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Course Goals:- Each student will
Understand a structured way to analyze and improve the performance of systems (where to start, what to do, when, who to involve, how much, why, and how), and
Be able to apply a variety of systems tools and methods to aid in understanding and communicating the performance improvement process and to achieve improvement.
Specifically, be able to apply hard systems, soft systems, and systems failure methodologies, to a practical situation in his or her work site or community.
Presentation of analytical approaches to comprehending systems. Focus is on powerful techniques for solving problems of managing people and for understanding their behavior in organizations. The examples of well-known systems failures and catastrophes are used to illustrate systems analysis. Case studies of manufacturing companies, municipal government, and a nuclear power plant are investigated. Techniques delineated include systems diagraming, boundary setting and systems modeling.
Prerequisite: BMGT 110 or equivalent. This course is intended for students who have successfully completed general education courses. You should complete a writing course (ENGL 101 or ENGL 391) or have equivalent writing experience before enrolling.
This course is an upper division elective in the Business and Management, General Curriculum degree program.
Let's have some FUN. I hope you like to draw pictures. (I can't draw either, but I like to try.) This course is about the process of improving the performance of systems. We seek to understand the process so well that we can actually implement the process successfully. And since we have a six credit hour course, we will get a chance to practice what we have learned! In doing that, we learn to visualize as well as verbalize problems. Yes, we draw a lot of diagrams and pictures and charts and ... .
Everyone talks about improvement -- but actually achieving it remains a "black art" to many who nonetheless advocate the concept of continuous improvement. Let's find out HOW TO DO IT using a process of discovery.
For those of you with a computer or information systems background, this course provides a "super-set" of your Systems Analysis course. Computer Systems Analysis seeks to understand and translate real world problems into a logic and processes that can be modeled within a computer systems approach. TMGT 411 looks more broadly at modeling problems too complex to solve even with a collection of models running on super computers. The key tool this course adds to most analyst's arsenal is soft systems analysis.
Please remember that this is a six semester hour course. To receive credit for completing TMGT-411 you must complete both theoretical and practical application sides of the course. It is not possible to take just half this course (or get just 3 semester hours of credit). The power of systems tools and thinking only reveals itself when you apply it to a knotty, real world problem. I will guide you through that Case Study process.
This course is frankly "BYOC" - Bring Your Own Case. Before registering for this course you should have in mind a tough, real world problem, typically involving people, in your own experience, that you want help solving. Chronic organizational problems are good candidates here (for example, a seeming death spiral of deteriorating performance, a succession of quick fixes that are no more than band-aids treating symptoms of deep-seated ills, constant changes in leadership, micro-management / over-control, a culture of distrust within the work site, long hours of "overtime" and re-work, no joy in the work, etc.) I am sure you can see the long term professional benefits of being able to work through such problems efficiently and effectively. There are personal benefits as well.
It is best if you are living and working through the problem that you study as you are taking this course -- you can then see immediate benefits in terms of added insights and an improved ability to both view and communicate the entire problem-solution set holistically. (Recognize that solutions - lasting, valid and reliable solutions - are difficult to identify.) Moreover, you can confirm facts and understandings with co-workers and bosses to minimize personal bias in the models you will build.
This course runs along four parallel tracks each supporting the others. I have labelled them herein as Tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4. Track 1-3 are the individual responsibility of each student. Without fail, check the WebTycho assignments area for each track every week.
Track 1 is largely reading and study assignments;
Track 2 is the course project where you apply what you have learned to your own case;
Track 3 is your weekly individual assignment track; and,
Track 4 is your small group assignment where you share and explore what you have learned with other students.
How Do Tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4 Interact?
Along Track 1, you will focus on the work of others in this field. You study what others have written - cases they have recorded or devised. First we learn how to describe systems and processes in different ways with primary emphasis on the visual modeling of organizational problems. Alan Waring's Practical Systems Thinking is our key theoretical text. He provides a highly condensed look at Systems Thinking, an introduction to diagraming, places our three key methodologies (hard and soft systems and systems failure) in perspective and uses case studies to aid our understanding.
Ruth Carter's small but jam-packed book Systems, Management and Change supplements Waring particularly in soft systems.
Overlapping this look at the tools and theory, but also on Track 1, we are going to learn how to tell interesting and I hope enjoyable stories about management. We have a great model in Eliyahu Goldratt's The Goal. But as good as Goldratt's widely acclaimed novel about process improvement in a manufacturing plant is, we will add something. That something we borrow from Waring and Carter -- pictures, diagrams, charts and graphs. With those tools, I hope to help those of you who have never analyzed manufacturing - or even thought of doing so - see how the lessons learned can apply to any organized activity - offices, sports teams, volunteer groups, disaster recovery, retails sales - literally any organized activity.
Never far from our minds or fingers in this course is Track 2 -- our practicum -- our fish bowl in which you and I will explore relationships, processes and systems (with you as the guide of course). Early in the course, you will decide which activity from your current or recent personal experience you are going to use as a case study for this course project. For starters, the situation must be from your own personal experience, you must be able to provide plenty of relevant detail about this case and it must be something you are comfortable sharing in an academic environment with "strangers." (For more details see the full course description.)
You will have four important assignments starting with the project proposal and ending with an implementation plan, each integrating narrative description and graphical presentation. I will grade and critique each part and approve your moving on to the next stage. (For more details see the full course description.)
Track 3 is your personal support track where each week you practice discrete techniques or methods of systems diagramming, analysis and presentation throughout the course. Here you have individual assignments to analyze aspects of your own workplaces (and hence contribute to Track 2 understanding and progress) as well as assignments to diagram aspects of our readings in Track 1.
Track 4 is your small group support track. Here we have small group assignments to analyze aspects of our Track 1 assignments, to diagram them and share them and discuss them with a small group of fellow classmates. Concensus comments and diagrams will be shared with the whole class.
Back on Track 1, in the last part of the course we examine an example of hard systems analysis - Richard Swanson's Analysis for Improving Performance. Swanson emphasizes the importance of "people policies" in improving performance. He uses a number of systems methods and models in the process and thus provides us with good food for thought. Swanson emphasizes properly understanding the job to be done and the skills needed to be successful in advance of implementing a performance improvement plan.
Our next book on Track 1 covers a familiar hard systems model - Weiss and Wysocki's 5-Phase Project Management. If you have not had a project management course, this book will be an invaluable guide both for the evaluation of other's plans and the construction of your own on Track 2. If you have had such a course, Weiss and Wysocki offer an excellent review.
Your final book on Track 1 will be a special selection. See the Supplemental Book discussion below.
Dr. W. Edwards Deming echoed the often stated belief that work should be fun. How many of us find it anything but fun? I want you to enjoy this course because you will both learn and remember the lessons much better. I hope this course does sound like fun to you. Let's enjoy the exploration together. (For more details see the full course description.)
Systems Management & Change: A Graphic Guide, Ruth Carter, et. al. Paul Chapman Publishing, London and The Open University: 1984. (1-85396-059-4) <SM>
The Goal , E. Goldratt. N. River, 1992. (0-88427-061-0 ) <TG>
Analysis for Improving Performance by Swanson . (1-57675-001-9) <AI>
Practical Systems Thinking by Alan Waring (0-412-71750-6 ) <PS>
5-Phase Project Management by Weiss and Wysocki. Addison-Wesley-Longman (0-201-56316-9) <5P>
Supplemental Book : I want every student to read one more book on systems management during the four months we have together. See Book List Index & Links for suggestions - Systems Performance / Management for starters, but see also Complexity in Management, Business Process Re-engineering, Project & Program Management, and the Change Management titles in Strategic & Change Management. You may choose one of these or any other YOU HAVE NOT READ BEFORE. Just get my approval by Week Five of the term. I want us all reading different books. Selection is first come, first served. You can do a search on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or Internet Bookshop, etc. to find other titles.Then, during the last month of the course, I want you to share with the rest of the class a critical analysis of the major ideas you have gained from your supplemental book. In the sharing I want you to use systems tools and methods to give us insights into the core of the author's thinking and its relevance to our prior class discussions and this course. (See suggested sources.)
You should have no problem getting through these interesting and thought-provoking books by week 13. Your Track 2 papers are due every 3-4 weeks. Track 3 and 4 assignments have weekly deadlines.
Our On-Line, Take Home, Open Book Final Exam will be completed within a 48-hour period during Week 15 (which essentially coincides with Week 7 of Term 2 of the UM classroom courses).
During the course I periodically ask you to find and report on articles or extended observations of real world activity related to our discussions and assignments. This serves to relate the theory in our books to the practice in the world around us and involve you more directly in exploring all the topics.
What articles might you see? Have you seen any articles on mergers or acquisitions lately? What about companies or countries having difficult financial problems? Were there any interviews on TV or radio with successful managers? What did they reveal about improving system performance? Have you visited any stores lately that need to improve their performance? Create one or a series of systems diagrams and share them with the class.
This is your chance to develop new skills and tools for the start of the next century. Let's make the most of it.
This UM Distance Education course is delivered via a combination of WebTycho on the UM Tycho site on the WWW and email with attachments exchanged directly between classmembers. All course documentation and policies can be found on my web site (right here). Just follow the "Yellow Brick Road."
I NEED YOU TO TELL ME WHEN YOU HAVE PROBLEMS either with the delivery method or the course content. I am also interested in your reaction to the material as you read it. To that end, in addition to raising problems and issues as they occur (which I hope you will freely do), I want you to keep a journal of your progress through this course. This is neither a make work nor onerous requirement. (See guidance which supplements the full course syllabus.)
This practical, discovery class depends upon active, consistent student involvement. There will be both individual and small group work. In addition to studying the assigned texts, you must satisfactorily demonstrate an understanding of course concepts as you complete the following:
a. Weekly assignments to be shared and critiqued with other students.
1) Discussions and comments shared in small groups (via WebTycho and email) as part of a small group assignment.
2) Finding and sharing at least one article or extended observation every 2-3 weeks with your small group. This observation or article report is to be supported with at least one systems graphic.
3) Completing individual assignments as shown in the Schedule and Assignments Sheet.
b. A Journal on your reactions to and progress through this course submitted monthly.
c. A four-part , sequenced Term Project. (Completion required to receive credit for this course.)
d. A critical analysis of a selected supplemental book.
e. An on-line, take-home, open-book and -personal notes (but no other person) final exam.
f. Additionally, you will serve as small group discussion leader and Recorder at least once during the course.
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Weekly Assignments & Class Discussion: |
18% |
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Journal Reports: |
5% |
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Book Analysis: |
7% |
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*** Term Project : |
40% |
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Final Exam: |
30% |
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Total: |
100% |
*** Substantial completion of Term Project required for award of passing grade for the course.
Learning Methods: This distance learning course has very broad guidelines. It is offered in asynchronous format so that you can study on your own and join the class as and when you can. But this does not mean you can skip a month -- or even a week or two -- and make it up later. Remember, CONSISTENT, QUALITY participation and effort are essential if both you and the class as a whole are the reach our goals.
In a 6-semester hour classroom course you could expect to spend 18 hours each week in class or studying. I want you to commit yourself to 14+ hours each week for this course for the next four months. (We do have a short term break in late October.)
We spend the first week to ten days establishing reliable communications, allowing for books to get to students who registered late, and practicing class procedures on WebTycho and email. If you have your texts, get acquainted with them. Survey the holdings of your library < whatever facilities you have> and email me the grim news. Check out on-line libraries and review their holdings; see Useful URLs / Links. Start your journal and make weekly or more frequent entries which chronicle your journey through this course. Arrange to review and study any texts you do not have. (Order them from a bookstore if necessary.)
Within broad guidelines, you are in control of this course. During the first week of the course, I will need you to consider and share with each other what is needed for this course to be a high quality learning experience for you. In addition, I need you to share with the group what your personal and professional goals are in taking this course. To the extent possible, I wish to arrive at a consensus on these goals and determine how you and I can, with relative objectivity, know you have achieved these goals. Where the class can demonstrate a need, I will adjust the assignments and evaluation instruments.
I intend to spend most of my time answering your questions and engaging in both small and large group discussion on questions and some of the less obvious concepts in the readings. But you will control this.
Bring your questions to our electronic discussion on WebTycho during the first and every week of class. I will share them with all the students and answer them. During that first week we will explore your vision of this course and show ourselves how we can accomplish our goals.
Come to class and help yourself and others understand how to improve the performance of systems.
Revised 25 July 1999
Phil Richardson; prichard@faculty.ed.umuc.edu