SYLLABUS

SYST 530 - Systems Management and Evaluation

Fall 2001

 

Professor:

Dr. Phil Barry

Work Phone:

(703) 883-7826

FAX:

(703) 993-1706

E-mail:

[email protected];[email protected]

Office:

GMU:� Science and Technology II

Mailbox Location:� Science & Technology 2, Room 111

Office Hours:

By appointment

TA:

Danyi Wang

TA-email:

[email protected]

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

Text:

Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, 7th edition (2001); Harold Kerzner. John Wiley and Sons ISBN 0-471-39342-8

Grades:

15% - homework

 

25% - group case studies

 

25% - paper

 

15% - midterm

 

15% - final

5% - class participation

Class Website:

Notes will be posted to the website.� URL to be provided in class

LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED!

Grade Element Discussion

SYST 530 - Systems Management and Evaluation

Fall 2001

Homework

Students will be given homework assignments most weeks from the end of the chapter(s) discussed during class.� These assignments will not be graded but will be given points for being completed.� The students will keep homework notebooks that will be checked or by the professor.

Group Case Studies

The Group Case Studies are the focal point of student effort within this course. Groups will 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 case study to the class and the instructor one week 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 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, 1 1/2 spacing, with at least 10 references.� 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.

Exams

Two exams:� The first will be in-class and will cover the first part of the semester.� The final will be in-class and will cover the second part of the semester.� The exams will be in-class and open book.

Case Study Guidance

SYST 530 - Systems Management and Evaluation

Fall 2001

Due to the large number of students in this section, we are going to break into eight groups of about 4 people.� Each group will be responsible for presenting one detailed case study over the course of the semester.� The students will select the specific case studies.� The case studies should be related to the lecture topic of the day.� Each case study presentation will be a group effort so you will find it necessary to meet at outside of class during the semester to prepare.�� Each member of the group will receive the same grade for the presentation.� The case study presentation will comprise 25% of your grade.

The format of your presentations is flexible.� However, the following information must be transmitted to the class.�

If your group is not presenting, you should arrive prepared by reading the case study before you get to class.� Be prepared to participate in the discussion.

You will have approximately 60 minutes for your group to present the information, so please plan accordingly.� If for some reason you cannot attend on the date indicated, please negotiate with someone in another group to trade either individually or as an entire group.� All decisions to switch must be unanimous amongst the parties concerned and you must let the instructor know.� At the end of the semester, all students must have been present and have participated in a case study presentation.

Additional Sources

SYST 530 - Systems Management and Evaluation

Fall 2001

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

 

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

Fall 2001

 

Week 1>

28 Aug

�      Background

�      Lecture: Systems Engineering Life Cycles and Processes

�      Guest Lecture by Professor Peggy Brouse

 

 

 

Week 2>

4 Sep

�      Lecture: Planning the Technical Effort

�      Form Groups

�      ADDIS Game

�      Reading:� Chapts. 1,2

�      Homework for next week:� 2-1, 2-5, 2-6, 2-7, 2-11

 

 

 

Week 3>

11 Sep

 

�      Lecture: Scheduling and the Systems Engineering Management Plan

�      In-class exercise: Project Overrun (pg. 635) led by Instructor

�      Reading:� Chapt. 11, pgs. 549-600

�      Homework: 11-2, 11-11, 11-18, 11-19, 11-36

 

 

 

Week 4>

18 Sep

�      Lecture: Budgeting and Cost Estimation

�      In-class exercise: Crosby Manufacturing Corporation (pg. 722) led by Instructor

�      Reading:� Chapt. 12

�      Homework: 12-2, 12-7, 12-11, 12-13, 12-20

 

 

 

Week 5>

25 Sep

�      Lecture: Monitoring and Information Systems; Technical Performance Measurement

�      Group 1 Case Study

�      Reading:� Chapt. 14

�      Homework: 14-1, 14-7, 15-2, 15-10, 15-11

 

 

 

Week 6>

2 Oct

�      Lecture: Project Control; Design Review and Evaluation Process; Test, Evaluation, and Experimental Design, Configuration Management; Data Management

�      Group 2 Case Study

�      Reading Chapt. 11, pgs. 601-670

�      Homework: 11-27, 11-30, 11-31, 11-45

 

 

 

Week 7>

9 Oct

�      Columbus Day Recess

 

 

 

Week 8>

16 Oct

�      Lecture:� Quality Management

�      Group 3 Case Study

�      Reading:� Chapt. 23

�      Annotated Paper Outlines Due

 

 

 

Week 9>

23 Oct

�      Lecture: Decision Support

�      Group 4 Case Study

�      Homework: questions provided by professor (not in book)

 

 

 

Week 10>

30 Oct

�      Midterm

 

 

 

Week 11>

6 Nov

�      Lecture: Integrated Product-Development

�      Group 5 Case Study

�      Reading:� Chapt. 4

�      Homework: 4-2, 4-9, 4-14, 4-34, 4-37

 

 

 

Week 12>

13 Nov

�      Lecture: Organizational Design

�      Group 6 Case Study

�      Reading:� Chapt 3

�      Homework: Myers-Briggs personality test at: http://www.allhealth.com/onlinepsych/personality/olpgen/0,6103,7119_127651,00.html

 

 

 

 

Week 13>

20 Nov

�      Lecture: Myers-Briggs personality test

�      Group 7 Case Study

�      Reading:� Chapt. 7

�      Homework: 7-5, 7-6, 7-13, 7-24

 

 

 

Week 14>

27 Nov

�      Lecture: Risk Management

�      Group 8 Case Study

�      Reading:� Chapt. 17

�      Homework: 17-3

 

 

 

Week 15>

4 Dec

�      Lecture: Ethics

�      Course Evaluations

�      Papers Due � NO LATE PAPERS

 

 

 

Week 16>

11 Dec

�      Semester Final Exam