Research and Development Methodology

Code 2157 (7.5 ECTS credits), Autumn 2004

Aim and Structure

This course focuses on fundamental techniques for understanding and managing research and development projects, particularly software development, consulting and implementation projects. The course is structured in three parts.

The first part of the course deals with finding, validating and efficiently utilizing existing information, and with developing new knowledge in a scientific way. It is, in practice, very much focused on things that you need to know in order to write your master's thesis. The second part deals with project managment, as applied both to research and development projects, particularly in the software field. The third part is strongly focused on the Unified Modeling Language (UML), which has emerged as the dominant way of describing processes, systems, and software.

Parts II and II are, in essence, literature exams, with some supporting lectures for your convenience. Part I has no literature, and no exam, but requires a series of written case papers, and a term-paper type project plan / literature review. Note that in the calendar, part I is spread over the entire term.

Prerequisites

In order to attend this course, you either have to be a student in the Program in Advanced Financial Information Systems, or be accepted individually as a participant by the examiner. Reasonably senior accounting, information systems, and PIB exchange students will generally be accepted as long as there is space available, but do please contact the examiner first.

Cases

As an integrated part of Part I, in lieu of literature and examinations, you will be asked to submit, present and discuss five cases. The case assignments will typically be scientific papers to review and analyze, or perhaps a search-and-retrieve exercise using the scientific databases. Specific instructions will be given at the lecture the week before, and you will need to submit your work as web pages on your Pafis home pages. The case analyses should be done in groups of two persons. Every week, some, but not all, of the teams will be asked to briefly present the case and their analysis of it, and everybody will join in the discussion! The case analyses will be graded at between 0 and 4 points each, for a maximum of 20 points total for this element.

Project plan / Literature review

A scientific research project, like an M.Sc. thesis, begins with a project plan, followed by a search for and review of the current state of the scientific knowledge that is directly relevant with respect to the research objective. This part of the research process is substantially identical to that with which a software, product or process development project begins. It is thus important to master it as a prelude to a succesful thesis project, followed by a successful career that involves software, products, processes or projects!

Consequently, a major part of this course consists of a project, where you will - individually - select a topic, present a project proposal, perform a search for scientific literature and write a review of the state of scientific knowledge pertaining to your chosen topic. The project proposals, and the literature reviews, will be presented and discussed in class. Based on the feedback, the final version of the literature review should be submitted by January 17th, 2005. This project, as a whole, will be graded with between 0 and 32 points, and you need to get at least 16 points in order to pass the course. Detailed instructions will be given in class.

Literature

Part II

• Futrell, Shafer & Shafer: Quality Software Project Management (Prentice Hall 2002). Chapters 1, 3-5, 7-12, 14-28, 30-31 and 33.

  • Publisher's pages
  • Hanken library record

Part III

• Larman: Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and the Unified Process, 2nd ed. (Prentice Hall 2001).

  • Publisher's pages (alternative pages)
  • Book site
  • Hanken library record

Schedule

Mo 10.1.2005 Exam part II and/or III
Sa 12.2.2005 Exam part II and/or III
Sa 12.3.2005 Exam part II and/or III

Please note that the schedule is subject to changes and extensions.

The three examinations after the lectures have passed are standard exam dates, supervised by the study office for a lot of courses on the same day. You need to register in advance for these, using the school's web-based system. The examination on November 9th is arranged internally for this particular course, and you do not need to register for this one. Just show up.

Examination and grading

The course will be graded based on written examinations, case work, and a literature review project of the term paper type.

The examination for the second part, comprising the literature specified under "Part II" above, will be worth 24 points. You need to get at least 12 points in order to pass. There will be an opportunity to take the examination for this part on Tuesday, November 9th, and then three exam opportunities after the lecture period when you can take any or several of the two parts.

The examination for the third part, comprising the literature specified under "Part III" above, will be worth 24 points. You need to get at least 12 points in order to pass. There will be an opportunity to take the examination for this part on the three exam opportunities after the lecture period, when you can take any or several of the two parts.

The five cases in Part I will be graded with between 0 and 4 points each, and you need to collect at least 10 out of 20 possible points in order to pass this block. The cases can and should be done in groups of two persons.

The final version of the literature review, as submitted by January 17th, 2005, will be graded as a whole together with the preliminary version and the project plan, and your presenations of these. This element is worth 32 points, and you need to get at least 16 in order to pass.

In order to pass the course, you consequently need to:

• pass the exam for part II with at least 12 points out of 24,

• pass the exam for part III with at least 12 points out of 24,

• submit, discuss, and possibly present the five cases and collect at least 10 points out of 20,

• submit and present the project plan and literature review, preliminary and final versions, and collect at least 16 points out of 32.

Your grade, on a scale of 1 (satisfactory) to 5 (excellent), will be based on your total points (between 50 and 100) on the standard linear scale.

Results

Ethics

We - the school, the faculty, and your fellow students - expect and require that you make a good-faith effort to do the required work in this course without cheating. Briefly: It is not considered okay to copy-paste from anywhere into work that you submit as your own, except under the very strict code governing the use of scientific citations and quotations. It is certainly not okay to use other people's work as such in the case submissions, with or without asking their permission. But on the other hand it is quite okay to discuss, compare, collaborate over glass of whatever - the cases are not a competitive sport! We will discuss this issue in the first lectures, and there will be more detailed guidelines and instructions in the case assignments. If, despite this, you feel that something is unclear regarding what goes and what doesn't, please ask the faculty directly.

Staying in touch

Please refer to the web pages for current contact information for the faculty. Ogan Yigitbasioglu handles most things of an administrative nature. Anders Tallberg does the lectures and is responsible for the course as the official examiner.

The web pages of the students attending the course are, of course, on the PAFIS web server. There is also an email list, meth04@pafis.shh.fi , which forwards mail to all the students attending this particular course, and of course to the faculty. Please feel free to use this one to communicate with fellow students regarding matters specific to this course. However, please also think twice before using it. Make sure that what you are mailing is both related to this course, and relevant to all participants. Questions regarding the exams, lectures, exercises and so on are perfectly all right; so are, for instance, tip-offs about useful and relevant web pages you've found. It should be obvious that off-topic stuff like advertisments, forwarded jokes, politics, or anything resembling spam is not okay at all. Abuse will be dealt with in a brutal and efficient manner.

Because this email list is also used to communicate possible changes in the schedule and other possibly urgent or important (or both) stuff, and because it works by sending mail to your @pafis.shh.fi email address, please make sure that you either read your mail on the pafis.shh.fi server regularly, or have it set up to forward your mail to a mailbox that you do read regularly.

All changes, instructions, updates, announcements and so on will of course be posted on the course pages on the PAFIS web site. Please note that this particular page - the main course page on the web - and in particular the schedule section is where you will find the links to lectures, readings, workshop assignments, exam results and everything related to this course.