PISA in Classroom

It is very difficult to teach IS courses without good tools that allow the students to build different models and experiment with them to develop a better understanding. PISA fills this role very well -- it allows the students to create a model of a company and then, depending on the type of course, develop and experiment with an enterprise application plan, a computing platform plan, a network plan, a security plan, an architecture and an integrated solution. So far, PISA has been used very effectively to support the following courses (more are being investigated -- suggestions and ideas are welcome):

§ IS for Managers (typically taught as the core MBA course): The students build a model of a company and then build an IT plan for this company by using PISA. They learn a great deal by developing different plans and then comparing and analyzing them against the plans they develop on their own.

§ Computing Networks (Data Communications): The students are first asked to design a network advisor and then compare and contrast their advisor with the PISA Network Advisor. They are also asked to survey the literature and find two more network advisors. They learn valuable lessons by comparing and analyzing the design of their own advisor with PISA and other advisors. The students, if needed, can also look at the NML (Network Markup Language) – an XML document -- used by PISA to describe the network plan generated.

§ Information Security: The students develop model of a company, develop its application and network plan and then build a security solution by using the PISA Security Advisor (SA). In particular, they run different attack trees by using SA and develop appropriate security solutions. They gain insights into security design by comparing and analyzing their own security solution with that generated by PISA.

§ Systems Analysis and Design (also Application Architectures and Integration): The students develop model of a company, develop its application plan and then work with AIM to develop detailed requirements, architecture and integrated solution of chosen applications. For example, different groups in a class choose different application areas (e.g., procurement, CRM, supply chain management, and business intelligence) and then try to integrate their solutions. This has turned to be a really fun exercise.

In all these courses, the students work with the PISA Advisors first to learn how to use them and then compete with them by using "beat the advisor" exercises.

For sample courses, PISA project descriptions, instructor hints, and suggested student deliverable reports, pleased download the PISA Instructor’s Guide.

“Architectures for Globally Integrated Enterprises” (about 17 pages) describes a course that covers service oriented architectures (SOA) for modern enterprises. This course won IBM best course proposal award and is heavily supported through PISA.