SYLLABUS
SYST 530 -
Systems Management and Evaluation
Fall 2003
Professor: Dr. Philip Barry
Work Phone: (703) 883-7826
FAX: (703) 993-1706
E-mail: pbarry@mitre.org or
Office: GMU: Science and Technology II
Mailbox Location: Science & Technology 2, Room 111
Office Hours: By appointment
Course Description:
Provides the necessary techniques for evaluating the cost and
operational effectiveness of system designs and systems management strategies. Performance measurement,
work breakdown structures, cost estimating and quality management are discussed. Configuration management, standards, and case
studies of systems from different applications areas are discussed.
Course Hours: Tuesday
Text: Project Management: A Systems Approach to
Planning, Scheduling
and Controlling, 8th edition (2003); Harold Kerzner.
John Wiley and Sons ISBN 0-471-22578-9 Paperbacks are available.
Grades: 40% - group case study
30% - paper
25% - midterm
5% - class
participation
Class Website: TBD
LATE PAPERS
WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED!
Grade Element
Discussion
SYST 530 -
Systems Management and Evaluation
Fall 2003
The
Group Case Study is the focal point of student effort within this course. Groups
may meet during class time, but individual preparation may be expected outside
of the classroom. There will be groups of several people self-formed during the
second meeting of the class. On the
assigned weeks, a different group will be assigned as the discussion leader for
the case study. The group lead is
responsible for sending out the presentation materials for the case study to
the class and the instructor two days prior to presentation. For more detail please see the page entitled
Case Study Guidance in this packet.
Each
student will be required to write a paper on an area pertinent to this class
(e.g. leadership, performance measurement, etc.). There will be two
deliverables for this paper. The first deliverable will be a summary of the
paper including an annotated outline for the paper. The final deliverable will be due near the
end of the semester. The final
deliverable must be at least 10 pages long, using 1 1/2 line spacing, with at
least 10 different references other than SYST530 lecture notes and the text
book. The paper will be graded based on
the original contribution of the author.
It will not be satisfactory to just document leadership styles, for
example. The author would be expected to compare and contrast leadership styles
and give an opinion on the subject. You will be expected to use a professional
format such as one used in an IEEE journal.
Do NOT turn in 10 pages of uninterrupted prose.
The
exam will be in-class and will cover relevant material in the course. The exam will be in-class and open book.
Class Participation 5%
This
class is very interactive. This portion
of your grade will be based on your active participation in class
discussions.
We
will be tracking two case studies throughout the semester. The case studies will explore various facets
of elements we will discuss in the lecture segment. Students will form into groups and will be
responsible for weekly assignments that explore the aspects of the case
study. The weekly assignments will be
collected in a case study notebook that the students will maintain and turn in
at the end of the semester. The
professor will also provide problems within the case study that will require
the students to use the techniques discussed in class to best learn the tools
and techniques of project management.
Students
will also be required to make several presentations in class. The presentations will focus on the homework
assignments given in the previous week.
The students will be required to present the problem, identify all of
their relevant assumptions, discuss the approach taken, identify elements of
uncertainty, and explain why their approach is the best approach that can solve
the problem. The students will then lead
a discussion with the rest of the class to solicit the views of their
colleagues and explore angles that perhaps were not considered during their
analysis of the problem.
There
will be two case studies examined during the semester. Half of the groups in the class will work the
first case study while the other half of the students will work the second case
study. The students will be required to
periodically bring their case study notebook to class. Each member of the group
will be required to participate in the oral presentations. Part of your class participation grade will
depend on your participation in the oral presentations. Additionally, on the final day of class all
groups will make a presentation of their case study. Obviously, differing approaches to the
problem are expected in that there is in fact no right answer. However solid engineering approaches based
upon the lectures that we have discussed in class will be expected. We will talk more about the final presentations
as the semester progresses. The professor will handout the outlines of the case studies next
week in class.
Additional
Sources: There is a wealth of quality
literature available on the subject matter of this course.
§ Harvard Business Review (super for the leadership and management portion of the course) and an excellent source of case studies
§
INCOSE Insight (informal and short, but educational articles)
§
INCOSE Systems Engineering Journal
§
PMI Project Management Journal
§
PMI PM Network
§
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
§
IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
§
IEEE Engineering Management Review
§
DSMC Systems Engineering Fundamentals
(http://www.dsmc.dsm.mil/pubs/gdbks/sys_eng_fund.htm)
§
EIA/IS 731 Systems Engineering Capability Model
(http://www.incose.org/lib/731-news.html)
Note
that there are three main bodies of knowledge that intersect in this
course: systems engineering (INCOSE,
IEEE), leadership and management (Harvard Business Review), and project
management (PMI).