Guided Reading Exercise - CIS 211 - Management Information Systems

Independent Work Policy

On this assignment, students must work independently. Actions such as directly collaborating with students currently enrolled in the class, referring to the work students formerly enrolled in the class, and using other people to complete the assignment are all examples of violations of this policy. Students should use the instructor for any questions about completing the assignment.

Academic Integrity

Students who choose to violate the independent work policy must cite the use of other people's work by including the names of those people in a conspicuous location. By providing citations, students avoid violating the Elon Honor Code. Students who both violate the independent work policy and fail to cite the names of contributors are subject to the Elon University Academic Integrity Policy.

Format

Students must write their answers on exactly one sheet of standard letter paper (8.5 inches by 11 inches, as found in all Elon campus printers). It is recommended but not required that students use word processing software to print their work.

Directions

Respond to the following items by reading chapter 17 (pages 240 through 250) of the Baltzan textbook.

  1. Do some brief Web research on the Standish group. What did you find? (cite your sources)
  2. Why is it beneficial for non-IT people (like most students in this class) to have some insight into software development issues?
  3. The IT group in an organization is building a system to facilitate order fulfillment (refer to figure B2.8 on page 305 for a sample view of the many departments likely to be involved with using such a system). In which step of the SDLC are members of the various user departments likely to be most involved with the system? Why?
  4. It is stated throughout the text that X out of 10 software development projects fail. What do you believe is the definition of success or the definition of failure for a software development project?
  5. What do you think is the relationship between process modeling (i.e. flowchart construction) and software development?

Delivery

Students must submit their work in person and immediately at the beginning of class on the due date listed. Students may not submit their work electronically and may not have other students submit their work. Late work will not be accepted. Students are advised to print their work prior to their arrival in the classroom.