Panel:
Teaching the IS.10 Course
Project Management and Practice

Moderator:  Jeffrey P. Landry
School of CIS, University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36688
jlandry@usouthal.edu

Abstract

The purpose of this 90-minute panel is to provide for a facilitated discussion of issues related to teaching the IS.10 course in four-year, IS degree programs.  The moderator and panelists are qualified academics involved in teaching, practicing, and curriculum development relating to IS project management.  The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions of the panelists.  The remainder of this summary describes the moderator and panelists, and the issues and questions to be addressed.

Keywords:  project management, IS2002 model curriculum, IS curriculum development


All panelists have an interest in this panel by either teaching the project management course or by participating in two workshops for developing, reviewing, and critiquing exit objectives and test items for the IS model exam.  

Panel Overview

A. Project Management:  Course Design and Content

1. How to teach IS project management vs. project management in general:  What’s the right formula?
2. Hard (quantitative/technical) vs. soft (behavioral):  which project management approach should be emphasized for teaching the IS project management course?
3. Doing a hands-on IS project in the project management course:  the pros and cons.  How important is having the students perform hands-on systems analysis and design activities in a project management course vs. hands-on project management activities in a project management course?
4. The role of project management software tools in the project management course.  Most texts feature MS-Project trial version, and offer exercises at the back of chapters.  Is this the right treatment of tools?  Is MS-Project too heavy of an investment in a tool?  Should other tools be introduced?  If so, which ones?  What publicly available tools could be used (or fashioned together) to get the basics of the job done (i.e., project scheduling and tracking)?

B. Project Management:  Model Curriculum and Exam

1. What project management learning unit/skills are missing or inadequately addressed by the model curriculum?
2. What’s outdated in the model curriculum? 
3. How did the IS Exit Assessment Exam perform?
4. Where does the IS Exit Assessment exam need to improve to better assess students on the project management exit skills?

C. Project Management in the Curriculum

1. Should project management be the capstone course?  If so, should it be organized as a practicum?
2. Should project management be its own separate course?
3. Which course(s) teach project management skills?  To what extent or level should project management skills be covered earlier in the curriculum, i.e. systems analysis and design, or elsewhere?
4. How should a project management course relate to other courses in a prerequisite structure?

Intended Audience
* Educators who are interested in teaching and curriculum issues related to the IS.10 project management and practice course
* Educators who are interested in starting or improving their project management course
* Educators who are interested in improving their curriculum through standardized exams

Panel Goals

The goal of the panel is to facilitate a discussion into the key issues of project management teaching and curricula through a highly structured format.  It is hoped that a focus on specific, key questions will stimulate discussion and debate that will engage the panelists and the audience.

After introducing the topic and the panelists the moderator will make a brief presentation that overviews the IS.10 course, as defined in the IS 2002 Model Curriculum, and summarizes the project management course and skill results of the recent IS Exit Assessment Exam.   This introduction will take less than ten minutes.

Following this introduction, the moderator will facilitate a panel discussion of issues related to teaching the IS.10 course.  He will list the issues to be discussed and debated by the panel in three separate segments.  The overview will take three minutes.  

Twenty minutes will be allocated for each of the three major topics.  The format of each segment is as follows: 
1. The moderator briefly introduces the topic. (2 minutes)
2. The issues are covered one-by-one.  Each panelist is given an opportunity to speak.  Topic C might allow for the discussion of the issues all at once, as the issues are not mutually exclusive.  (12 minutes)
3. After the issues are discussed, the audience can ask questions of the panelists. (6 minutes)

The moderator will make summary comments at the very end and then the audience can ask questions in the remaining time.

By the conclusion of this panel, the audience should have a greater appreciation of the key teaching and curriculum issues for IS project management.  The audience should develop an awareness of the IS model curriculum logical course in project management and be informed as to the continued development of the national IS exam that includes a section on project management.