IS 2010 Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Association for Information Systems (AIS)

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IS '97: model curriculum and guidelines for undergraduate degree programs in information systems

The IS'97 report is the latest output from model curriculum work for information systems that began in the early 1970s and has matured over a twenty year period. This report represents the combined effort of numerous individuals and reflects the interests of thousands of faculty. It is grounded in the expected requirements of industry and represents the views of organizations employing the graduates.

This model curriculum is the first collaborative curriculum effort of the ACM, AIS and AITP (formerly DPMA) societies and is supported by other interested organizations. The draft was reviewed at eleven national and international meetings involving over 1,000 individuals from industry and academia.

All aspects of the computing field have had rapid, continuous change. As a result, university-level Information Systems (IS) curricula need frequent updating to remain effective. Since most academic units have mechanisms to maintain currency of curricula, why have professional society curriculum committees? If an IS academic unit were providing graduates solely to local business and government, the input on program contents could be derived from representatives of local organizations that hire the graduates. However, local employment is not the sole objective for undergraduate majors in Information Systems. Students from IS programs accept jobs in widely dispersed geographic areas. Therefore, availability of curriculum models enables local academic units to maintain academic programs that are consistent both with employment needs across the country and with the common body of knowledge of the IS field. The first IS curriculum models were introduced in the early 1970s. This early work was followed by model curricula developed by ACM and DPMA. Details of this history are reviewed in Appendix 2.

Professional society curriculum reports serve several other objectives. One important use is to provide a local academic unit with rationale to obtain proper resources to support its program. Often, administration at the local institution is not aware of the resources, course offerings, computing hardware, software, and laboratory resources needed for a viable program. Administration may be unaware of the specialized classroom technology, library resources, or laboratory assistants essential for proper education of IS undergraduates. Finally, administration might not recognize the rapid turnover of knowledge in the field and the need for resources to support constant retooling of faculty. Curriculum reports provide recommendations in these resource areas as well as content for the necessary body of knowledge. They provide important information for local IS academic units to use in securing from their institution the necessary levels of support.

The importance of the curriculum effort is based on continuing strong demand for graduates. A strong demand for IS professionals is forecast by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to continue through the year 2005 (Occupational Outlook Quarterly 1993). For example, the forecast increase in demand for system analysts is 110 percent for the period 1992-2005, averaging over 8 percent annually. Of all occupations analyzed, the systems analyst position is projected to have one of the highest demands.

The IS field also remains attractive in regard to compensation. In 1993, raises in IS were second highest of all professions, only slightly below engineering (Sullivan-Trainor 1994). These growth and pay level factors indicate undergraduate degrees in IS will continue to be in strong demand over the next decade.

In a time of restricted academic budgets, some IS academic departments have been under downsizing pressure from other academic disciplines in their own institutions, citing a decline in employment in central IS organizations. However, there is no lessening in demand for IS knowledge and ability in organizations; to the contrary, the demand is expanding as the functional areas of the organization gain more capability in IS. Many areas of the organization are now hiring IS majors for departmental computing activities. There is also strong demand for the IS minor by students in other disciplines who need IS expertise in order to be effective in their work and to assist in developing applications in their functional area. A third reason that the demand for IS courses will continue to increase is that students in related disciplines want to acquire basic and intermediate IS skills. Every discipline is experiencing growth in computer use, and students who enrich their IS knowledge are at a career advantage.

Guidelines for undergraduate degree programs on Model curriculum and guidelines for undergraduate degree programs in information systems

IS'97 is a model curriculum for undergraduate degree programs in Information Systems. Information Systems, as an academic field, encompasses two broad areas: (1) acquisition, deployment, and management of information technology resources and services (the information systems function) and (2) development and evolution of technology infrastructures and systems for use in organization processes (system development). The model curriculum provides guidelines, a set of courses, source materials, curriculum design objectives, and knowledge elements. It provides advice to a number of intended users of the report who have a stake in the achievement of quality IS degree programs.

Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems

: The two central parts of the Guidelines are the description of a software engineering body of knowledge and a curriculum model. The body of knowledge presents a high-level organization and description of the software engineering that supports effective curriculum design; and the curriculum model consists of a design architecture, a set of design concepts, and curriculum content guidance. We believe that this material and other guidance offered will provide assistance to faculty in the design and development of quality programs in software engineering and related curricula.

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Guidelines for Software Engineering Education Version 1.0

Computing curricula 1991: Report of the ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Curriculum Task Force

An investigation is presented which continues the work of Fleck and Weeg concerning the relationships between the equivalence classes of inputs and the group of automorphisms of a finite automaton. The principal result is that if for each state of a strongly connected automaton there exists a subset of the set of equiwfience classes of the input semigroup which constitute t~ group, then this group is isomorphic to a group of automorphisms of the automaton. The relationship between subautomata and subgroups of the group of autoraorphisms is also studied.

Groups of Automorphisms and Sets of Equivalence Classes of Input for Automata

LetA = (S, I, M) be a strongly connected finite automaton withn states. Weeg has shown that ifA has a group of automorphisms of orderm, then there is a partitionπ of the setS inton/m blocks each withm states. Furthermore ifs

 i
 ands

 j
 are in the same block ofπ, thenT

 ii
 =T

 jj
 , whereT

 ii
 = {x|x ∈ Σ* and thenM(s

 i
 , x) =s

 i
 }. It will be shown that the partitionπ also must have the substitution property and that these two conditions are sufficient for ann state strongly connected automaton to have a group of automorphisms of orderm. Necessary and sufficient conditions for twon-state strongly connected automata to have isomorphic automorphism groups are given. Also, it is demonstrated that forT

 ii
 to equalT

 jj
 it is necessary to check only a finite number of tapes and consequently provide an algorithm for determining whether or notA has a group of automorphisms of orderm.

On the group of automorphisms of strongly connected automata

The purpose of this discussion is to introduce the Computer Scientist to the concepts, definitions, notation and ideas of finite automata theory and to suggest how these ideas might relate to some of the other fields of Computer Science. Many of the ideas presented will be familiar to computer programmers, although they might not be immediately recognizable, for it is the precise nature of mathematics that renders these concepts tractable to investigation. Since understanding of the basic concepts is the purpose of this discussion, more emphasis will be placed on definitions and examples than on theorems and proofs. The principal benefit of the study of finite automata to the computer programmer is not in theories and theorems, but is rather in the insight and understanding it can contribute to many programming problems; specifically, in determining the underlying structure of the problem and in establishing how this structure is modified as the computation progresses.

A Programmer's View of Automata

In order to ascertain the attributes of computer professionals and to determine their attitudes toward their undergraduate education, a questionnaire was sent to each of the graduates of the computer science program at The Pennsylvania State University who earned the degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. This is a relatively new program having been established in 1967. By 1970 there were over 60 graduates, and to determine something about these people a survey was conducted. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. Part 1 dealt with job related information, such as salary, type of employment, job title, job satisfaction, etc. Part 2 delved into the graduates' attitudes concerning the baccalaureate program in Computer Science at Penn State. It was concerned primarily with courses and curriculum. A complete copy of the questionnaire is given in Appendix A. The survey did not substantiate any of these preconceptions; therefore, the survey results for each of these categories will be discussed in detail.

Bruce H. Barnes

Papers

Computing curricula 1991: Report of the ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Curriculum Task Force

Groups of Automorphisms and Sets of Equivalence Classes of Input for Automata

On the group of automorphisms of strongly connected automata

A Programmer's View of Automata

Attributes of computer professionals