NOTE: BA 371 is not offered during Summer 2008.
The course materials below are for reference purposes only.

BA 371 Business Systems Design - Course Syllabus

Prereqs: BA 272 or equivalent, BA 370-8, junior standing

Dr. René F. Reitsma
Associate Professor
Department of Accounting, Finance and Information Management
College of Business
Office: Bexell 432
Tel.: 541-737-6162
E-mail: reitsmar@bus.oregonstate.edu

Reitsma classes and office hours

BA 371 is the second course in the BA 370-8/371/372 information systems analysis, design & development ("370s") series. It builds on the knowledge and skills acquired in BA 370-8 and it implements the necessary background for BA 372. Whereas BA 370-8 introduced us to the field of MIS, its main objectives, technologies, governing principles, history and evolution, in BA 371 we learn and practice actual analysis, support and improvement of business processes with information system technology and methods. We will practice these skills and insights through a real-world, externally sponsored case-study.

Whereas BA 371 concentrates on analysis & design, BA 372 shifts emphasis to design and development; i.e., in BA 372 we will take the initial designs from BA371, extend and complete them and implement some portions of them in a running system. However, since we cannot postpone all development work and all mastering of the tools to support that development until BA 372, we will include two of the development components already in BA 371:

1. We will continue to grow our programming skills so that we are ready to take on the development work in BA 372. This programming involves some algorithmic work, some GUI work and some program-database interaction. In BA 372 we will yet further extend these skills with some advanced database programming (i.e., stored procedures & triggers), HTTP programming and XML-based web services.
2. We will design and implement the case-study's database schema so that we can run our applications against it in BA 372.

	Analysis/Design Theory/Lecture	Case study	Labs & Homework
BA 371	Data, Information & Knowledge
	Business process analysis	Business process analysis	VB.Net 2005 Intro/refresher
	IS ROI & impact analysis	ROI & impact analysis design	VB.Net program control
	Business process redesign	Business process redesign	VB.Net GUIs
	Business process implementation strategies		VB.Net database interaction, SQL
	Object-oriented programming		VB.Net interprocess communication (GnuPlot)
	Data modeling	Data modeling
		Reporting (3 x)
BA 372	Business aspects of system architectures		VB.Net HTTP, ASP.Net
	System architecture types (client server, n-tier, SOA)	Arch. design	Linux, PHP
	GUI design, inverse design	GUI design	XML
	Software design	UML models (class, sequence, state)	MySQL
	Testing, code management	Prototyping	VB.Net/SQLServer stored procedures & triggers
		Reporting (4x) + presentation

A word of advice!! Since all the case study work we do in BA 371 carries over to BA 372, you are STRONGLY advised to carefully archive your BA 371 work and accomplishments so that we can use them as part of our BA 372 project work.

BA371 Course Contents:

In this course we study information system (IS) analysis and design:

· IS needs and opportunities in the context of business process (re)design:

• Need for continued business process (re)design.
• Analysis of business processes.
• Design of IS to support and improve business processes.

• Business value of IS ROI/impact -- (productivity, competitive advantage, efficiency/effectiveness, etc.).

• IS ROI and impact analysis; "you can't control what you don't measure."

• Systems development life cycle (SDLC) models.

• Needs or requirements analysis and modeling (BA 371).
• IS impact evaluation design (BA 371).
• High level architectural design (BA 372).
• Data (base) design (BA 371).
• Software design (BA 372).
• System development (BA 372; practice in BA371).
• Maintenance.
• Documentation and reporting (BA 371/372).

• Development:

• VB.Net 2005:

• VB.Net as a compiled language.
• Basic language components: from C (CS 151) to VB.NET (or a refresher for BA 272).

§ Classes, objects and OOP.

§ Events, Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs) and 'visual' programming.

• VB.Net DB interaction.
• HTTP programming (BA 372).

• XML programming (BA 372).

• SQLServer triggers & procedures (BA 372).

• ASP.Net (BA 372)

• Linux (BA 372):

• Linux command line exploration.

• MySQL (BA 372 homework).

• PHP.

· Upon completion of this course you should be able to:

• Understand and explain the phases of the classic systems development life cycle (ex deployment and maintenance) and apply its early phases to a small, real-world, externally sponsored case study.
• Understand the reasons and main characteristics of continued business process (re)design.
• Apply the concepts of business process (re)design to a small, well-defined real-world case study.
• Formulate a plan for determining and measuring IS ROI/impact analysis.
• Understand and participate in task-centered needs/use-case analysis.
• Document, read and understand the results of task-centered use-case analysis.

· Conceptualize use-cases in terms of natural language, activity diagrams and communication flow diagrams.

· Design and implement a normalized relational database that reflects the data needs of a small, well-defined real-world case study.

· Navigate the Visual Studio 2005 'world' and implement small programs (DB interaction, GUI, HTTP, etc.) in VB.Net.

• Review and judge the programming work of fellow coders.

· Communicate design decisions and design motivations within and across teams of designers.

· Understand and communicate the differences between object-oriented and non-object oriented views.

Course components:

· Lectures.

· VB.Net labs (most Wednesdays in BXL 120): self-guided exercises and three (3) coding assignments (homework). For assignments and deadlines, see the schedule below.

• Since code reviews are a normal part of software development, you will each be asked to review and grade the coding assignments of two of your colleagues.

· Team design and prototype project: teams of three (3) people will each design and document the initial parts of an externally-sponsored IS application.

· Form a design team and email your instructor the names of your team members by Friday Jan. 18, 2007 5:00 PM. Only one email per team!!

• Case Study Introduction & ROI report due Feb. 15, 2008 5:00 PM. For details, see the BA 371 project page.

· Business Process Modeling & Redesign report due Feb. 29, 2008 5:00 PM. For details, see the BA 371 project page

· Final reports (includes database design & database creation program) due at Mar. 14, 2008 5:00 PM. For details, see the BA 371 project page.

· Exams:

o Midterm exam: Monday Feb. 11 (in class).

Text:

Kock, N. (2006) Systems Analysis & Design Fundamentals. A Business Process Redesign Approach. Sage Publications. Available from the OSU Bookstore.

Schedule (deadlines, mandatory presence, deliveries and exams in italics):

Date	Theory/Lectures	VB.Net Labs (BXL 120)	Team Project	Texts
Week 1
Jan. 7	Welcome & Syllabus
Jan. 9		VB.Net introduction & refresher
Jan 10 6:00 - 7:30 PM	College of Business Dean's Distinguished Lecture: Ursula Burns, President Xerox Corp. LaSells Stewart Center
Jan. 11	Systems development  life cycle			Kock, Ch. 1 Gibbs (1994) Software's Chronic Crisis; Scientific American, Sep. 86-95.
Week 2
Jan. 14		VB.Net datatypes & control
Jan. 16	SIM club field trip
Jan. 18	Data, information & knowledge			Kock, Ch. 2 Thomas Schneider's Information Theory Primer
Week 3
Jan. 21	Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Jan. 23		VB.Net datatypes & control
Jan. 25	Career Symposium; meeting with MIS@OSU alumni 10:30 - 11:45 AM @ Memorial Union, 2nd floor.	VB.Net Assignment 1 due 5:00 PM		McAdams, J. (2007) Standout Skills. Computerworld. Jan. 1. 28-30.
Week 4
Jan. 28	Information systems ROI /  impact assessment			Kock, Ch. 3, Ch. 6 Walker, Neff (1995) Evaluation and Assessment Primer. McAdams, J. (2007) Lean Projects. ComputerWorld, Dec. 40-42.
Jan. 30			!!! Introduction of The Standard case study !!!
Feb. 1		VB.Net visual programming VB.Net Assignment 1 reviews due 5:00 PM
Week 5
Feb. 4	Object orientation			Kock, Ch. 12
Feb. 6	Business process redesign: past, current & future			Kock, Ch. 4, Ch. 5
Feb. 8	Business process modeling	VB.Net Assignment 2 due 5:00 PM		Kock,  Ch. 4, Ch. 5
Week 6
Feb. 11	MidTerm Exam Sample exam questions
Feb. 13		VB.Net database interaction
Feb. 15		VB.Net Assignment 2 reviews due 5:00 PM	Case study business process modeling. Case study Introduction & ROI report due 5:00 PM
Week 7
Feb. 18	Business process redesign			Kock, Ch. 8, Ch. 9
Feb. 20		VB.Net visual programming and database interaction combined
Feb. 22			Case study business process modeling.
Week 8
Feb. 25	Relational database modeling & schema			Kock, Ch. 11
Feb. 27		VB.Net interacting with other software: gnuplot
Feb. 29	Relational database modeling & schema		Case study Business Process Modeling & Redesign report due 5:00 PM
Week 9
Mar. 3			Case study database modeling
Mar. 5		VB.Net Assignment 3 Help lab
Mar. 7	Database administration	VB.Net Assignment 3 due 5:00 PM
Week 10
Mar. 10	Reserve
Mar. 12	Reserve	VB.Net Assignment 3 reviews due 5:00 PM
Mar. 14	Reserve		Case study Final report due 5:00 PM

Grading Scheme

Case study introduction and ROI / IS impact analysis report -- team grade	10%
Case study business process modeling & redesign report -- team grade	20%
Midterm exam -- individual grade	25%
VB.Net programming and review assignments -- individual grade (Note: you will only receive credit for your coding work if you turn in good, serious and on-time code reviews)	20%
Case study final report (includes DB design & DB creation script) -- team grade	20%
Peer evaluation grade -- individual grade	5%
Your instructor reserves the right to make final grade adjustments based on the observed individual contributions to team/class projects. Up to 10 grade points "bonus" or "penalty" can be designated for "exceptional" (+10) or "below expectation" (-10) performance.	10%

The following number-to-letter grade scale will be used for calculating the final letter grade:

F < 55.00
55.00 <= C- < 60.00
60.00 <= C < 65.00
65.00 <= C+ < 70.00
70.00 <= B- < 75.00
75.00 <= B < 80.00
80.00 <= B+ < 85.00
85.00 <= A- < 90.00
A >= 90.00

!!! Deadlines, exam dates, submission dates and presentation dates stated in this syllabus are firm and will not be altered to accommodate the schedules of individual students !!!

Academic Honesty

Students are expected to uphold the OSU standard of conduct for students relating to academic honesty. Academic dishonesty is defined as an intentional act of deception in which a student seeks to claim credit for the work or effort of another person or uses unauthorized materials or fabricated information in any academic work

Students assume full responsibility for the content and integrity of the academic work they submit. The guiding principle of academic integrity is that a student's submitted work, examinations, reports, and projects must be that student's own work for individual assignments, and the group's own work for group assignments/projects. Students are guilty of academic dishonesty if they:

• Use or obtain unauthorized materials or assistance in any academic work; i.e., cheating.
• Falsify or invent any information regarded as cheating by the instructor; i.e., fabrication.
• Give unauthorized assistance to other students; i.e., assisting in dishonesty.
• Represent the work of others as their own; i.e., plagiarism.
• Modify, without instructor approval, an examination, paper, record or report for the purpose of obtaining additional credit; i.e., tampering.

The penalty for academic dishonesty is severe. Any student guilty of academic dishonesty may be subject to receive a failing grade for the exam, assignment, quiz, or class participation exercise as deemed appropriate by the instructor. In addition, the penalty could also imply that the student receive a failing grade for the course and be reported to the University officials at the College of Business, and the officials at the Office of Student Affairs.

For details on the OSU policies on academic honesty, refer to http://www.oregonstate.edu/admin/stucon/achon.htm

Students with Disabilities

Oregon State University is committed to providing equal opportunity to higher education for academically qualified students without regard to a disability. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact Disability Access Services to learn more about their rights and responsibilities. Students with documented disabilities who may need accommodations, who have any emergency medical information the instructor should know of, or who need special arrangements in the event of evacuation, should make an appointment with the instructor as early as possible, no later than the first week of the term.

Reitsma classes and office hours