Information Consulting
Improve or repair existing information/communication processes, products, or services; evaluate service design
Visit the official UMSI website for the most up-to-date information on client based courses
Information on the site you are currently visiting is no longer being updated as of Summer 2021
SI 501: Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations
What is Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations?
Through meetings and interviews with stakeholders, observations of work practices and information system usage, and examination of artifacts, master's-level graduate students in SI 501: Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations identify, analyze, and recommend solutions for challenges related to products, services, and information processes.
Deliverables
What do clients receive for participating in this course?
All clients receive a written report with recommendations
Clients may also invite students to formally present their findings and recommendations
Client Eligibility
Who can participate?
Potential clients should meet the following criteria:
Have a product, service, information process, or communication process already in place that needs repair or improvement
Able to provide at least seven relevant people who would be willing to be interviewed for 60 minutes (likely remotely) by the student team in September-November
Understand that due to the nature of this course, students will make contact with the primary client, schedule interviews, and then usually not reach out again until their final report is ready to be presented
Understand that recommendations are the final deliverable for this course. There will be NO implementation done by students
Project Examples
What kinds of projects are appropriate for the course?
Ideal projects may include some of the following characteristics:
Improving or repairing an existing information or communication process
Improving or repairing an existing product or service
Evaluating service design, such as processes for walk-in customers at service desks
Problems that affect organizational/communication efficiency and productivity make good projects for 501 students:
“We have channels for distributing information to our constituents, but the right information isn’t always shared.”
“We keep adding staff to our service desk, but the lines haven’t gone down.”
“We have a database, but we aren’t putting in or taking out the information that we need.”
“A patron ordered a book, and they got it—but it took weeks to get it to them.”
What are some examples of successful projects?
Reviewing a health clinic's telephone queue and voicemail system, with attention to why call abandonment rates are so high.
Investigating how an online job-matching company could improve retention and engagement of its resume-posting users.
Exploring how a public library's process to acquire and weed materials among its three branches could be integrated and streamlined.
Understanding the bottlenecks of a non-profit organization's complex reporting requirements, and how to relieve them.
What do students do during the project?
How many projects are selected for this course?
Winter 2021: 27 projects selected
Fall 2020: 68 projects selected
Fall 2019: 59 projects selected
Fall 2018: 63 projects selected
* Due to variability in the number of enrolled students each year, these numbers are subject to change and can be used as a rough estimate.
Timeline
SI 501 occurs in the Fall semester (September–December) and the Winter semester (January-April)
June – August
Client submits project idea
Client Engagement Team (CET) reviews project idea and requests full project proposal
CET works with client to scope and refine proposal
September (fall client) / January (winter client)
Faculty choose proposals to present to students
Students choose their project
September – October (fall client) / January-February (winter client)
Students begin project
December (fall client) / April (winter client)
Students finish project and provide deliverable(s) to client
Participate
How do I become a client?
Potential clients should complete this brief form with their contact information and a short summary of their project idea. Our Client Engagement Team will review your submission and reach out to you within 3 business days with next steps.
What if I don't have a project right now, but I'm interested in future opportunities or want to learn more?
If you don't have a specific project in mind for the upcoming semester, but would like to stay informed about future opportunities to work with students through our client-based courses or other programs, complete this registration form to be added to our mailing list.
Former Clients
Who's participated in the past?
Over the years, SI 501 students have worked with more than 200 partner organizations, including corporations, government agencies, non-profit organizations, libraries, and schools:
What do they have to say?
"The students brought a professional approach and enthusiasm to the question of how to organize and catalog our small library with the goal of increasing usage. They conducted interviews with five other persons, who all gave me feedback as to how thoughtful they were. Their final report was thorough and well-researched, and presented a number of suggestions for us to consider."
Pat Wilson, First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor
"The student team helped us identify a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that seems to be a better fit for our organization's needs, along with recommendations for best practices once it's implemented. This will help free up a lot of organizational capacity, particularly for myself."
Will Jones, Nonprofit Enterprise at Work