Administrivia
Instructor Eric Kansa
Email: ekansa@ischool.berkeley.edu
Website: http://isd.ischool.berkeley.edu/person/ekansa.html
Office number: +1-510-6434757
Course Description
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of developing information service consulting and project management. The course focuses on ways to apply theoretical and conceptual knowledge to real world problem solving and project development. The course will explore ways to tailor project management strategies for different contexts, emphasizing approaches for smaller, entrepreneurial settings. Students will work in small teams on real projects that will deployed and maintained by the University or other organizations. Guest lecturers will share their experiences on everything from working with clients, ethnographic and other approaches toward understanding user and stakeholder needs, proposing and planning projects, and managing the chaos of project revisions, course corrections, and requirements changes. Students are strongly encouraged to see projects through development and completion by also taking the Spring semester part of this course.
Text Books:
Scott Berkum (2005), The Art of Project Management. O’Reilly Media
Rick Freedman (2000), The IT Consultant: A Commonsense Framework for Managing the Client Relationship. Pfeiffer
Course Information
Course Dates: August 27 to December 10, 2007
Lecture Schedule: 4:00pm-6:00pm in 202 South Hall
Units: 2
Grading Option: Letter Grade only
Grading Option: Pass/Not Pass only
Course Work
August 27 : Monday
This introductory lecture gives students an overview of the Clinic and how the Clinic articulates with the Master's Program Final Project requirement. The induction will include a brief overview of the projects that the Clinic is organizing, as well as an introduction to the people and organizations involved in Clinic instruction and project collaborations.
Required Readings
Berkun 2005: Preface, Chapter 1
Freedman 2000: Preface, Chapter 1
Resources
September 10 : Monday
Information Services and Consulting Part 1
This session will introduce students to consulting services. It will outline some key structural changes that have encouraged the growth of consulting and outsourced services.
Required Readings
Freedman 2000: 25-42
See links required papers
Recommended Readings
Krishnamurthy Subramanian (2006) "Firm Boundaries in the New Economy: Theory and Evidence"
Resources
September 17 : Monday
Information Services and Consulting Part 2
This session cotinues the introduction to consulting services. It will outline some key characteristics of consulting, and how these characteristics help to shape the behavior and goals of consulting service providers and clients.
Required Readings
Freedman 2000: 25-42
See links to papers below.
Resources
September 24 : Monday
This lecture will be given by a Thor Muller, a guest lecturer. Thor Muller is CEO and Co-founder of Satisfaction, a startup delivering "people-powered customer service for absolutely everything." He is also the co-founder and former Managing Director of Rubyred Labs, a San Francisco-based web apps firm. Thor will talk about his experiences working on both the service provider and service consumer sides of technology consulting. Thor is taking these experiences with service engagements to help inform the development of new community tools to provide customer service.
Required Readings
Berkun 2005: Chapter 9
Freedman 2000: Chapter 2
Resources
October 1 : Monday
Cultivating Startup Innovation in the Big Enterprise
This lecture will be given by a John Kutz, a guest lecturer. John Kutz is a Senior Manager at Deloitte and Touche, LLP. John specializes in cultivating innovation and developing new markets, and he will be discussing the challenges consultants face in encouraging dynamism and change in large, complex organizations.
Required Readings
Berkun 2005: Chapter 12, 13
Freedman 2000: Chapter 4, 5
Resources
October 8 : Monday
October 15 : Monday
October 22 : Monday
Value and Price in Consulting Engagements: Theory and Practice
Explores how to signal quality, how to negotatiate and set prices and how to determine value in a consulting engagement. Will draw from economic theory and practical "field" experience.
Required Readings
TBA
Freedman 2000: Chapter 10
Resources
October 29 : Monday
Negotiating Project Scope and Requirements
Projects need to have well defined boundaries and a project's stakeholders need to agree on a common understanding about what is inside and outside of a given project. Defining requirements is a related activity, and involves specifying user, business, functional, and process goals. Managing and communicating expectations is a key to project success. Magan Arthur, a consultant specializing in managing organizational media, discusses experiences in developing strategies for institutional repositories.
Required Readings
Berkun 2005: Chapter 7, 8
Freedman 2000: Chapter 7, 8
Resources
November 5 : Monday
Make your Project Management strategy fit your circumstances
Ed Bice (CEO Meadan.org) discusses project management from his experience leading a small group of developers that works closely with large development teams in major commercial enterprises.
Required Readings
Berkun 2005: Chapter 10, 11
TBA
Resources
November 19 : Monday
Project Management Tools and Frameworks
Project Managment is often a very eleaborate process. Some approaches involve sophisticated modeling and analytic processes, while other project managment strategies are far more simple and less formalized. We explore this landscape because a good interfacing into your client's a project managment framework may will improve communication with your clients. We'll look at different ways project managment processes are organized, including the approaches used by UC Berkeley's enterprise computing staff. We'll also look at less formal ways for coordinating project development, including the popular Web based tool, Basecamp.
Required Readings
Berkun 2005: Chapter 12
UC Berkeley Project Management Primer
Resources
November 26 : Monday
Project Controlling, Organization: Managing Complexity
Projects are dynamic activities that take place in ever changing environments. Once project teams, scopes, and requirements are defined, and once schedules and milestones are developed, the landscape often shifts and everything needs to be readjusted to accomodate new realities. Managing complexity and making progress while adapting to new circumstances is a common need in many projects.
Required Readings
Berkun 2005: Chapter 13, 14
TBA
Resources
December 3 : Monday
Pair project teams to review requirements and plans, give feedback before final project management plan is prepared next week.
Required Readings
Berkun 2005: Chapter 15, 16
TBA
Resources
December 10 :
Presentation and Group Discussion of Project Plans
Finally! By this point your projects should be on a firm foundation with a clearly defined scope, requirements, team, schedule and implementation strategy. It's time to share your experience, get ideas, and get ready for following through on your planning and development work.
Resources
last updated on Fall 2007 by ekansa