Contract and Project Management
Fewer than 20% of complex Information System projects are successful in industry. Responsibility for failure will usually, quite correctly, be placed on the shoulders of the Project Manager. This course provides an in-depth study of project management and an overview of the Law of Contract. This is necessary for those who want to learn how to manage complex IS projects including projects with substantial outsourced components or projects that support contractual transaction - for example electronic commerce applications. The course will also emphasise jurisdiction and the way in which cross jurisdictional agreements are formed.

The course aims to provide students with

• skills for planning, coordinating and controlling Information System projects
• an understanding of the general principles of Contract Law, specifically the formation, contents and enforcement of legal agreements. It will enable students to appreciate the impact of the key elements that together comprise contractual obligations in the business context both generally and, were applicable, in information services.
  
• an opportunity to develop their critical reasoning in legal and management problems an opportunity to develop their ability at coherent presentation
  

Information, Methods and Culture
We live in a world that is increasingly dependent upon the use of technology and information. As technology changes and advances, the art of representing information and building appropriate systems is becoming progressively inexact and blurred. The Information Engineer of the future must be equipped with the appropriate skills to meet these challenges

The course aims to provide students with

• an understanding on the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of methods for information systems development. It explores the relationship between data, information and knowledge and the way macro and micro culture affects the system model and the success or failure of the resulting information system. It critically examines a number of “soft”development approaches and how they add to the systems development process

Systems Planning and Management
In order to fully exploit the advantages that information systems offer to business organizations, students need to understand the strategic options available and their effective implementation

The course aims to provide students with

• sufficient knowledge to contribute to the development of a systems planning framework that will function as an integral part of the organization approach to its strategic development

Audit & Security
There are needs to consider information security threats and their subsequent audit and control at management level within an organization. Students will be expected to utilize professional skills learnt in other parts of the programme and apply them to practical audit and reporting tasks.The main taught element will focus on how to identify security issues and apply principles of audit and control to management report

The course aims to provide students with

• an understanding of the threats to information and information systems
  
• provide students with awareness of controls that may be applied to reduce risk from threats
  
• make students aware of the importance of good security policy at management level >

Requirements Analysis
The analysis of user requirements is the most critical activity in both the development of business information systems and the management of any related software contracts. We trace a plethora of problems in the IT industry to the requirement stage, including the epidemic proportions of project failures and the endemic high costs of software maintenance.

The course aims to provide students with

• The ability to recognize malignant assumptions in object / data models early and to develop high quality models. Malignant assumptions are assumptions that are difficult to remove once they have been embodied in production software.
  
• both the informal conventional approaches to quality:
  • stability analysis (hypothesis testing) and
  • pattern reuse (analogies) as well as the formal approach of
  • Semantic Normal Form compliance (conformance testing).
  

  Although the course uses UML predominantly, it is orthogonal to both specification language and case tool. New analysts can expect to develop skills that would otherwise take several years of practice. Experienced analysts can expect to prefect their ability to develop agile business software and articulate their knowledge to trainee analysts with scientific precision.

System Modelling
An engineering approach for building systems requires methods and tools to ensure that systems are built in the most effective way. In order to fully utilize corporate data a system must be well designed and well understood. This course will develop all aspects of designing an information system by using a CASE tool. Tools for Object Oriented design and structured design will be used. To be able to use these tools creatively the student will need a sound knowledge of the techniques and methods employed in the design of information systems.

The course aims to provide students with

• Advanced knowledge of design methodologies and how CASE tools can be used to aid the designer
  
• Practical skills in the use of case tools to design systems
  
• Difficulties and intricacies of large scale system development
  
• The ability to choose the most suitable modeling method for different problems
  

Data Warehousing
Today’s businesses require the ability to access and combine data from a variety of sources, perform complex data analysis on the data and create multidimensional views of data that represent the business analyst’s perspective. Students will gain a thorough knowledge of the architecture of systems and how data from different systems can be used to plan design and implement a data warehouse. This course will teach the student how to use an OLAP tool to analyse the business and provide data when and where required that is at the correct level of detail.

The course aims to provide students with

• Encouragement on a critical assessment of the use of business intelligence tools in finding timely answers to critical business questions
  
• Advanced knowledge of the business potential of organizing and utilizing data to support cross-functional system
  
• Practical skills in defining an architecture of a Data Warehouse and in capturing, cleaning, transporting and applying data in a Data Warehouse
  
• Skills in querying, reporting and using tools to summarize and discover new patterns in the data

Strategic Information Technology in E-Business
Today most businesses compete in a global environment; a sound IT Strategy is essential to facilitate this. This subject cover key areas of IT strategic planning, background issues in strategic planning, the planning life cycle, the components of a strategic plan and management of the strategic plan.

The course aims to provide students with

• An in-depth knowledge and understanding of how strategic information systems (SIS) and emerging information technologies, particularly applications that use internet technologies, can affect the way that businesses operate
  
• Critical review the application of new technologies in e-commerce