Syllabus

IS 613 Design of Emergency Management Information Systems

Instructor: Murray Turoff, turoff@njit.eu
!tt":##is.njit.eu#turoff
$rere%uisites
An undergraduate degree in Management, Engineering, Computing, or one of the Social
Sciences, with an ability to implement a personal website and understanding of how to
use HTML for that purpose. Also an undergraduate course in probability and statistics.
Students should be accepted into a graduate program or a certificate program at !"T in
order register for the course.
&atalog Descri"tion
This course is concerned with the de#elopment of re$uirements, the design of the human
interaction, and the supporting functionality of any "nformation System related to the
complete preparedness lifecycle for emergency, disaster, and crisis situations for
go#ernment bodies, non profit, and%or pri#ate organi&ations that are concerned with
business continuity. The components of the iterati#e and continuous emergency lifecycle
are planning, mitigation, training, alerting, response, reco#ery, and assessment. "t will
also focus on human and organi&ational beha#ior in this en#ironment and how it
influences both the functionality of the system and the approach to the human interface.
The relationships between systems ser#ing the different phases of the lifecycle and the
needs for integration and coordination across the phases of the process are addressed.
'!en (ill t!e course first be offere)
At least once a year in both face to face and online mode.
*bjecti+es of t!e &ourse
To pro#ide a core course for a proposed Masters in Emergency Management and
'usiness Continuity. To pro#ide in the educational program an area that reflects current
(esearch and )e#elopment acti#ities in the "nformation Systems )epartment.
,or (!om is t!e course intene)
*or "S students and students in any other field such as Management, Engineering,
Computing in general, and the Social Sciences who might ha#e an interest because of the
sub+ect or the +ob opportunities it offers.
-eason for "rere%uisites
To insure the students can moc, up a Human Computer "nterface -HC". design and that
they are ready to read and comprehend professional papers.
Te.tboo/s an -eferences
/
0arl E. 1eic, and 0athleen M. Sutcliffe, Managing the 2ne3pected4 Assuring High
5erformance "n An Age of Comple3ity, 2ni#ersity of Michigan 'usiness School
Management Series, !ohn 1iley and Sons, 677/.
Snyder, Carolyn, 5aper 5rototyping, The fast and easy way to design and refine user
interfaces, Morgan 0aufmann series in "nteracti#e Technologies, Else#ier, 6778.
*ree draft boo, chapters on4 The )esign and E#aluation of "nformation Systems, located
at http4%%web.n+it.edu%9turoff%coursenotes%C"S:86%boo,%tablecon.htm
-e%uire "rofessional "a"er reaings 0only about !alf of t!ese (ill be re%uire
reaing for t!e masters stuents1:
Carroll, !ohn M., *i#e (easons for Scenario )esign, 86 H"CSS Conference 5roceedings,
/;;;.
Clemons, E.0., 2sing scenario analysis to manage the strategic ris,s of reengineering,
Sloan Management (e#iew, /;;<, =/>:/.
?an den Eede, @., 0enis, )., and ?an de 1alle, '., Combining fle3ibility and
reliability for mainstream organi&ational learning, 5roceedings of the <th European
Conference on 0nowledge Management EC0M677A -5aris, *rance, September 677A.,
B</ CC B=7.
?an den Eede, @., ?an de 1alle, '., (u,t,ows,i, Anne>*rancoise, )ealing with (is, in
"ncident Management4 an application of High (eliability Theory, 5roceedings of the 8;th
Hawaii "nternational Conference on System Sciences, 677=, !anuary A>=.
@o, 0entaro, and Carroll, !. M., The 'lind Men and the Elephant4 ?iews of Scenario>
'ased System )esign, "nteractions, -D".=., o#ember>)ecember 677A, A<><8.
Hilt&, S.(., *+ermestad, !., Ec,er, (. and Turoff, M. Asynchronous ?irtual Teams4 Can
software tools and structuring of Social 5rocesses enhance performanceF Chapter for
?olume ""4 Human Computer "nteraction in Management "nformation Systems4
Applications, )ennis @alletta, and 5ing Ghang, 677=.
Huarantelli, E. L., The )isaster (esearch Center *ield Studies of Ergani&ational
'eha#ior in the Crisis Time 5eriod of )isasters, "nternational !ournal of Mass
Emergencies and )isasters, /<-/., /;;:, A:>=;.
(ut,ows,i, A. *., '. #an de 1alle and @erd #an den Eede, The effect of @roup Support
Systems on the Emergence of 2ni$ue "nformation in a (is, Management 5rocess4 A
field study, 5roceedings of the 8;th H"CSS Conference, 677=
6
'arry M. Staw, Lance E. Sandelands, and !ane E. )utton, Threat>(igidity Effects in
Ergani&ational 'eha#ior4 A Multile#el Analysis, Administrati#e Science Huarterly, 6=
-)ecember, /;B/., pp. <7/><6A.
Turoff, M., Chumer, M., ?an de 1alle, '., Iao, D., The )esign of a )ynamic
Emergency (esponse Management "nformation System -)E(M"S., Annual (e#iew of
Communications, ?olume <B, March 677=, Chosen as one of the best engineering
communication papers of the year 677A by the "nternational Engineering Consortium, pp.
=8:>==/.
Turoff, M., Chumer, M., Hilt&, (., 0lashner, (obb, Alles, Michael, ?asarhelyi, M.,
0ogan, A., Assuring Homeland Security4 Continuous Monitoring, Control, and
Assurance of Emergency 5reparedness, Lead article for a special issue on Emergency
5reparedness for !"TTA, ?olume =, umber 8, *all 677A, />6A.
Turoff, M., Chumer, M., Hilt&, S. (., Emergency 5lanning as a Continuous @ame,
"SC(AM 7= 5roceedings, May /A>/:, 677=, !"T, ewar, !, "S' ;7>;767=7/>;
&ourse *utline 012 (ee/ sc!eule1
/. (e$uirements for Emergency "S co#ering4 "ndi#idual and team beha#ior -e.g.
threat rigidity syndrome, information o#erload, etc.., organi&ational re$uirements
-,nowledge accumulation, delegation of authority and accountability, auditing of
the decision process, etc.., @eneral Systems re$uirements -law of re$uisite
#ariety, tight coupling and decoupling, adapti#e networ,ing, etc..
6. Continuation of -/..
8. The metaphor concepts of JrolesJ and Je#ents.J The use of scenarios in planning,
interface design, and gaming in emergency management.
A. Critical interface design considerations -elements of design and creati#ity as a
process, introduction to morphological analysis.
<. Critical interface design considerations -Hyperte3t and Conte3t #isibility,
searching and inde3ing.
=. (e#iew of student designed emergency scenarios
:. 5rotocol Analysis, focus groups, and paper prototyping for e#aluation of designs
B. H(E -High (eliability Ergani&ations., normal error theory and their role in
emergency management systems design
;. (e#iew by the class of the functionality re$uirements for indi#idual and team
designs
/7. (is, analysis approaches and methods -/4 cost benefit approaches.
//. (is, analysis approaches and methods -64 Collaborati#e approaches such as the
)elphi method.
/6. (e#iew of actual interface designs before protocol studies
/8. 1ill depend largely on what is appropriate to add to the course at this instant in
time.
/A. (e#iew of final designs after they are handed in.
8
/<. 5resentation re#iew of final pro+ects on a small state of the art pro+ect on a
specific and different topic for each student.
3umber of !ours of lecture, recitation an laboratory "er (ee/.
Two hours of lecture % one hour of discussion a wee, face to face, audio recorded #ia an
"C recorder and pro#ided in M58 for online students within two days of face to face
meeting for both student sections on a system such as 1eb'oard. o outside support
need for this purpose. Current semester lectures are a#ailable for re#iew by anyone
interested.
4o( (ill stuent "erformance an graes be etermine)
The following is a planned distribution of grade points4
/. A course interface design based upon a mini emergency scenario suggested by
each student or student team around which to base the design problem4 67K
6. A protocol analysis of the design4 <K
8. A final pro+ect e3ploring a specific independent topic in the current professional
literature4 6<K
A. A morphological analysis assignment as an e3ercise in creati#e design4 /7K
<. Contributions of rele#ant material from the 1eb and professional sources to
enrich online discussions and lectures4 /7K
=. Spontaneous participation in ongoing discussions /7K
:. 5articipation in assigned discussion topics for which specific re$uirements are
specified4 67K
5t (!at grauate le+el (ill be course be offere: Master6s, $!.D. or some
intermeiate le+el) '!at egree "rogram or "rograms (ill it a""ly to)
Masters, 5h.)., and certificate students in any related program that allows the student to
choose the course as an electi#e or core re$uirement. Since the )esigns and final pro+ects
are uni$ue for each student " do treat the Masters students and the 5h.). students with
some differences with respect to the assignments and readings with some added
re$uirements for the 5h.). students.
'ill t!e course be offere by any non7traitional met!os of eli+ery)
Courses " teach always use an asynchronous conference system for e3tended class
discussions that always in#ol#e class wide collaboration. This course will be offered
both face to face and online. "f the sections are small enough they will be combined and
treated as one class. "f they are too large a combination of pri#ate conferences for each
group and some common conferences for both groups together will be used.
)escribe any unusual features of the course. )escribe any participation by outside
e3perts or in#ited spea,ers.
A
This course will always in#ite one author of rele#ant papers to participate #ia the 1eb in
an e3ercise where each student is allowed to as, one $uestion of the guest and will be
graded on the nature of the $uestion as,ed.
<