IT 343 Section 003, Friday 1:30-4:10PM, Prince William Campus, Bull Run Hall 256 - 3 credits -
Instructor: Dr. William Pegram, wpegram@gmu.edu,
Website: www.billpegram.com
Graduate Teaching Assistant: Dheera Pothireddy, dpothire@gmu.edu
Text: Schwalbe, Kathy, Information Technology Project Management, 6th Edition, Course Technology Cengage Learning, ISBN-10: 0-324-66521-0, ISBN-13: 978-0-324-78692-7. You can utilize previous editions. Do not worry about whether the book "comes with" Microsoft Project since you will have access to that for free through the MSDNAA.
Case Studies: A packet of case studies from the Harvard School of Business is also required reading. GMU bookstore:
The course schedule page can be found at www.billpegram.com and on Blackboard. It will be revised during the semester. If you miss class, make sure to check the schedule page for new material and changes.
The course will be conducted as a mixture of lecture and discussion. Most class sessions will be treated as two sessions: one devoted to a lecture, one to discussion of a case study. Students are expected to actively participate. A team of students will be assigned to read and analyze the case study and present their findings to the class as a foundation for subsequent discussion. All students are expected (1) to have read the case study presented and (2) to be prepared to participate in the subsequent discussion.
This course fulfills the University Writing Intensive Requirement for the IT major. It does so through requiring students to write two short papers, each approximately 750 words, and a longer paper, approximately 2000 words. Students must submit a draft of the paper, which will be reviewed and returned with comments, and the student will then submit a final version of the paper. . The grade on the longer paper will be an average of the grade on the draft and the final version of the paper. One of the short papers must be on the case your team presents, and this paper is due one week after the presentation.
Students will sign up to be part of a team of no more than 5 people to present on some aspect of one of the Harvard Business School Case Studies. The High Tech A and B cases won't be used for this purpose so up to two teams are allowed for Managing Conflict, Iridium, Microsoft Office 2000, or Microsoft Office 2007 cases. Each student will prepare and present a presentation coordinated with the rest of their team on part of their team's assigned case. The combined presentations of the team should cover its assigned case; special instructions will be given in cases where more than 1 team is presenting on a case.. Presentations will be evaluated on coordination, content, delivery and class response.
In the past, the Microsoft Project portion of the course has had two parts: (1) each student will individually enter data from the A&D High Tech (A) case into Microsoft Project to prepare and submit a project plan (estimated completion date, estimated cost, and critical path) (2) each presentation team will submit a revised plan for A&D High Tech (B). I expect a similar plan this semester with the possible addition of one or two short exercises. Students may download a free copy of Microsoft Project through the Microsoft Developers' Network Academic Alliance, to which the Volgenau School subscribes.
Your grade will be a function of the 2 short papers (8% each), the longer paper (20%), 2 midterms (12% each), and final (16%), MS Project (16%) and Presentation (8%).
Students are encouraged to help each other out. On homework assignments and projects, students may ask for and receive some assistance from others, unless otherwise directed by the instructor. Yet those helping a student should avoid "doing the work" for the student. No assistance is permitted on exams and quizzes. On writing assignments, plagiarism will be punished and the instructor may utilize plagiarism detection tools. The instructor will provide at the beginning of the semester further guidance concerning plagiarism.
If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see instructor and contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at (703) 993-2474. All academic accommodations must be arranged through the ODS.