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2010/2011 KAN-DISF Designing Information Systems for the Future
| English Title | |
| Designing Information Systems for the Future |
Course Information | |
| Language | English |
| Point | 15 ECTS (450 SAT) |
| Type | Mandatory |
| Level | Full Degree Master |
| Duration | One Semester |
| Course Period |
Spring
Teaching will be both in Danish and English |
| Time Table | Please see course schedule at e-Campus |
| Study Board |
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems |
| Course Coordinator | |
| Lene Pries-Heje Karlheinz Kautz | |
| Main Category of the Course | |
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Taught under Open University-Taught under open university. | |
| Last updated on 29 maj 2012 | |
| Learning Objectives | |||||
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After the course the students should be able to: • Demonstrate an understanding of contemporary trends and debates in the ISD practice and literature, critically assess the literature on current trends and challenges in ISD, and discuss these in relation to general perspectives and schools in ISD. • Analyze development methods, identify core parts, and synthesis the perspective behind, and analyse the need for skills and capabilities within an ISD approach and discuss differences and similarities between the contemporary trends included in the course. | |||||
| Prerequisite | |||||
| MSc profile in IT Management and Business Economics | |||||
| Examination | |||||
| Individual oral exam based on a project or case | |||||
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| Examination | |||||
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The course contains two obligatory assignments (1 & 2) and finishes off with an oral examination based on a project or case written in groups (3). 1) obligatory assignment: A literature synthesis consisting of max 4000 words: To be approved, the literature synthesis should apply the concepts, theories, and models of the theme in question, and it should demonstrate the clarity of argumentation. In this specialization, the literature synthesis must provide an overview and discussion of contemporary challenges and trends in the ISD context. 2) obligatory assignment: Project description (3-5 pages) Project description in preparation of an in-depth study of a contemporary ISD challenge or trend, leading to the formulation of the final project. To be approved, the project description must reflect that the student is able to: • Choose a relevant theme • Investigate the theme based on a literature study. • Formulate a problem related to the theme and plan an investigation into that problem; i.e. the final project. The theme and problem can be based on debates in the literature and/or on a concrete problem in a company or group of companies. Examples of themes include: • The practical application and use of ISD methods • Software process improvement strategies and challenges • Agile developement, agile organizations. • Investigation and/or construction of new tools or development environemts • Outsourcing challenges for managers, developers, and customers. • Danish companies in the changing global landscape of ISD. 3) Examination: In-depth study of a contemporary ISD challenge or trend Examples of final project (defined in the second obligatory assignment ) • An empirical study of ISD in practice • A case study of outsourcing • A survey of how a group of companies address an ISD challenge • An experiment with development tools and methods. The oral examination is 30 minutes, inclusive of grade deliberation. The examination takes place in May-June. Make-up and re-examination take place in August. | |||||
| Prerequisites for Attending the Exam | |||||
| Course Content | |||||
The course covers a range of subjects selected by the teachers, combined with subjects chosen by the students. Hence the course has four major parts; first an introduction to the developments in ISD theory and methods and major debates and controversies in the field. There will be a special emphasis on the relationship between theory, method, and practice. Second, lectures covering four contemporary trends in ISD. The third part of the course is organized around 3 workshops about topics selected by the students. The fourth part of the course consists of a project assignment in an area chosen by the individual project groups. A particular focus in all parts of the course will be on the role of the systems developer as project manager and mediator between development and use of information systems. The subjects for the compulsory course of lectures will be: · Agile software development · Distributed software development and outsourcing · Product-line and standard package development · Open source development The subjects will be discussed in their technological, economic, and historical context, their similarities and differences, as well as their claims, range and application will be critically assessed. The projects are performed as maxi projects, and will allow the students to work practically (hands-on), empirically (study practice) or theoretically with an ISD topic of specific interest to the student. The students are free to define their own projects as long as the problem formulation is relevant for ISD. Workshops and supervision are performed to support the students’ immersion in the chosen topic. The subjects for the workshops depend on the trends/issues the students choose to work with. The course coordinators will arrange that relevant workshop hosts (professors) and supervisors are assigned to accommodate the topics chosen for the maxi-projects. | |||||
| Teaching Methods | |||||
| A mix of lectures (including guests from industry), workshops and project work will be used. | |||||
| Literature | |||||
The course literature will be divided in three parts · Literature selected by the teachers for the first two parts of the course (50%) · Literature selected by teachers and students for the workshops (30%) · Project relevant literature selected by individual project groups (20%) | |||||