School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

INLS 162, SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
FALL 2003

CLASS SCHEDULE

Bookmark for today

Basic Concepts / Defining the Problem / Models of Work in Organizations /
Data Modeling
/ From Analysis to Design / Implementation Issues

Syllabus / Assignments / Discussion Forum (password-protected) / Email to Class / Class Roster


BASIC CONCEPTS IN SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

1, August 26: Introduction to course; Why do systems analysis? (slides)

  • Saddler, H. J. (2001). Design: understanding design representations. interactions, 8(4), 17-24. [ACM Digital Library]

2, August 28: Introduction to user-centered analysis and design (notes); the systems development life cycle (notes; slides)

  • Beyer & Holtzblatt text, Chapter 1, Introduction, p1-26
  • Booch, G., Rumbaugh, J. & Jacobson, I. (1999). The Unified Modeling Language User Guide. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. [Electronic reserves]
    • Ch. 1, Why we model, p3-11
  • Alter, S. (2001) Which life cycle --- work system, information system, or software? Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 7, Article 17. [Online journal] (Focus on pages 1-17; skim the rest)


DEFINING THE PROBLEM

3, September 2: Problem definition (notes)

  • Davis, W. S. (1994). Business Systems Analysis and Design. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. [Electronic reserves]
    • Chapter 2, Recognizing and defining the problem, p25-57
  • Barreau, D. K. (2001). "Making do": Adapting transaction systems to organizational needs. Library & Information Science Research, 23(1), 27-43. [UNC online journal]

4, September 4 : Contextual inquiry as systems analysis (notes)

5, September 9: Interviews for collecting data (notes)

  • Beyer & Holtzblatt text, Chapter 4, Contextual inquiry in practice, p67-78
  • Wood, L. E. (1997). Semi-structured interviewing for user-centered design. interactions, 4(2), 48-61. [ACM Digital Library]
  • Simonsen, J., & Kensing, F. (1997). Using ethnography in contextual design. Communications of the ACM, 40(7), 82-88. [ACM Digital Library]

6, September 11: Organizing for team projects (list of possible projects; details)

  • Burdman, J. (1999). Collaborative Web Development: Strategies and Best Practices for Web Teams. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. [Electronic reserves]
    • Chapter 4, Communication issues, p75-87
  • Mark, G. (1998). Building virtual teams: perspectives on communication, flexibility and trust. ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin, 19(3), 38-41. [ACM Digital Library]
  • Beyer & Holtzblatt text, Managing face-to-face design, p14-16 (review)


MODELS OF WORK IN ORGANIZATIONS

7, September 16: Modeling communication flows (notes; slides; example worked in class)

8, September 18: Modeling sequences of events; Detailed task modeling (notes; slides; example)

  • Beyer & Holtzblatt text, Chapter 6, Work models - The sequence model, p96-101
  • Carroll, J. M. (2000). Five reasons for scenario-based design. Interacting with Computers, 13(1), 43-60. [UNC online journal]
  • Alhir, S. (1998). UML in a Nutshell. O'Reilly. [Electronic reserves]
    • Chapter 4, A UML tutorial, p71-75 only
    • Chapter 8, Use case diagrams, p159-165
  • Lejk, M., & Leeks, D. (1998). An Introduction to Systems Analysis Techniques. London: Prentice Hall. [Electronic reserves]
    • Chapter 5, Specifying processes, p58-73

9, September 23: Modeling the artifacts used (notes; slide)

10, September 25: Modeling the organizational culture; Modeling the physical context of the work (notes; slides)

  • Beyer & Holtzblatt text, Chapter 6, Work models - The physical model, p115-123
  • Beyer & Holtzblatt text, Chapter 6, Work models - The cultural model, p107-115
  • Monk, A., & Howard, S. (1998). The rich picture: a tool for reasoning about work context. interactions, 5(2), 21-30. [ACM Digital Library]

11, September 30: Interpreting and integrating data (notes)


DATA MODELING

12, October 2: Semantic modeling; Entity-relationship diagrams (notes; slides; example)

  • Harrington, J. L. (2002). Relational Database Design Clearly Explained. Second edition. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann. [Electronic reserves]
    • Chapter 2, Entities and data relationships, p11-45
  • Elmasri, R., & Navathe, S. B. (2000). Fundamentals of Database Systems. Third edition. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.

13, October 7: Generalization/specialization structures (notes, slides; example); object-oriented analysis (notes, slides)

14, October 9: Data dictionaries (notes, slides, example dictionary)

15, October 14: Data modeling in an organizational setting


FROM ANALYSIS TO DESIGN

16, October 16: Consolidating the models (notes, slides)

October 20-24: ASIST Annual Meeting (no class)

October 23-26: Fall Break (no class)

17, October 28: A consolidated view of the data; Data-driven design (notes, slide)

18, October 30: Evaluating design alternatives - costs, benefits, and risks (notes, example)

19, November 4 : Evaluating design alternatives - implications for workers (notes; slides; data modeling review)


IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

20, November 6 : Discussion of teams' ideas for system design (details)

21, November 11: Fitting the design to the work environment (notes; slides; example from class)

22, November 13: User interface design; Prototyping (notes; slides)

23, November 18: Scheduling the implementation project (discussion led by Stephanie Haas)

24, November 20: Communicating the design and project plans (notes, slides)

25, November 25 : Managing the change process (notes, slides); Course evaluation (Damien Berahzer)

November 27-30, Thanksgiving Holiday (no class)

26, December 2: Team presentations

27, December 4: Team presentations, continued

December 11, 3:00 p.m.: Team project due: Final project documentation


Syllabus / Assignments / Discussion Forum (password-protected) / Email to Class / Class Roster

This page was last modified on November 24, 2003, by Barbara M. Wildemuth. Address all comments and questions to Barbara M. Wildemuth at wildem@ils.unc.edu.
© Barbara M. Wildemuth, 2003. All rights reserved.