615-328 Managing the Impact of IS

615-251 Organisational Analysis and Change or 615-351 prior to 2001

This is a capstone subject which integrates the learning undertaken in earlier information systems subjects. It encourages students to explore and reflect upon the nature and consequences of information systems. Topics may include a critical examination of information systems as sociotechnical systems which combine people, information and technology; human information behavior; the characteristics of information, in particular its economic aspects; the characteristics of information technology, its transformational potential, and its organisational and social consequences. Particular emphasis will be placed on alternatives to the dominant information systems paradigm, such as the soft systems and postmodernist approaches. The subject will be taught with a combination of lectures and tutorials.

At the completion of the subject, students should:

• understand the complexities of the relationships between people, information and technology in an information system;

• be familiar with a range of techniques for conceptualising organisational information systems;

• be able to manage the organisational consequences of developing and implementing information systems; and

• understand the potential social consequences of choices made in the development and implementation of information systems

Assessment is by a combination of individual and group projects, and an end-of-semester written examination. Group and individual assignments together are expected to take about four hours per week. The weighting of assessment components will be announced at the commencement of the subject.