Sequence of Activities

You should use the following sequence of activities when undertaking your project: Preliminary Stages

Preliminary work should be undertaken prior to registering for the planning course.
Discuss your preliminary ideas with the faculty member with recognized expertise in your selected area of work (your specialization).
Invite a faculty member to become your project supervisor.
Complete the Project Idea Approval Form, including a brief (maximum 1 page) description of your idea and a preliminary timeline, submit this to your supervisor, and obtain approval of the idea (Approval is indicated by his/her signature on the Project Idea Approval Form).
Obtain approval from the MSIS Program Coordinator and have him sign the form.
Important: You will not be able to register for INFS 788: Planning without these approvals.
With your supervisor’s help, select your project committee. A committee includes your project supervisor and a minimum of two other individuals, one of whom must be another MSIS faculty member. You may also select faculty members outside of the MSIS program and external reviewers when appropriate.

Project planning and design

Register for INFS 788: Project Planning. Design your project and prepare the written plan. The Project Plan is the resulting product of the planning stage. It describes what you are going to do, what your project is all about. It includes information on the problem you have identified, research (a literature search) you have undertaken about this problem and how it is being approached by others. It describes how you plan to solve the problem, i.e., your approach or plan of action. And it includes a description of the anticipated deliverables, e.g., program, database. The plan is a detailed document that includes the following sections and information:

Complete the Project Idea Approval Form. This must include a brief (maximum 1 page) description of your idea and a preliminary timeline. Submit this form to your supervisor, and obtain approval of the idea. (Approval is indicated by his/her signature on the Project Idea Approval Form).
Statement of problem or question

This answers WHY?
What problem have you identified and are addressing in this project?
Include a review of the current situation (or literature review) to answer what is going on in this area or discipline now.

Objectives (Goals, purpose)

This answers WHAT?
What do you plan to achieve?
What is the desired outcome of this project?
This describes what you are going to do. The next section describes how you will do it.

Scope of the Project (Scope of work, Plan of action, Activities)

This answers HOW?
Describe how you plan to achieve the objectives; discuss the activities you have identified that will help reach your desired result. These are the specific activities you will undertake to solve the problem or meet your objectives. Include here the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt Chart.
Here you describe how your project or idea will differ or improve on what is being done and how you intend to accomplish this.

Deliverables

Describe what you will actually have once you have completed your project. For example, this could be a database, a website, a program, etc. Be specific.

Committee colloquium and approvals

Arrange a meeting time with your committee at which you will present your Project Plan.
Obtain approval of your project plan from your project committee (Approval is signaled by their signatures on the Proposal Plan Approval Form).
You will receive credit (grade) for the planning stage based upon your plan and presentation.

Implementation stage

Important: You will not be able to register for INFS 788: Implementation without signature approval of your Proposal Plan Approval Form.
Register for INFS 788 Information Systems Project – Implementation (2 credit hours.)
Work on the project following your plan.
Meet regularly (in person or electronically) with your supervisor to enable him/her to monitor progress on the project and provide feedback before the final presentation.
Keep your committee informed of significant milestones or program modifications.
Complete your project, develop your deliverables, reach your conclusions and write your report.

The project report

While the plan described what you were going to do, the report tells what you actually did. You will build upon the written plan. Refer to the Project Guidelines to see how the report should be written and what must be included.

Presentation

You are expected to make a formal presentation on your project at its completion.
The project should be presented at least one week prior to the beginning of finals week each semester.
Your project supervisor will facilitate the presentation, reserving an appropriate location and equipment.
The Graduate Office will announce the presentation to MSIS students and faculty.
The presentation may be off-site to accommodate any special needs, but there must also be an on-campus presentation to which faculty and students are invited.
During the on-campus presentations you are not required to divulge proprietary information.
Please view a sample presentation recorded in Windows Media.
If the project presentation contains proprietary information, and you intend to require your committee and any audience present to sign a non-disclosure agreement, you must inform the committee in advance so they can determine the best course of action.

Approvals

You must make any edits or changes to your project report required by your team. If you cannot complete the revisions in the semester in which you are registered for the implementation phase, you must register again for INFS 788: Continuation. You will not be certified for graduation until your project has been formally approved.

Prepare your final written report, incorporating all suggested edits and modifications, in accordance with the instructions from the project format, style and preparation guidelines.
Submit it to your committee for approval.
Have the final report format approved by your project supervisor.

Printing and archiving project

Please see the How to Print and Bind MSIS Project page . You also must complete the Binding Request Form at Karl Mundt Library before having your project printed.

Evaluation

Your project will be evaluated on several factors, including how well the project actually integrates what student’s are expected to have learned in their other core courses, how well the completed project meets the objectives identified for the project, and how well it meets the course objectives. If the project is implemented, evaluation will include how successful the project is in solving the identified problem or meeting the identified need.