| MIDS 409 System and Design Thinking Fall 2007 Information Systems Department Weatherhead School of Management Case Western Reserve University |
This course approaches the study of information systems through the lenses of systems thinking and design thinking, two skill sets that can be applied throughout management.
For over a half-century, the field of information systems has been studying the design, development, testing, and use of complex systems. Computers are just the start. The networks that connect them to create a massive communications grid, the software that runs on them, and the impact of these artifacts on organizations has each generated a large body of knowledge. Two modes of thinking have proven particularly valuable in making sense of these developments—system thinking and design thinking. The need to deal with ever more complex systems became apparent during the two world wars. Many of the systems developed to aid in the war effort, particularly those that integrated people and technologies, could not be completely understood using the tools of analysis. Breaking a complex system down into its components—which we have been taught to do since childhood—only takes us so far. To understand the system’s purpose and the dynamics that keep it functioning requires another kind of thinking. Drawing on ideas from biology and holistic psychology, systems thinking provided principles and tools to aid in understanding such purposeful systems. In the third edition of The Sciences of the Artificial, published in 1996, Herbert Simon expressed concern that design had been driven from the curricula of professional schools, including business schools. “The professional schools can reassume their professional responsibilities just to the degree that they discover and teach a science of design, a body of intellectually tough, analytic, partly formalizable, partly empirical, teachable doctrine about the design process (p. 113).” In the years since, progress has been made in understanding design and design thinking. Successful designers develop skills that allow them to work on poorly structured problems. These are problems for which there is no definitive formulation and the particular formulation chosen affects the solution. Further, there’s no explicit way to know when you are done, and solutions are not necessarily correct or incorrect. These are known as “wicked problems” and the world presents managers with more and more of them all the time. Computer applications are among the most complex things humans have devised. In this course we will use experiences developed through designing and implementing computer solutions for organizations to explore these two modes of thinking. But the overarching goal of the course will be to develop skills in systems thinking and design thinking that can be applied to all aspects of managing. We will achieve these broad objectives by developing some specific skills. In the course of the semester you’ll gain experience in:- Making and using systems maps to think about complex situations
- Applying a systematic approach to project planning and execution
- Developing and evaluating principles for the use of information technology
- Evaluating and improving business cases for information systems projects
- Developing an historical perspective on technology and business
- Using the Internet and other resources for ongoing professional development
- Analyzing and presenting complex information
- Sketching
- Using design principles to improve products, services, processes and procedures
- Making presentations
- Working in groups
Text and materials
William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler, Universal Principles of Design, Rockport Publishers, 2003.
Most of the articles and cases we will use are available free on the Internet. A few cases and articles are reproduced in a course pack that is available for purchase.Evaluation
- Contribution to discussions 10%
- Four individual exercises 20%
- Midterm exam 20%
- Group—Technology talk 10%
- Group—design project 40%
Contribution
This is a discussion-based course. Discussion pedagogy is considered effective when the educational objectives include the development of qualities of mind (curiosity, judgment, wisdom), qualities of person (character, sensitivity, integrity, responsibility), and the ability to apply general concepts and knowledge to specific situations. Most issues in organizations, including those around the use of information technology, do not present themselves in neat packages with clear boundaries. Nor do they arrive with pre-defined decision or design criteria.
Discussion has the advantage that it puts both students and professors in an active learning mode. It challenges each of us to accept substantial responsibility for our own learning and it gives us first-hand appreciation of, and experience with, the application of knowledge to practice. You are encouraged to draw upon your knowledge and experience to build, test and modify management theories that you can then make your own.
For some class meetings I provide suggestions for preparing. While I do not ask you to hand these in, I do find that the discussions are richer and more productive when you do these exercises in written form as part of preparing. In any case you are expected to prepare for the discussion whether you use my method or some other. If you wish to post the material you prepare to Blackboard, you may do so and I will consider them when assigning contribution scores at the end of the semester.
The quality of your input, both in the classroom and online, is more important than the quantity.
Academic integrity
All students are expected to adhere to university standards of academic integrity. Cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty are not tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, consulting with another person during an exam, turning in written work that was prepared by someone other than you, and making minor modifications to the work of someone else and turning it in as your own. Ignorance will not be permitted as an excuse.
If you are not sure whether something you plan to submit would be considered either cheating or plagiarism, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification. When your name appears on a group product for a class, you are responsible for the integrity of the work, even if you did not personally write the offending material. Either ask me about it or consult credible sources of information on the subject.
Two useful Internet sites are Indiana University's guidelines for avoiding plagarism and UNC's citation guidelines. Please remember that you have agreed to Standards of Academic Integrity which outlines your responsibility in greater detail.
Individual exercises
Select four of the following exercises to complete individually during the course of the semester. These should be brief, typically a couple of pages. You may turn them in whenever you wish. You may resubmit them until you are satisfied with your error and the assigned grade.
Exploring design principles
Identify a design that you think is exceptionally good. It can be a product, service, experience or process. Ideally it will be from an area of management that interests you. Write a brief description explaining why the design appeals to you. Identify which of the Universal Principles of Design described in the text are captured in the design. Write about how they are realized and how important you think they are to the success of the design.
Employing observation to improve a design
Observe several people who are making use of the product, service, experience or process that you have identified. Make detailed observations about their experience. At another time, and only after you have made your own observations, go back and interview them about their experience of the product. Discuss the differences.
Generating alternatives
Using one of the cases that you have studied in this or another of your classes, generate at least three alternative solutions to a problem that you have identified. Try to devise alternatives that are quite different from one another.
System mapping
Identify a complex situation that you have faced at work, studied in another class, or from an article in a newspaper or magazine. Try to select a situation that exhibits some feedback. Make a map that provides insight into the dynamics of the situation.
Sketching
Produce a sketch or series of sketches to make sense of a complex idea or relationship that you are exploring in one of your other classes.
Developing a brief
Develop a compelling brief for a project you would like to do. This can be one you intend to propose to your group for this course, something for another class, or something you’d like to achieve in your professional future.
Improving a graphic
Find a graphic that you think could be better designed to represent its information. Drawing on design principles make improvements in the graphic and describe the reasons for your changes and which principles applied.
Design principles lab book
Using your copy of the text, make notes that related the principles presented there to things you learn throughout the semester.
Case write-up
For any of the case discussions, write up an analysis of the issues that are raised by the case. These should be submitted at the start of class on the day the case is discussed.
Group projects
You will work in your learning teams on two projects.
Technology talk
During the middle part of the semester each team will give a talk on an emerging technology. Your goal in these talks should be to help us all develop an understanding of the technology and some sense about its practical prospects for the relatively near-term future. You will have a half hour to present material and answer questions. Your presentation materials will be posted on this site after the talk so that we can continue to refer to them should we wish to dig deeper. There is no requirement that everyone in the group actually talk during the presentation; choose a format that works for the material and the group.
Design project
Identify a product, service, process or organizational structure (a system) that could benefit from design thinking. It can be something existent that your find inadequate or something new that you imagine is possible given developing technologies and markets.
If you are working from an existing system spend some time exploring what is wrong with the current version and envisioning ways of responding to the deficiencies. If you are designing something new, envision use scenarios that give a sense of its utility and qualities.
Once your team has a sense of the opportunity that your design creates, write a brief describing it in a few pages. This will serve as a guiding document for the rest of the project, so the promised pay-off should be as clearly described as possible. What about your design makes it worth investing time and energy in? Why should others be interested in helping you? A copy of the brief should be turned in by October 9.
Once you have a brief, involve others in your design process. If the system is based on something that already exists, use observation to flesh out details about how others use it and how general the problems that motivated your design initiative are. If it is a new system, use sketches, storyboards, prototypes and similar techniques to learn how people respond to it.
Reporting on your project can take a wide variety of forms. In choosing which to use, keep in mind that your time here represents an opportunity to take risks and try new things in the interest of personal development and learning. So, I encourage you to try something that is a little beyond your immediate comfort zone. This advice applies both to the content and the form of your project.
Projects will be placed on the course website, so you should write a brief introduction to what the viewer will find when they retrieve it. In addition, you will have an opportunity to provide a brief overview to the class. Making such “pitches” is a valuable skill to develop. One of the questions that experienced venture people often ask is “what’s the elevator version of your presentation sound like?” If you had the ride from the first to the 20th floor to sell your project to (insert your favorite business person here), what would you say?
Examples of design projects include: