SYLLABUS

SYST 530 - Systems Management and Evaluation

Spring 2004

 

 

Professor:   Dr. Phil Barry

 

Work Phone: (703) 883-7826

 

FAX:   (703) 993-1706

 

E-mail:  pbarry@mitre.org; pbarry@gmu.edu

 

Mailbox Location:  Science & Technology  2, Room 111

 

Office Hours:  By appointment

 

TA:   Tao Xu

TA:   txu@gmu.edu

 

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 7:20 pm– 10:00 pm, S&T 224

                                                                              

Text:   Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling  and Controlling, 8th edition (2003); Harold Kerzner. John Wiley and Sons ISBN 0-471-22577-0

                                                                              

Grades:                       35% - group case study

                                    30% - paper

                                    30% - midterm

                                    5% - class participation

                                                                              

  Class Website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~txu/

 

LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED!

                                                                               

 

 

Grade Element Discussion

SYST 530 - Systems Management and Evaluation

Spring 2004

 

 

Group Case Study

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 designated 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.

 

Paper

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 is an overview of the prospective paper to include an annotated outline.  This is an optional deliverable and will not be graded.  However, it is strongly encouraged, as it has been shown to provide valuable guidance.  The second deliverable is the completed paper and it will be graded.  It will be due near the end of the semester. 

 

Guidelines:  The completed paper must be at least 10 pages long, use no more than 1 1/2 line spacing, and contain at least 10 references.  Reference pages, tables of contents, figures, etc. do not count towards the page count.  References must be from academic or professional publications to include books, journals, conference proceedings, etc.; the class text, informal conversations or instructor notes are not acceptable.  The paper will be graded based on the original contribution of the author.  For example, if you chose a paper that examined leadership you would be expected to compare and contrast leadership styles and give your analysis not just document leadership styles.  You are required to use a professional format such as one used in an IEEE journal.  Do NOT turn in 10 pages of uninterrupted prose.

 

Exam

The exam will be in-class and will cover relevant material in the course.  The exam will be open book.

 

Class Participation

This class will be very interactive.  5% of your grade will be determined by your active participation in class discussions and lectures in addition to your participation in formal status reviews for your project.  Merely attending class is not considered class participation.
                                           Description of Case Study

 

We will use case studies as a learning mechanism to explore the project management tools and techniques introduced 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.

 

As part of the case study students will be required to make several presentations in class.  The presentations will focus on the project related 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.  Collaboration between groups will be strongly discouraged; independent work will be rewarded.   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.  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.  You will receive outlines of the case studies next week in class.

 

Intermediate work products for the case studies will be posted on the class web page.


 

Additional Sources

 

 

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). 


 

CLASS SCHEDULE

SYST 530 - Systems Management and Evaluation

Spring  2004

 

 Week 1>              20 Jan

                           ¨      Background and Introductions

                           ¨      Lecture: Systems Engineering Life Cycles and Processes

   ¨      Reading:  Chapt. 1

 

Week 2>              27 Jan

                           ¨      Lecture:  Requirements Engineering

                           ¨      Form Groups

                           ¨      ADDIS Game

                           ¨      Introduction to the Case Studies

                           ¨      Homework:  Define Requirements for Case Studies

                                          

 Week 3>              10 Feb

                           ¨      Lecture: Planning the Technical Effort and Scheduling

                           ¨      In-class exercise led by Instructor

                           ¨      Reading:  Chapt. 11

   ¨      Homework:  Develop a Program Plan to include a WBS for Your

           Case Study.

 

Week 4>              17 Feb

   ¨      Lecture: Scheduling

                           ¨      Case Study Presentations

                           ¨      Homework:  Develop a Detailed Schedule to include a Gantt

Chart, Dependencies and the Critical Path for Your Case Study

                           ¨      Reading: Chapt. 12

                                           

 Week 5>           24 Feb

   ¨      Lecture: Pricing and Cost Estimation

                           ¨      Case Study Presentations

   ¨      Homework:  Develop a Detailed Cost Estimate to

include tasks described in your WBS and the times described in

your Gantt chart as well as other non-labor costs

Recommended Assignment:  Annotated Paper Outlines Due

                           ¨      Reading:  Chapt. 14

 

 Week 6>            3  Mar

¨      Lecture: Monitoring and Information Systems; Technical

       Performance Measurement

                          ¨   Case Study Presentations

                          ¨   Homework:  Develop a Specific Set of TPMs for Your Case Study

                         ¨    Reading:  Chapt. 15

 

 Week 7>           10 Mar

   ¨  Spring Break - No Class

 

 Week 8>           17 Mar

                           ¨      Lecture:  Quality Management

                           ¨      Case Study Presentations

                           ¨      Reading:  Chapt. 20

                           ¨      Homework: Develop a Quality Program for Your Case Study

 

Week 9>             24 Mar

   ¨      In-Class Exam – Open Book, Open Notes

 

Week 10>             24 Mar

                           ¨      Lecture: Risk Management

                           ¨      Case Study Presentation

                           ¨      Reading:  Chapt. 17

                           ¨      Homework:  Develop a Risk Management Program for Your Case

          Study

                           ¨      Homework: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

                                          Send results to Professor by 31 Mar 04

 

Week 11>            31 Mar

                           ¨      Lecture:  Configuration Management

                           ¨      Case Study Presentations

                           ¨      Develop a Configuration Management Program for Your Case

Study

 

Week 12>          7 Apr

¨      Lecture: Decision Support Systems

                        ¨     Case Study Presentations

                        ¨      Homework:  Propose and describe decision support system(s) for

                                Your Case Study

 

Week 13>           14 Apr

                           ¨      Lecture: Organizational Design/Myers-Briggs Personality Test

                           ¨      Case Study Presentation

                           ¨      Reading:  Chapt 3

                           ¨      Papers Due – NO LATE PAPERS

                           ¨      Homework:  Develop an Organizational Design for the

                                  Your Case Study

 Week 14>         20 April

   ¨      Tradeoff Analysis

                           ¨      Reading Chapt. 16

                           ¨      Course Evaluations

                           ¨      Case Study Presentation

                           ¨      Homework:  Instructor Challenge Problem 1 for Your Case Study

 

Week 15>        28 April

                            ¨     Conflicts and Special Topics

   ¨      Reading Chapts. 7 & 8  

                           ¨      Case Study Presentation

                           ¨      Homework: Instructor Challenge Problem 2 for Your Case Study

 

 Week 16>        5 May

                           ¨      Case Study Final Presentations and Notebooks