The University of Texas at Dallas

Global Leadership Executive MBA Program

MIS 6204: Information Technology and MIS Fundamentals

Section: MIMS
Fall 2007: August 13 – September 23, 2007

Professor Contact Information

Narendra Dev Phone: (408) 334 0781

Carolyn Reichert Phone: (972) 883.2726 (W) Fax: (972) 883.6164

Course Manager (972) 867.7088 (H)
E-Mail: Use Blackboard e-mail
Office Location: SM 1.506
Office Hours: By appointment

Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions

Operations Management 6301 is a pre-requisite for this class.

Course Description

Provide a basic understanding of the key business issues in IT, some of the concepts and best
practices from leading companies in this field.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes

• Explain the role of information technology as a strategic business transformation tool

• Evaluate and analyze IT and business process outsourcing

Text: The Executive’s Guide to Information Technology

John Baschab & Jon Piot, Wiley, 2007, 2nd edition, ISBN 978-0-470-09521-8

Articles: Listed by Week Due

Cases: Listed by Week Due

Schedule of Assignments

Web conference: Introduction and Orientation

Web conference Date: Saturday, August 11: 11:00 AM CST
________________________________________________________________

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Week 1: The benefits of IT in a Business Enterprise
Dates: August 13 – August 19
Lecture: Week 1: IT Benefits
Readings: Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in the text
“Six Decisions your IT People Should Not Make”, by Jeanne W.
Ross & Peter Weill, HBR, Nov 2002

Assignment: Individual Written Summary on any one chapter or article

Due date: Individual Summary posted to Digital Drop Box by August 19 midnight
CST

Discussion Forum: Individual responses to Bb topic posted to the Discussion Forum by

August 19
_________________________________________________________________

Week 2: IT Organization and Human Resource Practices

Dates: August 20 – August 26
Lecture: Week 2: IT Organization
Readings: Chapters 5 and 11 in the text
“IT Doesn’t Matter”, by Nicholas G. Carr, HBR, May 2003

Assignment: Individual Written Summary on any one chapter or article

Due date: Individual Summary posted to Digital Drop Box by August 26 midnight
CST

Discussion Forum: Individual responses to Bb topic posted to the Discussion Forum by

August 26
________________________________________________________________
Week 3: IT Operations and Application Management
Dates: August 27 – September 2
Lecture: Week 3: IT Operations
Readings: Chapters 8, 9 and 10 in the text
“Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System”, Thomas Davenport,
HBR July-Aug 1998

Assignment: Individual Written Summary on any one chapter or article

Due date: Individual Summary posted to Digital Drop Box by September 2 midnight
CST

Discussion Forum: Individual responses to Bb topic posted to the Discussion Forum by

September 2
________________________________________________________________
Week 4: Outsourcing, Vendor Selection, Management
Dates: September 3 – September 9
Lecture: Week 4: Outsourcing
Readings: Chapters 12 and 13 in the text
“Why Outsourcing is in”, Chung, Jackson & Laseter, Strategy+Business,
May 5 2003
“The Core Competencies of the Corporation”, C.K. Pralahad & Gary
Hamel, HBR, May-June 1990, reprint # 90311

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Assignment: Individual Written Summary on any one chapter or article
Due date: Individual Summary posted to Digital Drop Box by September 9 midnight
CST

Discussion Forum: Individual responses to Bb topic posted to the Discussion Forum by

September 9
________________________________________________________________

Week 5: Team Case Presentations

Dates: September 10 – September 16

Assignment: Team PowerPoint Slides

Due date: PowerPoint Slides posted to Digital Drop Box by September 15, 6 pm
CST

Web conference: Team Presentations for Teams 5 through 8

Web conference Date: Sunday, September 16: 3:00 – 5:00 PM CST.
Team #1: 3:00 - 3:30 pm CST
Team #2: 3:30 – 4:00 pm CST
Team #3: 4:00 - 4:30 pm CST
Team #4: 4:30 – 5:00 pm CST

Team #1: Cathay Pacific: Doing more with Less, HBS case 9-303-106, Dec 2003
Team #2: South Australia Government – Outsourcing, from Global Information Technology
outsourcing by Lacity & Willcocks, March 2004, pg 40-65
Team #3: Dupont – Outsourcing from Global Information Technology outsourcing by Lacity &
Willcocks, March 2004, pg 65-85
Team #4: CISCO Systems, HBS case 9-301-099, Oct 2001
_____________________________________________________________

Week 6: Guest Lectures

Dates: September 17 – September 23

Readings: 1. Chapter 4 in the text

2. New PCAOB Auditing Standard on Internal Control over Financial
Reporting, KPMG, May 2007
3. ITIL Catches on, by Gary Anthes, Computerworld, Oct 31, 2005

Assignment: Individual Written Summary on any either of the two articles

Web conference: Guest lectures

Web conference Date: Sunday, September 23: 3-5 PM CST
1. Introduction to SOX, Larry Melillo, 3-4 pm CST
2. ITIL – practical or overkill?, by John Baschab, 4-5 pm CST

Evaluations: Peer Evaluations due September 23

Course Evaluations due September 23

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Grading Policy and Evaluation

Grading Formula

Journal articles (5): 40%

Discussion forums (6): 20%
Team Case Study Problem 40%
Final case presentation 20%
Final case written analysis 20%

Written Assignments
Evaluation of written assignments and project papers will be based on thoughtful, analytical,
well-constructed responses demonstrating knowledge of the topic by citing examples of the key
concepts present in the readings or cases.

• A ---Excellent: Understanding of all key issues; no important analytical errors or

omissions; concise, very well written and organized, makes appropriate use of charts
and tables.
• B---Good: Understanding of most issues; only a few important issues not discussed;
few analytical errors; well-written and well-organized, makes appropriate use of
charts and tables.
• C---Adequate: Understanding of many issues, but not all important aspects covered;
various analytical errors; excessive case recitation unsupported by analysis; poorly
written or organized, makes inappropriate use of charts and tables.

Team Case Study Problem 40%

A case study will be posted on Blackboard in the course material area. The team report should
be limited to 3 to 5 PowerPoint Slides which are presented at the second/third web conference
and a written report of 8-12 pages (double spaced) should be posted to the Discussion Board in
the appropriate area where designated. Each team will be provided ½ hour for the presentation
and presentation responsibility should be distributed among team members. Absence of any
team member at their case presentation is an automatic drop-down to B grade, for the
missing team member. Students are encouraged to attend all case presentations since this
will be a synthesis of the learning at this course. Detailed instructions on the case study are
posted in the corresponding week.

Journal Article Summary 40%

Discussion forums depend on student’s advance preparation by reading the assigned text
chapters and journal articles. As evidence of this preparation, students need to prepare a
written summary of any one of the journal articles or the chapter reading assigned for the course
for that week. The summary should be no longer than 3 pages, double spaced and should be
posted to the Digital Drop Box no later than Sunday of the week the article is discussed.

Discussion Forums 20%

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Students are expected to post responses that reflect content knowledge, analytical skills and
add value to the discussion topic. Grades for discussions forum participation will be based on
the quality of the response.
• A: Excellent contribution --- Insightful; key points and ideas set tone of other
contributions.
• B: Good contributions --- Used key points and issues to add value to the overall
discussion thread.
• C: Acceptable contribution --- Contribution was on topic; built on other’s ideas.
• D: Unacceptable contribution --- Contribution did not add value.
• F: No posting

Note: One-liners in discussions forums are not encouraged. The participant needs to present
original thought in the discussion forum. If you are agreeing or disagreeing with a position, you
need to provide reasoned thought in your arguments, to persuade the readers to your point of
view.

Course & Instructor Policies

Format for Written Assignments

Written assignments should be Word documents (no html formats) that are:
• Double-spaced, 12 pt. Arial or Times New Roman font
• Citations properly formatted in MLA style
• Clearly identified by author or team
o For an individual assignment, the student name needs to be on the first page of
the document AND as part of the document name, i.e. Jonessocres.doc when it
is submitted.
o For a team assignment, the team number and names of team participants on the
first page AND the team number as part of the document name i.e.
Team2MNCs.doc when it is posted
o There is no need for a separate cover pages

Submission
Assignments should be posted on Blackboard (Bb) within the course area by the due date.
Assignments are submitted to the Digital Drop Box under Tools tab. Be sure to use the SEND
command to submit to the Drop Box. Do not use ADD command to post.

Late Assignments
If you need to miss an assignment deadline, you must pre-notify the instructor and course
manager before the deadline. You should provide the reason for missing the deadline and an
alternative date for submitting the assignment. The instructor and course manager must
approve the extension and the new deadline. If you do not pre-notify the instructor, the instructor
may determine the appropriate grade deduction for the assignment.

Evaluations:

Peer Evaluation
Students need to complete a peer evaluation for each team assignment. The peer evaluation is
an electronic document whose link is located on Blackboard (Bb) in the course area under the

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Information button. Students allocate 100 points among the team members to reflect the level of
contribution made by each team member on a specific assignment.

Course Evaluation
The completion of a course evaluation is a course requirement. Students need to complete a
course evaluation form which is an electronic document whose link is located on Blackboard
(Bb) in the course area under the Information button. Students who do not submit a course
evaluation by the due date will receive an incomplete grade for the course.

UTD Policy on Cheating:

Students are expected to be above reproach in all scholastic activities. Students who engage in
scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in
the course and dismissal from the university. "Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited
to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are
attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any
act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts."
Regents' Rules and Regulations, Part One, Chapter VI, Section 3, Subsection 3.2, Subdivision
3.22. Professors randomly use “Turnitin.com” to screen papers against other published works
on the web to insure against plagiarism.