A supplementary paperback book, The Virtual Corporation[Davidow & Malone]isa more engaging and conceptually-significant work. It provides a portrait of the structural, procedural and technical underpinnings of state-of-the-art commercial/industrial enterprises; of particular importance are its discussions of the real-timeinitiatives and instruments characteristic of today's more sophisticated enterprises…business and otherwise. In contrast to your textbook, the Virtual Corporation can be purchased very reasonably (there’s a number of used editions available in the local bookstores). Other materials for your study/downloading will also regularly be posted on our class website:… this address must beentered exactly as written here!
CLASSROOM SESSIONS: The main subjects of our classroom meetings are shown in the Topics Schedule on the following page. Also shown are the reading assignments to be completed before each lecture session. Much of the critical educational substance of this class is available only in the lectures. So, if you must for some reason miss a class, please make arrangements for one of your colleagues to collect the handout(s) for you and to share his/her notes and recollections of the discussions!
EXAMINATIONS/ASSIGNMENTS: Per the accompanying schedule, there will be three section-903 specificexaminations, and a standardized final test (which is taken by students in all 360 sections).Make-up exams are generally unavailable except to those who have made advance arrangements. You'll receive a grade from the firstof these tests well before the last date (3/24) to withdraw from the course with a W. The examinations will be open book/open notes. In addition to the three regular examinations, there may be one or more essay-type assignments. Please note that you areexpected to abide by the VCU Honor Codein all aspects of this course.
GRADING: Final grades will be computed as the average of your (possibly adjusted)scoreson the three section-specific examinations (= @ 65%), the sum of the points for the essay assignments (@25%) and your performance on the standardized final (@ 10%). The Letter grades will then be assigned as follows: A (90 and above), B (80-89), C (70 – 79), D (60 –69) and F (< 60).