Perspectives on Information Technology
This course serves as an introductory course in the IT Management curriculum, spanning the wide range of technologies in use in modern organizations. The course covers the major issues involved in selecting and deploying particular technologies based on the requirements of a particular project. The course provides a foundation for future study in strategic deployment of information technology in support of the business.
At the end of this course the student will be able to:
Explain the historical context for studying information technology.
Differentiate between different kinds of computer hardware and software, and assess the varying options for deploying software such as virtualization and Software as a Service.
Describe the fundamental issues in telecommunications and networking and basic networking terminology.
Recognize why the database, and more specifically, data, is critical to the business and to IT.
Identify the strengths and weaknesses of enterprise systems (ERP), and its core underpinnings, the relational database.
Differentiate between data warehouses and transactional databases, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Identify and analyze the core issues involved in deploying and maintaining E-commerce and Business-to-business (B2B) systems.
Describe standard systems analysis and custom software development processes, and reasons for selecting an appropriate process.
Identify and analyze the issues in making the build versus buy decisions, and, when buying, the issues involved in managing the vendor.
Assess the major issues involved in providing user support in a large organization, and explain how standards such as ITIL and CoBIT assist in this endeavor.
Differentiate between IT security and information security, and recognize the major issues in ensuring both types security.
Describe how legal compliance affects IT decisions, and discuss the potential impact of these compliance issues on the business.