Syllabus (Draft)
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PUAD 626: Information Resources Management
Spring 2005, 3 credits

Faculty:  
Thomas A. Darling, Ph.D.
(410) 837-6195 (o), tdarling@ubalt.edu
1304 St. Paul St., Room 300F, Schaefer Center for Public Policy
School of Public Affairs, Yale Gordon College
University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD  21202-2786

Last Update: April 7, 2005 (still draft)

Course Outline (Tentative)
  Lecture Assignment Due Wgt
Jan. 29 Course Intro/History of Computing    
Feb. 3 Second Lecture & Process Innovation
Case: Office of the State Treasurer		 Access: Assignment 1
Rest of First Assignment		 1
1
Feb. 10 More Process Innovation 
Case: Reengineering DMV		    
Feb. 17 Networking, Electronic Commerce &
Electronic Government
Case: Info. Net. for the Emp. Serv.		 Access Tutorial 2 2
Feb. 24 Writing HTML & Preliminary Web Assignment    
March 3 Catch-Up    
March 10 Databases I / Legacy Systems 
Case: Integrated Info. for Policy Making 		   
March 17 Database Design / Databases II /E-R Diagrams
Case: Group Database Exercise		 Access Tutorial 3
First draft of html page		 2
1
March 24 Spring Break    
March 31 Making Smart IT Choices    
April 7 IT and Strategic Planning Int. Info. for PM Group Case Memo
Memo Participation (don't drop)
Access Tutorial 4		 3
1
3
April 14 Security & Privacy
Case: Vignettes
Case: Status of Children DB		    
April 21 IT Project Management
Case: Forensic Mental Health DB		 Access Tutorial 5 3
April 28 Quiz Minimum Competency Quiz 6
May 5 IS/IT Policy HTML Project Due 6
May 13 No class Forensic Mental Health memo 4

The 95% of your grade attributable to written assignments (including tutorial and projects) will be based on the highest-graded 29 points (out of a total of 33 possible) you receive. The 2 grading points for Feb. 3 will not be dropped. When calculating the final grade, the instructor reserves the right to include (not drop) or exclude (drop) the grade from any assignment(s) that violate the University’s Academic Integrity Policy.

Syllabus (Tentative)

January 27: Course Introduction & History of Computing

Lecture

History of Computing

Readings

Andersen & Dawes, Ch. 2, Information Policy in the Public Sector. [Also, on Langsdale reserve.]
Center for Technology in Government (2001), Executive Briefing, in Insiders Guide to Using Information in Government.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 1, Midlife crisis for an industry.
Note: If you like the feel of a book in your hand, there is a hardcopy of Vaskevitch on reserve at Langsdale.

February 3: Process Innovation

Lecture

Second Lecture
Reengineering Processes

Readings

Center for Technology in Government (2001). Become a skilled information user: Five kinds of "know how" put information to work, in Insiders Guide to Using Information in Government.
Hammer, M. (1990). Reengineering work: Don’t automate, obliterate, Harvard Business Review, July—August, 104-112. [On Langsdale reserve]
Stair & Reynolds (2003), Ch. 1, An Intro. to Information Systems in Organizations.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 2, The business revolution of the '90s.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 3, Business revolution, technical revolution — The client/server office of the future.

Case Study

Office of the State Treasurer

Assignments Due

Access tutorial assignment 1, due.
If you are using Access 2000, make sure you look at Access2000 Hints.
Rest of handout, due.

February 10: More Process Innovation

Lecture

More from the Process Innovation Lecture

Readings

Center for Technology in Government (2001). Technology choices matter: Technology choices affect the present and the future, in Insiders Guide to Using Information in Government.
Davenport, T. H. (1993). Information Technology as an Enabler of Process Innovation in Process Innovation, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. [On Langsdale reserve.]
Davenport, T. H. (1990). The New Industrial Engineering,  Sloan Management Review, Summer, pp. 11-27. [On Langsdale reserve.]
Stair & Reynolds (2003), Ch. 2, Hardware and Software.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 4, Can computers be usable?

Case Study

Reengineering DMV, in-class handout

February 17: Networking & Electronic Government

Lecture

Electronic Commerce
Electronic Government

Readings

Dawes, S., et. al. (1999), Some assembly required: Building a digital government for the 21st Century.
Stair & Reynolds (2003), Ch. 4, Telecommunications, the Internet, Intranets, and Extranets.
Stair & Reynolds (2003), Ch. 5, Electronic commerce and transaction processing systems.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 5, The server — Client/server the first time around.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 6, The local-area network — A new type of computer.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 7, Wide-area networks — Connecting to the world.

Case Study

Information Network for the Employment Service, A & D, pp. 145–153. Be prepared for class discussion of The Assignment, Q1 & Q2, on p. 152.

Assignment Due

Access tutorial assignment 2, due.

February 24: Writing HTML

Lecture

Preliminary Web Assignment

Readings

LaVigne, M., et. al. (2002), Untangle the web: Delivering municipal services through the Internet.
Dawes, S.S., et. al. (1996), Developing and delivering government services on the WWW: Recommended practices.
Case Western Reserve University. Introduction to HTML.
OR
NCSA. (April 1996). A Beginner’s Guide to HTML.

March 3: Catch-Up

Readings

Earl & Scott, What is a chief knowledge officer?
Vaskevitch, Ch. 8, The mainframe — The technical shift to distributed systems.

March 10: Enterprise Databases and Database Design

Lecture

Database Lecture I
Legacy System

Readings

Center for Technology in Government (2001), The devil is in the data: Expect challenging data issues when integrating information, in Insiders Guide to Using Information in Government.
Darling, T.A. (2003), Expert Report, section entitled Construction of database tables
Stair & Reynolds (2003), Ch. 3, Organizing Data and Information.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 9, Database — The concept.

Case Study

Integrated Information for Policy Making, Andersen & Dawes, pp. 197–207. Be prepared for class discussion of “The Assignment” on pp. 205-206.

March 17: More Database Design & E-R Diagram

Lecture

Database Design Lecture
Database Lecture II

Readings

Stair & Reynolds (2003), Ch. 6, Information and decision support systems.
Vaskevitch, Ch. 10, Database — The Technical Landscape
Vaskevitch, Ch. 11, A Conceptual Framework for the Future

Case Study

In class, database design exercise.

Assignment Due

Access tutorial assignment 3.
First html page due.

March 24: SPRING BREAK

March 31:  Making Smart IT Choices

Readings

Center for Technology in Government (2001), Underestimating costs proves costly: Traditional approaches are not enough, in Insiders Guide to Using Information in Government.
Dawes, S.S., et. al. (1996), Making smart IT choices. (Read entire report.)

Case Study

Status of Children Database, Andersen & Dawes, pp. 208–213.
Be prepared for class discussion of “The Assignment” on p. 213.

April 7: IT and Strategic Planning

Readings

Andersen, D.F., S. Belardo, S.S. Dawes (1994). Strategic information management: Conceptual frameworks for the public sector, Public Productivity and Management Review, XVII:4, Summer, pp. 335-353.
NYS Forum for Information Management (1995), Sourcebook for State IRM Strategic Planning. [On Langsdale reserve.]

Recommended/Optional Reading

Mintzberg, H. (1987). Crafting strategy, Harvard Business Review, 66:4, July-August, pp. 66-75. [On Langsdale reserve.]
Porter, M. (1996). What is strategy?, Harvard Business Review. [On Langsdale reserve.]

Assignment Due

Access tutorial assignment 4.
Integrated Info. for Policy Makers Group Case Memo.

April 14: Security and Privacy

Readings

Center for Technology in Government (2001). Strategy sets the stage: Look outward, inward, and forward, in Insiders Guide to Using Information in Government.
Center for Technology in Government (2001), Policies guide action: Devise policies to guide balanced decisions, in Insiders Guide to Using Information in Government.
Stair & Reynolds (2003), Ch. 9, Security, privacy, and ethical issues in information systems and the Internet.

Case Study

Vignettes, Andersen & Dawes, pp. 173-182. (in class handout)
Be prepared for class discussion of Further Reflections
Case: Status of Children DB

April 21: Project Management

Readings

Stair & Reynolds (2003), Ch. 8, Systems development.
Bower, C., & T.A. Darling (1997), Project monitoring by high-level stakeholders.
Lombardo, M., & T.A. Darling (1997), Strategic information systems planning: A template for use in public sector agencies.

Optional Reading

Cresswell, A.M. & Connelly, D. (1999). Reconnaissance study: Developing a business case for the integration of criminal justice information.

Case Study

Forensic Mental Health DB, Andersen & Dawes, pp. 135-141.
Be prepared for class discussion of three perspectives on pp. 140-141.

Assignment Due

Access tutorial assignment 5, due.

April 28: Competency Quiz

Competency Quiz

Competency quiz: Material covered includes readings and class and listserv discussions through and including April 21 readings.

May 5: IS/IT Policy

Assignment Due

HTML Assignment.

May 12: No class

Assignment Due

Forensic mental health database memo, as assigned in class, due.