English   Danish

2013/2014  KAN-CMIT_VSYI  System Integration

English Title
System Integration

Course information
Language English
Exam ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Course period First Quarter
Changes in course schedule may occur
Monday 09.50-12.35, week 36-43
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Lars Frank - Department of IT Mangement (ITM)
Administrative contact person is Jeanette Hansen, ITM (jha.itm@cbs.dk)
Main academic disciplines
  • Information Systems
  • Management of Information and Knowledge Management
  • Supply Chain Management and Logistics
  • Financial and management accounting
Last updated on 15-03-2013
Learning objectives
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
• Describe complex business system integration cases by using workflow diagrams.
• Identify and describe consistency and/or anomaly problems in the case.
• Select, apply and evaluate methods to solve or reduce these problems to an acceptable level.
Course prerequisites
The student should should have basic knowledge about databases.
Examination
Oral exam on the basis of a project (group):
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance.
Individual or group exam Individual
Size of written product Max. 15 pages
Assignment type Project
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Preparation time No preparation
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Autumn Term
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

Oral exam on the basis of a group project of max. 15 pages per 2-5 students. The project is written in parallel with the course. The student is not entitled to supervision. The date for handing in the project will be decided by the secretary.

20 minutes per student incl. performance discussion. No preparation for the oral exam. The teacher will act as examiner at the oral exam assisted by a second internal examiner.

Even if it is a group exam, each student must be assessed individually. The students do not need to give an account of which parts of the project they are responsible for. The project and the oral exam are both included in the overall assessment.

The title question(s) and content of the project must be prepared by the students within the framework of the syllabus, possibly together with the teacher. The oral examination will be based on a discussion and a perspective of the project. The examiner may ask questions that go beyond the project, but within the framework of the syllabus.

The re-exam takes place on the same conditions as the ordinary exam.
Course content and structure

The functions of a company’s value or supply chains should be integrated, i.e. the functions should operate on consistent data. In the old days, the value chain functions operated on their own data, and therefore, the systems were not integrated. Nowadays, databases make it possible for different functions to operate on common data, and therefore it should be easy to make integrated systems. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are examples of how to integrate the functions of value chain by using a common database. However, in practice companies have integration problems even if they have an ERP system. The Integration methods used in the course are the following:

· ERP systems and other systems that use a common central database

· Workflows that integrate local systems or distributed systems by e.g. using SOA service or other internet techniques.

· Databases and applications with relaxed ACID properties. That is, data are e.g. not locked by transactions across a dialog with the user or across distributed database locations, but from a user point of view it should function as if the traditional ACID properties have been implemented.

· ETL (Extract Transform and Load) products that may repair inconsistencies in both operative systems and datawarehouses.

The course qualifies the students for designing system integration of any type. Some examples are listed below:

  • Integration of ERP systems with old legacy systems.
  • Integration of different package software products that do not use the same databases
  • Integration of fusioned branch offices with heterougenious systems.
  • Integration in datawarehouses by using ETL (Extract Transform and Load) products.
  • Integration with the systems of the company’s suppliers
  • Integration with the systems of the company’s customers
  • Integration in the public sector like hospitals (patient records) libryies and employment services.
  • Logistic management and integration.
  • Integration of mobile systems.
  • Integration of CSCW systems
  • Migration of ERP systems to new versions without overnight conversion risks, i.e. the different ERP systems are used in parallel.
  • Integration of distributed systems in general.
Teaching methods
The teaching is integrated with exercises and discussion of the solutions. The teaching also consists of supervising the project groups and discussion of the solutions followed by student presentation of their work with the mini project.
Expected literature

Code

Author

Title

Publishers

Pages

 

Wil van der Aalst and Kees van Hee

Workflow Management, Models, Methods, and Systems, 2002

The MIT Press,

300

 

Ralph Kimball and Joe Caserta

The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Extracting, Cleaning, Conforming, and Delivering Data, 2004

John Wiley & Sons

200

 

L. Frank

Databases and Applications with Relaxed ACID Properties, 2008.

Chap. 1-9.

The book will be uploaded on LEARN.

90

 

 

Total

 

590

Other:

Code

Author

Title

Publishers

Pages

0-619-21663-8

Ellen Monk, Bret Wagner

Concepts in Enterprise Resource Planning, Second Edition, 2005

Thomson Learning

240
Last updated on 15-03-2013