6. Project management, research and collaboration
6. Project management, research and collaboration
- Having good ideas and identifying needs for an information system is a great start, but actually developing and delivering the system requires much more than programming. Project management skills are essential, as are continuing research and collaboration.
MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT : Personal Learning Resources
Do the MidTerm assignment AFTER you complete the rest of the work for this topic.
Learning outcomes
- understand the key concepts of project management
- apply project management tasks to personal projects
- explore online research functions
- participate in web based collaboration activities
Keywords
- projects - information systems lifecycle, engineering process, project management, research, analysis, design review, milestones, collaboration
Selected media
- Discovering Information Systems: An Exploratory Approach (CC-BY-NC-ND) - Chapter 13. Using Information Systems
- Information Systems (CC-BY) - Chapter 6. Implementing systems, Chapter 13. Opportunities for new organizational forms
- Optional - Tomorrow's Technology and You - Chapter 6. Graphics, Digital Media, and Multimedia
Reference
- Research Process http://www.openc.k12.or.us/citeintro/secondary/process/
- Citing Sources information http://www.openc.k12.or.us/citeintro/secondary/
- Recommended Search Strategy: Analyze your topic & Search with peripheral vision at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html
- Connexions - Content Commons of free, open-licensed educational materials in fields such as music, electrical engineering and psychology. http://cnx.org
- Open Courseware Consortium - collaboration of higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model. http://www.ocwconsortium.org
Project Management
- Project Management in a Complex World - free online textbook you can read through any web browser.
Study questions
- What are some of the steps leading up to system implementation?
- What are some specific suggestions for training development?
- When and how should documentation be tested?
- What are some of the different types of testing? When would you perform each?
- Are all types of testing applicable to all information ystems?
Assignments
MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT : Personal Learning Resources - Do the MidTerm assignment after you complete the rest of the work for this topic. see below...
- Before you start the reading and the assignments, take a few minutes to think about what you already know about the topic - Project management, research and collaboration. Write a sentence or two about this in the I know... discussion.
- Read, view, listen to the selections in the Suggested media list for this module.
- Choose 3 words from the Keywords list for this module. Find a web article that provides information about the words and how they relates to the course. Post the words, links to your selected web articles, and a brief description about your selection for each, to the discussion Keywords - project management, research and collaboration. Follow links provided by 3 other students, review their suggested articles, and write a brief reply to the author for each.
- Read The 12 Principles of Collaboration. This is an archived version - there does not appear to be a current version. All communities, on or off the web, adhere to basic principles in order to thrive. The 12 Principles function as a hierarchy. The chief principle, Purpose, is supported by the other 11 principles.
- Design challenge - The Connexions collection of online textbooks, articles and educational material is an example of an information system for allowing authors to create and publish their work. Instructors, students and individuals are free to browse the catalog and create their own mix and match of articles. The Open Courseware Consortium catalog provides links to hundreds more repositories of educational material. For this design challenge, think about the information system behind these. What are the inputs and outputs? What can you determine about the user requirements that were driving the system design? Suggest some specific ways to incorporate some of these functions into your Lifecycle information system in 2-3 sentences. Post your reply to the discussion topic Design - research and collaboration.
- Information System Lifecycle Project - Continuing the process of building your selected Information System topic that you will "develop" over the duration of the course, this week will focus on integration and testing. This is where all the pieces that have been developed separately come together. In most development projects many people work on specific parts of the systems, some for specialization, some because of the amount of work to be done. How will your system be developed? Are many people involved? How will the integration be organized? What are some of the most challenging issues for testing?
If your system is a commercial product or service, you will have a legal issues to address, as well. Will you have to comply with state, federal or foreign country regulations and laws? Do you have a plan to address these? What types of problems could arise for you or your customers?
Post this information to the discussion topic Lifecycle - Integration and testing. Also, add the same information to your own WikiEducator user page.
- Reflection - This course is structured so you can explore areas of interest to you within the framework of the course topics. What do you like and/or dislike about this personalized or self-directed learning format? Please comment. This should be one or two paragraphs submitted as I think... assignment.
MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT : Personal Learning Resources
For each of the six (6) topics covered so far, list two (2) articles or resources that were most relevant to the topic and most interesting to you. These can be from your own research, posts to the discussions, selected media suggestions or any other resources that helped you learn about the topics. For each, provide a brief explanation of why these were selected.
Submit your answers to the quiz MIDTERM - Personal Learning Resources. There is a "quiz" question for each topic. You do not have to complete the quiz all at once. Be sure to save your answers to each question. However you must save and SUBMIT the quiz for it to be graded.
Extra credit assignment - suggest an alternate midterm project or assignment. The objective is to have students demonstrate that they learned something about the topics covered so far, and provide an opportunity for students to spend a couple of hours researching and presenting something of interest related to the topics covered. Submit as X. Alternate MidTerm Suggestions.
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