MGMT 240: Intro to Information Systems
Project Milestone and Grading Procedure

The point of the first milestone is for you to inform me that you have formed a suitable project group consisting of four or five people. Groups consisting of only 3 members will need to be approved specifically by me and must be a very unusual circumstance. The reason for this is that if one group member does not contribute to the project, it is a great deal of work for two other people to complete on their own.

Milestone #1 must have the following format/contents:

1. A list that identifies each group member by full name, email address, and telephone number - you may also want to designate a name for your new group.
2. A list of 5 to 7 potential organizations/topics (see the Locating a Company and Current and Past Project Organizations links on the course web page to get started) that your group plans to contact. It is highly desirable (but not necessary) to have already contacted these organizations. If you have not yet made contact, you should do so within the next week - any later and you risk falling behind. I will be happy to write to or speak with any organization on your behalf in order explain the project objectives and scope; however, you have to make the initial contact. Hint: some of you have family members that are in management positions at various organizations, or even own a family business. These organizations are often an excellent fit for this project.
3. Finally, I highly recommend that your group set up a regular meeting time now (say, Mondays at 4pm, or whatever). A regular meeting time each week will help to aviod conflicts during the semester with athletics, interviews, and other random events.
4. All group members must sign this milestone before handing it in to me.

The second milestone is a group contract that specifies, with as much precision as you can, the responsibilities and expectations that all group members will be expected to fulfill. In addition to these responsibilities and expectations, each group will create its own set of criteria that will be used to "grade" each group member at the mid-point and end of the semester according to their relative contribution to the project. While you may be tempted to assign very specific roles to specific members of the group, be aware of a few points: a) ALL group members should attend ALL meetings with your chosen organization, b) ALL group members should take notes and ask questions during your meetings with your chosen organization, c) ALL group members should have an equal role in completing each milestone, d) ALL group members must write some section of the final paper, and e) ALL group members must take an active role in your final presentation.

It is not appropriate to assign an individual group member to complete any single milestone on their own ! (for example: John will complete Milestone #2, and Mary will complete Milestone #4 because Milestone #5 is an ENTIRE DRAFT!) ALL group members should contribute toward ALL Milestones! The specific content of your group contract is entirely up to you, although I have provided a sample contract for you.

Milestone #2 must have the following format/contents:

1. A cover sheet that indicates the names of your group members, milestone number, and date
2. The contract itself must contain a minimum of 6 points (a maximum of 8) by which your fellow group members will be evaluated (samples are provided in the links above).
3. Each group member must sign the contract. This indicates to me that everyone has had input to and agrees with this document. Get signatures of your group members before the class time that this milestone is due! Milestones without a signature from all group members will not be accepted.
4. The pages of this milestone must be neatly stapled together, I will not accept a stack of papers that is fresh from the printer, that has the corner folded over, or that is paperclipped together. Such papers become separtated and lost too easily.
   

This group contract will become the basis of your peer evaluations (Milestones 5 and 10) that ultimately determine the relative contribution from each individual final project grade at the end of the semester. See the section below on Project Grading Methods for details of how the contract and peer evals are used to determine individual project grades for each member of the group.

Milestone #3: Introduction to your Organizational & Project Topic (Part I, Section 2 from the project score sheet)

The purpose of the organizational and project introduction is to indicate to me that you have a plan of attack for your project (which is due very soon!) and that you have made some meaningful contact with your organizaion of choice. Think of this milestone as a rough draft of the first major section of your paper. When it has been completed, you are 1/5 to 1/4 of the way to a completed project! (You are welcome!)

At this point, you will most likely still need to learn more about your organization but you will have demonstrated to me that you have found an organization that you are willing to work with, that is willing to work with you, and that you have already had at least some form of contact (In an ideal case, you would already have had one good interview prior to writing this section of your paper). At this point, I am looking to see that you have put in some effort and given careful thought to your project. This milestone must contain specific and concrete information about your chosen organization. Please read the details of the scoresheet for items that I will be looking for as I read your introduction

Please follow the project scoresheet as you write your paper. Use the same numbering system and associated headers to structure your paper. Your paper is not intended to be an essay for your English course, it is to be a bound and formatted business report with appropriate topic divisions and section headings and section breaks. Following the topic headings and numbering of the scoresheet will 1) make your paper easier to write 2) help your group make sure you haven't overlooked any major sections or topics, and 3) make it easier for me to grade at the end of the semester (this is a good thing when I have 15 of them to grade!). Also, the scoresheet works as a great mechanism for developing questions for your organizational interviews! It will also make you appear more professional in your interactions with them and have more productive interviews.

Milestone #3 must have the following format/contents:

1. A cover sheet that includes the Name of your Company, the Name of your Contact Person, the Complete Mailing Address, a Telephone Number, and an E-Mail Address for your organizational contact. This will help me keep track of who you have talked to at your organizations in the event that this organization is used again in the future, or if I need to perform any follow up at the end of the semester.
2. 4-5 pages of introductory material that indicate to me the organization you have chosen, some history and background material, and finally, a clear description of the organizational business process you have chosen. See the scoresheet for details.
3. The pages of this milestone must be neatly stapled together, I will not accept a stack of papers that is fresh from the printer or that has the corner folded over.

This milestone will not be "graded" in the traditional sense. No grade will be recorded for this milestone, but I will use the project score sheet to evaluate your project thus far and to provide feedback for your group. This is the best (and earliest) time to get detailed feedback about the direction you're heading and the level of detail that you are providing for me. The more information you give to me on this milestone, the better my advice can be to help guide your group, if necessary.

A sample of the appropriate format and contents for your paper has been provided for your reference.

At this point in the project, I want to make sure that you are able to find a handful of articles that are relevant to your paper. These articles can be a) about your specific company, b) about another company that is doing the same thing that your company is doing, or c) something about the business process or technologies that are being employed by your organization. Since these articles need to be integrated somewhere within your paper, I want to make sure you can find a few early on in the process.

Searching for articles concerning these topics is fairly straight forward. You can start looking at any of the online publications that are indicated on the course web page. Be aware, though, that information found at WikiPedia and your organization's own web page DO NOT COUNT as a legitimate business article. They may well be relevant sources of information, but are often times subject to a specific bias or may be incomplete or incorrect.

If you are having trouble, I surmise that one of following things is going on:

• You have not yet sufficiently narrowed your topic selection (which is OK, just do so soon...),
• You may have chosen a business process that is too narrowly focused (in which case we may need to extend the scope of your investigation somewhat...),
• This may be an early clue that you have not yet isolate a specific business process that is supported by an information system (this is fine, too, I am willing to help you with this part), or
• You are having difficulty using the available library tools to perform an adequate literature search in which case you should visit with the library staff to get your skills up to speed.

Milestone #4 must have the following format/contents:

1. A coversheet, much like the one that you used for Milestone #3 above
2. The full text of the 2-3 relevant articles that you found, including full bibliographic information for each article
3. A 1-2 paragraph summary of each article and and a clear indication of how each is relevant to your organization or selected business process.
4. As before, all of this material must be neatly stapled together before it is handed in.

If you are having trouble finding these, please let me know! I can help guide your search.

This is where you use the Group Contract and associated evaluation criteria that you developed as Milestone #2 above to actually evaluate the performance of each member in your group, including yourself. These evaluations are confidential and private and will NOT be shared with anyone else in the group. The information that you provide to me for these peer evaluations is used solely by me to determine each group member's relative contribution to the overall project. This will have a direct impact upon each member's individual project grade at the end of the semester. See the section below on Project Grading Methods for details of how the contract and peer evals are used to determine individual project grades for each member of the group.

Each person in the group must evalute everyone in the group. This means that for a four-person group, I should receive 4 separate peer evaluations. Similarly, for a five-person group, I should receive five peer evaluation sheets. For the Midterm peer evaluation, you will grade the participation of each member of your group, including yourself, according to your group contract. A sample evaluation form has been provided as a reference - please use this form.

This peer evaluation will be counted as 1/3 of your individual project grade, Milestone #10 at the end of the semester will count as the remaining 2/3 of your individual project grade. For an example of how these are used, see the Project Grading Methods example below.

Milestone #5 must have the following format/contents:

1. A coversheet as indicated above.
2. A copy of your group contract that was turned in as Milestone #2 above.
3. One peer evaluation form from each group member. (to preserve confidentiality and privacy, you may submit your peer evaluations individually - that is, it is not necessary to have each member's peer evaluation form stapled to the group contract)

If any member of your group does not receive full credit on any part of your group contract, for any reason, you must explain why. For example: "Peter has received 3 out of 10 possible points for his group attendance. Peter was rarely present at group meetings and when present, was consistently unprepared to participate."

This milestone is intended to be a formal report to me of how things are going with your group. If you are experiencing problems with one or more group members, you should have already discussed this problem with that specific group member. In other words, this milestone should not be the first time a group member learns that they are not living up to the expectations of the rest of the group!

 If your group is experiencing problems with one or more group members, and you are having trouble resolving these differences, please be sure to let me know! I am here to help!

Milestone #6: Project Topic Meeting

Sometime during this week of the semester, your entire group must meet with me to discuss your topic, any difficulties you are having with group members, problems with your organization, etc. This meeting ususally takes 10 to 15minutes.

For this milestone, all we need to to set up a time to meet, there is nothing that needs to be turned in to me. I want to use this time to make sure that your group:

1. Has a good company to work with,
2. Has a good contact at that company that is willing to share with your group,
3. Has selected a clearly defined business process that has sufficient scope (breadth and/or depth) for the project,
4. Is functioning well together toward the shared goal of completing this project.

Past experience has indicated that this is both a necessary and very beneficial step toward the successful completion of your project. Groups that have interacted with me throughout the semester concerning their project tend to receive substantially higher grades on their projects than those that have not...

This should be a fairly close-to-completed draft of your final paper and should follow the proper formatting requirements. Although I will use the project score sheet to evaluate your draft, I will not record a grade for your draft. Rather, the purpose of using the score sheet to evaluate your draft is to indicate to your group where your paper is strong and where it needs improvement. This is a critical time to get feedback and make corrections and additions to your paper before it receives a final grade. The better the effort you make on this draft, the better your final paper/presentation is likely to be!

Milestone #7 must have the following format/contents:

1. Full contents as specified in the Project Scoresheet.
2. Formatted as specified in the formatting instructions.
3. Your draft must be neatly stapled or bound in some manner. The Management dept office has a heavy-duty stapler for thick stacks of paper... a stack of papers held together with a series of bent staples is not acceptable.

Please realize that when you turn in an incomplete draft, I am unable to provide feedback on those sections, thereby increasing your risk of receiving a lower project grade at the end of the semester. Again, experience has indicated that groups who provide complete drafts and interact with me about how to apply specific concepts from the course tend to do much better than those who don't...

As a general comment, most groups lose points in their final papers for failing to provide clear, tangible, and concrete examples relevant to their specific organization and business process. Generic statements such as "The use of this information system makes the business process better," "...the use of this information systems saves the company a great deal of time/money" are far too vague and apply to every company on the planet that use information systems. Provide clear details, concrete examples, personal anecdotes, specific measures, before and after comparisons, etc. Consider asking your organizational contacts questions such as: How much time does the new system save over the previous way in which the business process was conducted? How much money is saved by using the new IS? By what measure is the business process better? Provide clear, explicit details wherever possible. You will be glad you did!

After receiving your evaluated group project back from me, many groups find an additional interview with their organization to be very beneficial, especially to fill in some missing details... Hint, hint ...

It is very rude and inconsiderate for any group to have to present their project to only half of the class because people are missing at the end of the semester. Yes, it is a large penalty! It is supposed to be...

Please go back and read the part in red again! Each and every semester, there are 1 or 2 people who end up missing class for a number of reasons: My dog ate my alarm clock... I was reorganizing my sock drawer..., I was tired..., I just had an exam in another class..., I was up all night..., etc.The project presentations are an important way of learning about other organizations and their use of information systems. These presentations will synthesize much of the material we have covered during the semester. Consider them as additional case study discussions that can reveal interesting insights to how organizations use information to function. Acceptable reasons for missing the project presentations are the same as those for missing an exam and are indicated on the course syllabus.

Milestone #8 must have the following format/contents:

1. The criteria by which your presentation will be evaluated are included in Part III of the Project Scoresheet. Notice that while your paper is heavily structured, I have provided very little in the way of how you should structure your presentation. This is by design! Be clever! Be creative! Be entertaining! Do something fun! Communicate what you have learned!
2. Groups that present first for the class (Mondays) are expected to set a suitably high standard for the rest of the class. Groups that present last for the class (Fridays) are expected to be able to do something different than the 4 or 5 presentations that have come before them. There is benefit to being first, just as there is benefit to being last. Be clever! Be creative! Be entertaining! Do something fun!
3. Please hand in to me a copy of all materials that you use for your presentation. If you use power point, please place a copy in my network Drop Box. If you create a video or audio production for use during your presentation, please provide me with a copy on tape, CD, or DVD. The name of your files should include the name of your organization, the semester, and year of your project. For example, "Weis Fall 2005.ppt" or other such name.

Some suggestions as you plan for your presentation:

1. Please read the set of Presentation Guidelines that I have prepared for you.
2. You should plan for your presentations to take approximately 15-20 minutes. This means that you cannot present the entire contents of your paper during your presentation. Please don't even try - I won't be impressed. You will need to actively decide which materials to include in your presentation and which to exclude.
3. You might want to focus on what was most interesting to you, what was the most surprising thing that you learned, the coolest part of the business process and IS that support it, etc.
4. You should practice and rehearse the delivery of your presentation.
5. If you are using technology for your presentation, test the technology BEFORE you get up in front of an audience to make sure it works and that you know how to work it!
6. Plan for an additional 5 minutes for questions from the class members and myself (I always have questions - but I will usually let others ask their questions first!).
7. There will be two presentations during each class period. If your group goes first, I will stop your presentation by 25 minutes into the period to make sure that the second group has an equal amount of time for their presentation. This means that we will start promptly on time!

Here it is! The moment that we have waited for all semester! You finally get to turn in that monster of a project that you have been working on all semester! PFEW! ITS DONE! (Well, it will be after you do everything listed below, including Milestone #10)

Milestone #9 must have the following format/contents:

1. Full contents as specified in the Project Scoresheet.
2. Full formatting as specified in the formatting instructions.
3. A soft copy of your project (Word, Word Perfect, or RTF format only - PDF files will not be accepted). Your submission should be a single document file (not a ZIP file or entire subdirectory structure) that contains your title page, table of contents, figures, references, etc. This single document file is to be deposited into my "Drop Box" on the campus network. The filename of your submission should include the name of your organization, the semester, and the year. For example, "Weis Fall 2005.ppt" and "Weis Fall 2005.doc" are acceptable name - "Final Project.doc" is NOT acceptable.
4. The hard copy of your paper must be bound as a polished and professional work (stapling is not binding). A stack of papers held together with a paperclip, a binder clip, several bent staples, or with the corners folded over will not be accepted! Staples on Route 15 and Admin Services here at Bucknell both offer an appropriate binding services for a very small fee.
5. Hard copies of papers, soft copies of papers, and soft copies of presentation materials are all due at the beginning of class one the last day of the semester.

    

Yes, we do this twice....this is the last one!

This is where you use the Group Contract and associated evaluation criteria that you developed as Milestone #2 above to actually evaluate the performance of each member in your group, including yourself. These evaluations are confidential and private and will NOT be shared with anyone else in the group. The information that you provide to me for these peer evaluations is used solely by me to determine each group member's relative contribution to the overall project. This will have a direct impact upon each member's individual project grade at the end of the semester. See the section below on Project Grading Methods for details of how the contract and peer evals are used to determine individual project grades for each member of the group.

Each person in the group must evalute everyone in the group. This means that for a four-person group, I should receive 4 separate peer evaluations. Similarly, for a five-person group, I should receive five peer evaluation sheets. For the Final Peer Evaluation, you will grade the participation of each member of your group, including yourself, according to your group contract. A sample evaluation form has been provided as a reference - please use this form.

This peer evaluation will be counted as 2/3 of your individual project grade, Milestone #5 in the middle of the semester counted as the initial 1/3 of your individual project grade. For an example of how these are used, see the Project Grading Methods example below.

Milestone #10 must have the following format/contents:

1. A coversheet.
2. A copy of your group contract that was turned in as Milestone #2 above.
3. One peer evaluation form from each group member. (to preserve confidentiality and privacy, you may submit your peer evaluations individually - that is, it is not necessary to have each member's peer evaluation form stapled to the group contract)

If any member of your group does not receive full credit on any part of your group contract, for any reason, you must explain why. For example: "John has received 3 out of 10 possible points for his group attendance. John was rarely present at group meetings and when present, was consistently unprepared to participate."

Project Grading Methods:

A Note About Project Grades:

Each project will be carefully graded according to the project score sheet. The resulting grade will be the overall project score for your group. This represents the highest grade any single group member can receive for their individual contribution to the final project. In order to give each team member an individual grade for the project, the project score will be multiplied by each group member's individual contribution to the project as reported to me using the midterm and final peer evaluations. Derivation of each group member's individual project score will follow a mathematical formula based upon the information that you provide to me in the Midterm and Final Peer Evaluations. Each of these evaluations will be represented as a percentage. If you have completed in a timely manner all of the work your group members have expected you to complete, your fellow group members should award you a 100% for each peer evaluation (Midterm and Final). Determining your individual project grade will use a weighted average of the Midterm and Final Peer Evaluations. The Midterm Peer Evaluation will contribute to 33.3% of your individual project grade, whereas the Final Peer Evaluation will contribute the remaining 66.7% of your individual project grade. Combining these two peer evaluations using the 1/3 and 2/3 weighting will yeild an overall project grade percentage. Each group member's individual project grade percentage will then be multiplied by the overall project score to arrive at an individual project score for each group member.

If this still sounds complicated, consider the following example from a 4-person team:

Team Member	Overall Midterm Eval from all group members	Overall Final Eval from all group members	Overall Project % =1/3*Midterm Eval + 2/3*Final Eval	Overall Project Score	Individual Project Grade = Overall Project% * Overall Project Score
#1	100%	90%	93%	95	88
#2	90%	100%	97%	95	92
#3	80%	80%	80%	95	76
#4	100%	100%	100%	95	95

In this case, the overall project received a very high score: a 95. The individual project grades vary widely, however. Team Member #3 only performed 80% of the work that the rest of the team expected, and consequently will only recieve 80% of the Overall Project Score: a 76. By comparison, Team Member #4 consistently performed up to the expectations of the rest of the team, and therfore receives 100% of the Overall Project Score: a 95. It is important to keep up with your responsibilities to your teammates during the semester. Leaving the bulk of the work for the rest of your team to complete will significantly hurt your own grade!

The purpose of this mechanism is to make sure that everyone is individually accountable for their own work and contribution toward the completed project. I think it is extremely unfair for one group member who let their team members down to receive the same grade as the remaining three people who worked very hard on the project. If everyone works hard and contributes equally to the project, there is no reason why everyone should not receive 100% of the overall project grade.

Unfortunately, however, there are usually 2-4 people each semester who let their groups down. This usually happens at the end of the semester as groups are working hard to coordinate the final submission of the paper or planning their presentations. Because the peer evaluation for this part of the semester is counted as 2/3 of the overall project percentage, it often leads to the greatest impact upon that person's project grade. When this happens, it is rarely a surprise to me because the person who let their group down is often the same person who earned a D or an F on the last exam, it is also the person who has missed 8 or 10 classes during the semester...

To Earn a 'B' on this Project, you and your team...

• will have provided all of the information specified in the above project description, and in the paper format description,
• will have consulted several different kinds of reference information and identified them in your report. For example, you might have conducted a library search and read relevant articles, talked with experts or managers, and visited sites to see a demonstration of a computer technology not used during coursework (e.g., a multimedia animation system). The point is that you will not have relied on just one kind of information source, like articles. You must cite, in your paper, each of the different information sources you used.
• will have delegated and shared the research, writing, and technical work equitably among yourselves, and proven it in your project outline, group contract, mid-term peer evaluation, and final peer evaluation.
• will have written according to the writing guidelines discussed in "Student's Guide to the Writing of Term Papers and Reports" (on the course Web site) and according to the formatting description. Among other things, this means that you will have edited your paper, probably 3 or more times, and ended up with a well-written (clear, relevant, and complete sentences and paragraphs), well-argued (logical and supported by specific evidence), and well-organized (sensible structure that flows well, good transitions, a logical conclusion) paper.
• will have justified your arguments with concrete, specific evidence.
• will have written something original and interesting to read.
• will have turned in all deliverables in their entirety and on time.
• will have produced a work as good as any other team's project.

As often happens in life with anything important and new, what constitutes an exceptional, "A" job is somewhat unclear and ambiguous. You are creating something that has never before been created, so you and your teammates must decide what is high quality and what is mediocre. The above "B" criteria are a baseline definition of quality. I have read enough reports to recognize when people have put forth a disciplined, intelligent effort, and, like any boss (or mentor), I expect to be impressed by your team's thoroughness and creativity. See the Project Scoresheet on the Web site for more detail about grading. I will use the Scoresheet to grade your final project. So, if you want to get an idea of what grade your project will receive, try scoring your paper yourself before you turn it in!!!

Finally, How Much Time Will This Take?

As you might envision, this project could easily take up most of the semester, even if you had no other commitments which, of course, you do. Coordinating group work takes lots of time. So, on average, I expect you to spend about 2-3 quality hours a week together and 2-3 quality hours a week alone on this project. That's in addition to other MGMT240 coursework. Now, I've said "on average". If you and your team do not get started on this right away, then you will find yourself with very busy holiday weekends which always seem to come at the end of the semester, causing you much anguish and recrimination. It wouldn't make me happy either because the quality of your paper will suffer. It is fundamentally impossible for you to do a good job on this project if you wait until late in the semester to really get started, because key people will not return your phone calls on short notice. So please, heed the advice of past students who have successfully completed projects before you: START EARLY!

For your reference, here is an example of a past paper that received an A.