Single subject courses - Information Systems Science

These courses are only open for exchange students. If you as an exchange student have any questions about admission, prerequisites etc, please contact the International Office at internationaloffice@adm.vxu.se.

If you are a free mover, please contact the Admissions Office regarding possibilities to study at Växjö University: admission@vxu.se.

Contact Person
Lars-Eric Ljung
E-mail: lars-eric.ljung@vxu.se
Telephone: +46 470 70 80 00
School of Mathematics and Systems Engineering

• DVM752 Scientific Methods in Informatics and Computer Science
• IVC730 Degree Project
• IVC740 Enterprise Application Integration
• IVC741 System and Software Architecture
• IVC742 General Systems Theory
• IVC743 Alternative Systems Development
• IVC755 Business Intelligence and Data Mining
• IVD711 Participative Thinking
• IVD712 Strategic Thinking
• IVD714 Object Thinking
• IVD715 Systems Thinking
• IVD730 Master Thesis
• IVD731 Master Thesis

September–November, 2006
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

The purpose of this course is to give an introduction to scientific method­ology as a preparation for writing a Master thesis.

Contents

• How to write scientific reports
• How to analyse scientific reports
• The philosophy of science
• Epistemology
• Social science methodology

Recommended reading
Chalmers, What’s All This about Science? Cuff & Payne, Sociological Methodology. Järvinen P., On Research Methods.

Prerequisites
Three years of studies in Information Systems or the equivalent.

January–June, 2007
10 points (15 ECTS)

The students are to demonstrate their ability to independently for­mulate and investigate a scientific problem within the Informatics area, and to write a report in a scientifi­cally acceptable way.

Contents
A Bachelor thesis course.

Teaching methods
Lectures, seminars and group work.

Prerequisites
Three years of studies in Information Systems or the equivalent.

Assessment methods
Thesis presentation at a seminar.

January–March, 2007
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

Contents

• Enterprise Application Integration
• The integration and maintenance of collaborative information systems
• Methods for change analysis and evaluation of information systems
• Verifying and validating information systems functionality
• Support when integrating information systems in businesses

Recommended reading
Linthicum D. S., Enterprise Application Integration, 2000.

Prerequisites
Two years of studies in Information Systems or the equivalent.

September, 2006–October, 2006
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

The aim is to give a deeper know-ledge of architectural problem areas, architectural design patterns and evaluation.

Contents
Strategic architecture planning and its importance to organisations. Theoretical and empirical models for architectural design in contexts of sys­tems, programs and components with a life-cycle perspective, as well as existing methodologies and requirements for future development.

Recommended reading
A collection of research papers.

Teaching Methods
Lectures and seminars.

Prerequisites
Two years of studies in Computer Science, Information Systems or the equivalent.

Assessment methods
Seminar presentation of paper.

April–June, 2007
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

Contents
Business process description methods, ontology, semantics, web services.

Recommended reading
Skyttner L., General Systems Theory.Checkland P., Systems Thinking, Systems Practice: Includes a 30-Year Retrospective.

A collection of papers and Internet sites, provided at the home page of the course.

Prerequisites
Two years of studies in an arbitrary aca­demic discipline or the equivalent.

September–October, 2006
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

New organisation structures, based upon globalisation and specialisa­tion, are replacing the old ones. Electronic trade is replacing tradi­tional trade, with a focus on the total business process. This leads to outsourcing and network organisa­tions. It does not work unless the business systems co-operate and give possibilities for collecting informa­tion from different sources.

The basic difficulty is to provide semantically rich descriptions of information and business processes. The aim of the course is to indicate suitable methods and techniques for the development and enhancement of such descriptions.

Contents
Business process description methods, ontology, semantics, web services.

Recommended reading
A collection of papers and Internet sites, provided at the home page of the course.

Prerequisites
Two years of studies in Information Systems or the equivalent.

September–October, 2006
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

Contents
Discovering the information needed for strategic decisions, analyzing the infor­mation. Storing it in a proper way and delivering it at the right moment and in a right form.

Recommended reading
Kudyba et al, Business Intelligence for the Enterprise, Web Data Mining and Business Intelligence.

Prerequisites
Two years of studies in Information Systems or the equivalent, including knowledge about database search and SQL.

September–October, 2006
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

Contents
Sociotechnical systems development, the Scandinavian approach, taxonomies for describing applications, theories and models used in user-controlled systems development.

Recommended reading
Winograd T., Bringing Design to Software.

Teaching methods
Lectures, group seminars.

Prerequisites
Three years of studies in Information Systems or the equivalent.

Assessment methods
Seminars and presentations.

November, 2006–January, 2007
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

The aim is to understand the role of strategic management of IS/IT in organisations.

Contents
Relevant problems with the strategic management of IS/IT, models and methods for strategic IS/IT planning and formulation.

Recommended reading
Robson W., Strategic Management & Information Systems. Ward J. & Peppard J., Strategic Planning for Information Systems.

Teaching Methods
Lectures, tutorials and seminars.

Prerequisites
Three years of studies in Computer Science, Information Systems or the equivalent.

Assessment methods
Seminar presentation of papers.

January–March, 2007
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

Contents
The course introduces and trains basic principles in phenomena modelling within object-orientation, with a focus on structure and architecture. From Cognitive science we introduce how categories and the importance of meta­phors can be used in concept building. Object-oriented models are used to describe human concepts and behav­iour. Cognitive approaches to business process modelling constitute a basic theory, when focusing on the human way of handling information.

Communicating object-oriented models between people with different roles in information system develop­ment projects. During the course the participants will work with practical exercises and casework, including model construction but not programming. Cases will be used for both personal re­flection and tutor-guided walkthroughs.

Recommended reading
Lakoff G., Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Martin J. & Odell J. J., Object-Oriented Methods: A Foundation.

Prerequisites
Three years of studies in Information Systems or the equivalent, including concepts of object-orientation.

April–June, 2007
5 points (7.5 ECTS)

The course is based on intense stud­ies and discussions of Churchman: Design of Inquiring Systems. We have lectures for two hours every second week. One week before each lecture, you should submit 3-4 pages of comments on the text to all participants in the course. During the lectures we discuss your comments, compile a set and publish them on the web.

Contents
Leibnizian, Lockean, Kantian, Hegelian and Singerian inquiring systems.

Recommended reading
Churchman C. W., Design of Inquiring Systems, Basic Books, 1971.

Prerequisites
Three years of studies in Information Systems or the equivalent.

January–June, 2007
10 points (15 ECTS)

This is the Master thesis course for those who have already written a thesis at the Bachelor level. The suc­cessful fulfilment of the course does not automatically entitle students to a Swedish degree. Applications for such a degree have to be evaluated individually.

January–June, 2007
20 points (30 ECTS)

This is the Master thesis course for those who have not written a thesis at the Bachelor level. The successful fulfilment of the course does not automatically entitle students to a Swedish degree. Applications for such a degree have to be evaluated individually.