B.Sc. Business Information Systems
(B.Sc. Information Systems Engineering)

To provide students with an understanding of the analysis and design of software applications using an Object-Oriented approach.

Synopsis of Object-oriented (oo) analysis and design content

• Requirements Specification:- requirements elicitation; requirements document layout; functional requirements; non-functional requirements.
• Design tools:- introduction to UML design tools;
• Use-case modeling:- use case diagrams; actors; use-cases; documenting use-cases.
• class modeling:- entity classes and the static analysis model; control classes and the implementation specific model; class diagrams; classes and objects; association; generalization; aggregation; composition.
• activity modeling:- business process modeling; use case realization; algorithmic development; activity diagrams; activities; transitions; branches; merges; conditional behaviour; concurrency & synchronization; object flows;

Students with severe visual impairment are advised that this module involves working with visually based application interfaces.

To develop an understanding of the legal and ethical context within the computing industry.

Synopsis of module content:

The course is broken down into three main parts:

1. Areas of the law related to computing, including an examination of the principal provisions of the Computer Misuse Act, the Data Protection Act, some of the intellectual properly rights (notably copyright, patents and trademark), regulatory areas, including the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, general contractual and tortuous responsibilities, and licence agreements, including open source licence agreements.
2. Ethical questions and responsibilities of a computer professional, including professional provision of services, the relevant BCS Codes, including the Code of Conduct and the Code of Good Practice, and general ethical questions.
3. Other issues that relate to the computer professional, to include topical issues and the role of computing within modern society.

To give the student experience of producing software in a team environment employing a structured engineering style approach in the construction process.

To give students the experience of practical project management by enabling them to manage a software project.

To give, as near as possible, a real world experience within the constraints of an academic environment which will also help prepare students for Supervised Work Experience, and their ongoing careers.

Synopsis of module content

As this is primarily a practical module, there will be limited formal delivery, rather the students will build on their programming and design modules from their previous course.

Formally delivered material will include: Project management control techniques, project cost and justification techniques, logistics of team operation.

Advice on how best to present the finished product will also be given in lectures.

By subdividing the work into several milestones, team members will also have an opportunity to manage a milestone.

To give the learner a critical appreciation of the processes and disciplines involved in strategic, large-scale IS management. This will be done from two perspectives: the alignment of IS with business strategy and the delivery of competitive IS products and services.

A major theme for this module is ensuring that organizations gain full benefit from their investments in IS. The module supports the needs of those graduates who wish to work in IS or IT management. It also supports the need for IS graduates to understand the context within which organizations will expect their staff to work.

Synopsis of module content

The module concentrates on the subject areas listed below:
Strategic planning
Strategic information systems planning
Business process re-engineering
Soft systems methods
Stakeholder analysis
Business performance measurement
Theory of Constraints
Change management
Managing the development process.
Outsourcing.
Personnel management
IS security management
IS service management


The underlying themes will be:

1. Moves towards strategic use of the Internet.
2. Methods of reducing the risk of IS project failure.
3. Differences between ISE and other forms of engineering.

The module is discursive in nature and demands good language skills. Students will be expected to read around topics and contribute to seminar discussions. Part-time students in relevant employment will also be expected to contribute real-life examples.

Students with specific needs should note that there are no limitations with the work involved for this module.

To expose students to advanced and developing data models and database systems to enable them to apply related concepts to advanced database systems applications.

Synopsis of module content:

Database technologies: A comparison of relational, network and hierarchical data models.
Advanced database technologies, e.g. extended relational, object-oriented, distributed, multimedia and web based, online analytical, parallel and deductive.
Advanced object-oriented analysis and design.
Using an advanced database system, e.g. Oracle object-relational features.
SQL 1999 & SQL 2003 Object-oriented data modeling.
ODMG standard.
Advanced retrieval techniques: the data warehouse and data mart, data mining, drill-down, on-line analytical processing (OLAP).
Security and reliability.
Database administration.
Multi-tier database architecture.
Program / database connectivity.

To develop a critical awareness of the practicalities, potentialities and pitfalls of electronic commerce (e-commerce) systems and the importance of integrating e-commerce strategy with business and information systems and information strategy.

Synopsis of module content:

Analysis and synthesis of an e-commerce strategy:

• strategic organizational analysis;
• environmental and capability analysis;
• strategy formulation;
• implementation and assessment of a strategy;
• legal constraints on e-commerce.

Technological base of e-commerce:

• the Internet and the World Wide Web;
• electronic data interchange and mark-up language;
• database connectivity and scripting languages;
• mobile e-commerce technologies;
• integrating e-commerce technology with the back office.

Information and network security:

• types of crime related to e-commerce;
• security technologies;
• encryption, digital signatures and public/private key infrastructure;
• secure payment systems and funds transfer
• mobile payment systems.