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IS Degrees – Sociotechnical or Technosocial?

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Information Systems Development

Abstract

It is widely agreed that information systems is a field requiring knowledge and competence, spanning business processes, information infrastructure and technical processes, uniting these to deliver information needs of organisations. In designing curricula which will educate new IS professionals appropriately, we are faced with a daunting range and volume of material. Despite attempts to structure and scope this, the problems remain and become worse with time. We revisit such a degree course, noting that many existing courses are based in management and business schools. We, however, are based in a computer science department. We have experience of convincing technologically focused students that understanding organisational and social issues is crucial to successful software engineering and students with an interest in organisations and people that they need technical understanding of information systems. We review some key proposals for IS model curricula and conclude with a proposal suited to the students we recruit.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the work and inspiration of the rest of the IS development team at Heriot Watt: Helen Ashton, Sandy Louchart, Brian Palmer and Judy Robertson.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland

    Jenny Coady & Rob Pooley

Authors
  1. Jenny Coady
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  2. Rob Pooley
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    George Angelos Papadopoulos

  2. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Wita Wojtkowski

  3. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Gregory Wojtkowski

  4. Dep. of Information Systems, University of Gdansk, 81-824 Sopot,Polska ul. Armii, Krajowej, 119121, Poland

    Stanislaw Wrycza

  5. University of Maribor, Presernova 11, Kranj, 4000, Slovenia

    Jože Zupancic

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Coady, J., Pooley, R. (2009). IS Degrees – Sociotechnical or Technosocial?. In: Papadopoulos, G., Wojtkowski, W., Wojtkowski, G., Wrycza, S., Zupancic, J. (eds) Information Systems Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/b137171_93

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/b137171_93

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-84809-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-84810-5

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