The introduction of the Masters of Information Systems has included as part of the subject offerings advanced topic in the different specialisations. This unit is the advanced topics for the Information Systems Development specialisation.

At the completion of this unit the students should have knowledge of and a better understanding of:

C1. Advanced issues relating to information systems development in today's business world and from a variety of business perspectives

C2. The theory and practice of some of these advanced issues currently experienced in business

C3. The impact of these advanced issues in relation to information systems development

At the conclusion of the unit students should be able to better:

A1. Appreciate the concerns on issues of business in the area of information systems development and their impact on organisations.

A2. Adopt a cricial approach to current orthodoxy on IS development methods, tools and techniques.

A3. Appreciate the requirements and complexity involved in successfully developing socio-technical information systems in contemporary global organisations.

During the process of studying this unit students will be required to identify and describe key issues relating to information systems development and:

P1. Analyse a work context and identify the issues.

P2. Present and discuss these in-depth.

P3. Contibute to the improvement of the system development practice in organisations through the application of current theories.

Students will be required to:

S1. develop the ability to coherently and persuasively report verbally and in writing on a range of IT management issues.

S2. have an appreciation of how to communicate effectively the benefits and shortcomings of various system development approaches to associated business and professional groups.

S3. develop teamwork and small group communication skills.

Given the dynamic and changing nature of the information systems field students need to appreciate the different pressures facing organisations as they strive to develop and maintain Information Systems in the workplace. This unit aims to provide an in-depth investigation of the theory and practice of advanced issues currently experienced in business and understand the impact of these issues in relation to information systems development. The unit will provide students with an opportunity for exploration of intellectual structures in information systems development, current theories in information systems including ontology and its application to conceptual modelling. It will explore the most current issues drawn from industry. Many of the topics to be explored will be identified before the semester from discussions with industry people and leading international academics. Some of the issues that are likely to emerge are: changing systems development practices and methodologies, impact of web based systems and development methods, the people and skills required for building effective development teams, information modelling in the business context, managing global systems development and issues surrounding effective analysis and design practices.

A unit outline detailing the specific topics to be covered in a specific offering of this unit would be available to students from the unit leader two weeks prior to the commencement of the teaching period.

Benyon-Davies, P. and Williams, M.D. (2003) "The diffusion of information systems development methods", Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 12 (2003): 29-46.

Fitzgerald, B. (1996) "Formalized systems development methodologies: a critical perspective", Information Systems Journal, 6, pp 3-23.

Harindranath, H. et al (Eds) (2002) "New Perspectives on Information Systems Development: Theory, Methods of Practice", Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, ISBN 0-306-47251-1

Ivari, J., Hirschheim, R., Klein, H "A Dynamic Framework for Classifying Information systems Development Methodologies and Approaches", Journal of Management Information Systems, Winter 2000 - 2001.

Jayaratna, N. (1994) "Understanding and evaluating methodologies - a systemic framework", McGraw-Hill, London.

Nilsson, A, Petterson J (Eds) "On Methods for Systems Development in Professional Organisations", Studentlitteratur (2001).

Sein, M.K. et al. (et al) (2001) "Conemporary Trends in Systems Development", Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, ISBN: 0-306-46608-2.

Smithson, S and Hirschheim, R., "Analysing information systems evaluation: another look at an old problem", European Journal of Information Systems, Vol 7, 1998.

Stapleton, J. (1999) "Dynamic Systems Development Method", Addison-Wesley.

on campus

Will include:

• lectures/seminars
• discussions

• Lectures/Seminars :

The objectives to be achieved through the different teaching strategies are:

• Lectures/seminars: C1, C 2, C 3, A1, A2, C3, P1, P2, S1, S2

• Publishable paper 40% (Assignment)
  One major assignment that will have the output of a publishable paper will be given to students exploring one of the key topics identified during the semester. Students will be required to read extensively to better understand current issues and relate these to the workplace.

Class participation and presentations 20% Supervised Assessment 40%

Pass Requirements:

In order to pass a unit, a student must gain all of the following:

• at least 40% of the marks of the examination component, if any: i.e. the final examination and any tests performed under exam conditions, taken as a whole.
• at least 40% of the marks of the assignment component: i.e. the assignment and any other assessment tasks (such as presentations) taken as a whole.
• at least 50% of the total marks for the unit. Where a student gains less than 40% for either the examination or assignment component, the final result for the unit will be no greater than '44-N'.

• Publishable paper (C1, C2, C3, A1, A2, A3, P1, P2, P3)
• Presentation, participation (S1, S2, S3, A1, A2, A3, P1, P2, P3)
• Supervised assessment(C1,C2,C3, A1,A2, A3,P1, P2, P3, S1,S2, S3)

The workload for this unit is estimated to be:

• lectures/seminar: 3 hours of lectures per week
• assignments: an average of 4 hours per week
• reading: an average of 5 hours per week

Hi-Tech lecture theatre for 40 students

Nil

Nil

1 EFT lecturer for 3 contact hours per week for 13 weeks plus teaching assistance for hours proportional to enrolment.

• Software Title:
• Vendor:
• Version:
• OS: MS Windows XP ( ) and/or LINUX ( )
• License Details: (A valid software license certificate/s or Vendor permission must be available upon request if the software is to be installed for teaching)
• Are we currently licensed: Yes ( ) or No ( ) (If unsure, please check with your local IT support )
• If (Yes), who is the contact person for this software?:
• If (No), will the software license be arranged by: Staff member requesting the software ( ) or Technical Services* ( ) ? *If the latter is selected, please discuss your requirement/s with myself ASAP, prior to finalising your request, as there could be financial or resourcing implications.
• Is the software to be installed and accessed from a: Client/Workstation ( ), or Server ( ) ?
• Type of license: Site License ( ), Freeware ( ), FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) ( ), Shareware ( ), Lab based ( ) # of Licenses needed ____
• In what week will you commence using the software in class? Semester 1 (Week ___ ) and/or Semester 2 (Week ___ ):
• Nominated Staff For Acceptance Testing Software: (Name) (Phone) (Email)
• Additional Information: Special Requirements, Software Configuration/Installation Requirements, etc:

A library impact statement has been submitted to the Library for processing.

SIMS 100%

N/A for postgraduate units.

nil

nil

nil

Must have completed Part A of Master of Information Systems.