Syllabus

CS 682:  Systems Analysis and Design Methods

Spring 2021

Sections A1, A2 & BHA (Remote Track)

Text:

System Analysis & Design W/UML 6^th edition by Dennis, Wixom & Tegarden, Wiley & Co. Publishers. ISBN-978111955917

Instructor :

Angelo Guadagno

Phone:  617-266-1028

Cell: 617-283-6680

Email:  angelo0527 @ gmail.com

Availability:

Normally I am available during business hours at 617-283-6680 (cell). If not, you can leave a voice message or contact me via email.

Schedule:

See separate document on the Blackboard Learn Web Site. (https://blackboardlearn.bu.edu)

Location:

All classes will be recorded on Blackboard in the Zoom Recording Library or can be viewed on Blackboard in the Zoom Live Classroom at 6 PM on Wednesdays or Thursdays. In addition, classes can be attended in person on Wednesdays at 6 PM in Room CAS 323B or Thursdays in CAS 228 with an advanced reservation to avoid violation of the University Guidelines

COVID-19 Policies

Compliance: All students returning to campus will be required, through a digital agreement, to commit to a set of Health Commitments and Expectations including face coverings, symptom attestation, testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and isolation. The agreement makes clear that compliance is a condition of being a member of our on-campus community.

You have a critical role to play in minimizing transmission of COVID-19 within the University community, so the University is requiring that you make your own health and safety commitments. Additionally, if you will be attending this class in person, you will be asked to show your Healthway badge on your mobile device to the instructor in the classroom prior to starting class, and wear your face mask over your mouth and nose at all times. If you do not comply with these rules you will be asked to leave the classroom. If you refuse to leave the class, the instructor will inform the class that they will not proceed with instruction until you leave the room. If you still refuse to leave the room, the instructor will dismiss the class and will contact the academic Dean’s office for follow up.

Boston University is committed to offering the best learning environment for you, but to succeed, we need your help. We all must be responsible and respectful. If you do not want to follow these guidelines, you must participate in class remotely, so that you do not put your classmates or others at undue risk. We are counting on all members of our community to be courteous and collegial, whether they are with classmates and colleagues on campus, in the classroom, or engaging with us remotely, as we work together this fall semester.

Focus:

The focus of the class will be to interactively discuss contemporary issues and methods of systems analysis and design. The methodology will include lecture, group discussion, minicase studies, and presentation of your group project.  The assumption is that each student brings professional experience and background which contributes to the analysis and discussion of the material.

Course Objectives:

Successful contemporary information systems analysis, design, implementation and evaluation are a complex endeavor.  It requires not only technical understanding, business acumen, and knowledge of systems analysis theory and methods, but also the ability to be an effective change agent within multifaceted organizations.

At the end of this course, students will have demonstrated:

Understanding of the basic building blocks that encompass the systems analysis and design effort, including the systems development life cycle, systems planning techniques, and the precise modeling of data, processes and networks.

Ability to evaluate and communicate technical information in the context of a formal presentation targeted to a management audience.

Philosophy:

Based on the assumption that the majority of the attendees of this class are balancing a professional career, personal life and educational commitment, I have tried to structure the workload to minimize some of the deleterious impacts   associated with synchronous remote classes. However, each student will be required to read the chapter assigned and be prepared to discuss the mini-cases contained therein for each remote class.

Class Structure:

The classes will be divided into three segments – lecture, interactive discussion of the mini-cases and online student discussion threads. In addition the course includes an on line assignment & quiz for each of the six modules.

Academic Conduct Code:

Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated in any Metropolitan College course. They will result in no credit for the assignment or examination and may lead to disciplinary actions. Please take the time to review the Student Conduct Code:

http://www.bu.edu/met/for-students/met-policies-procedures-resources/academic-conduct-code/

Note: This should not be understood as a discouragement for discussing the material or your particular approach to a problem with other students in the class. On the contrary – you should share your thoughts, questions and solutions.

Absences / Missed Assignments:

Class Participation accounts for 5% of the overall grade. Students who miss a class will not receive participation points for that class. If the absence is on an exam night, the exam points will be lost unless a make up exam has been scheduled in advance. Since we will review all homework assignments on the day they are due, no late assignments will be accepted.

Grading Policy:

The class grade will be based on the following formula:

  ✓ Assignments…………………….…......................20 Points

✓ Final Exam…………………….…………….…...30 Points

✓ Quizzes…………………………………….…......20 Points

✓ Student Discussion threads / Posts……………….30 Points

Grading: Assignments, quizzes and final exam will represent 70% of your grade. The remaining 30% of your grade is associated with your Student Discussion threads / Posts grade.

Each student must participate in at least six (6) discussion postings per module to demonstrate an understanding of the material, ask questions he / she might have, share related thoughts the material catalyzes, etc. Posts can be any combination of your own or comments to others, so you can start a thread on any topic you want. A good starting point might be to ask a “clarifying” about something you are not sure of asking for examples or on the on line mini-cases included in Module #1

Basis for Grades: There are four components to your grades.

Weekly Assignments:

Most of the content of the course will be explored through assignments that study actual cases or encourage you to extrapolate from your own organizations and experiences. These are counted equally.

Discussions:

You will learn a great deal by interacting with the other students in the class, and your grade is dependent on this activity. The discussions focus only on the lecture material and associated readings in the textbook for that week and on relating them to real life. Each contribution should number and name the specific lecture section or textbook reading page numbers that it references. Each student must participate in at least three discussions per week to demonstrate an understanding of the material, ask questions he / she might have, share related thoughts the material catalyzes, etc.

Guidelines to the kind of material to post:

Clarify the cited section

Respond with substance to a posting on the cited section (It's also good to provide feedback, complements, or just “I agree” even though non-substantive posts are not related to your grade)

Relate the lecture material and the textbook

Relate the cited section or textbook reading page(s) to an experience of yours

Relate the cited section or textbook reading page(s) to a reported incident

Ask your classmates an insightful question about the cited section or “mini cases” in the text or provided by the instructor

The criteria for participation in the weekly discussions are as follows.

(i) Relevance

This concerns the degree to which your postings are relevant to the stated topic for the module. “A” work consists of postings which all refer to and are entirely relevant to the week's module material. (This criterion should be a straightforward way for you to keep your discussion grade in reasonable territory.)

(ii) Proportion of substantive contributions.

This is the percentage of your on-line contributions that have significant content: 80% would be a good fraction (=B); 95% is definitely excellent (=A). This criterion implies that “more is not necessarily better:” For example, 8 substantial contributions out of 10 will score higher on this criterion than 79 contributions out of 100 with mixed substance – even though you have said more in the latter case. In computing this, we will ignore postings that are obviously not intended to contain content. For example, it's a good thing to complement another student on a useful post and a simple complement does not affect this grade.

Extensive quoted material that can be read from the Internet will fare poorly in this category since it is not the student’s contribution.

(iii) Usefulness of your week's contributions for the rest of your group.

This evaluates how useful and penetrating the totality of your comments and questions are for the rest of the group. “A” work will result from a significant set of comments and questions that are very useful to your fellow students, and which show that you are developing excellent insight into the subject at hand. This criterion encourages you to be participatory (e.g., by responding to good questions or points posed by others).

Contribute at an even rate of substantive postings throughout the week. Contributions concentrated at the end of the week are far less useful to your classmates because they have little time to absorb and respond.

Quizzes:

There will be a quiz at the conclusion of each module. All quizzes will be taken on line & will not be proctored.

Final Exam:

There will be a Final Exam at the end of the semester. Refer to the Course Content Tab for additional information. If a student wishes to opt for a team project in lieu of a final exam, please see me during the first class.

Grading scale: Based on a 100 point scale

%            Grade      %               Grade

95+        A             76-78        C+

91-94     A-           73-75        C

87-90     B+          70-72        C-

83-86     B            67-69         D+

79-82     B-            65-66         D

                               <65 F.

Grade Definition:

A= Excellent performance. Work is exemplary and worthy of emulation by others. Student is in full attendance and constructively contributes to the learning environment.

B= Above average performance. All assignments are complete and exhibit a complete understanding and an ability to apply concepts.

C= Average performance. Accomplishes only the minimum requirements. Oral and written communication is at an acceptable level for a graduate student.

D= Demonstrates understanding at the most rudimentary level. Work is minimally passing.

F= Work is not passing, characterized by incompleteness, lateness, unsatisfactory demonstration of understanding and application.

A more detailed Syllabus is located on the Blackboard Web Site for this Track