The University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) offers U-M departments the opportunity to have a process or workflow that needs improvement to be analyzed by a team of graduate students. There is no cost to participate.
Various ITS groups have worked with the School of Information in the past, including Information Assurance and Teaching & Learning.
To propose a project, please submit your idea for consideration for a team of students to work on in the 2022-2023 academic year as part of SI 501: Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations. Feel free to share this message broadly.
SI 501: Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations
During this one-semester course (September-December 2022), teams of four to five UMSI master’s degree students complete semi-structured interviews to identify, analyze, and recommend solutions related to products, services, and information processes. A recommendation report is provided at the end of the semester.
Ideal projects fit within one of the following categories:
- Improving or repairing an existing information or communication process or service.
- Evaluating service design, such as processes for walk-in customers at service desks.
Project requirements:
- Must have an existing process or workflow that needs repair or improvement (can include a communication process, service design, internal process workflow, and more).
- Must provide 6-10 people who can be interviewed about the process (at least 3 who manage or are affected by different parts of the process).
Apply
To apply, fill out the School of Information’s “New Client Opportunites” registration form, ideally by July 22, and write “SI 501 project” along with your project idea in the Project Idea box. After you submit the form, a member of UMSI’s client engagement team will reach out to collect some additional details.
Learn more about other client-based opportunities offered by the U-M School of information at umsi.info/clientopportunities.
