Logical Soft Systems Methodology for Education Programme Development

Abstract

Business Information Systems education--such as majoring in Business Computing, E-Commerce and Business Computing, and Information Systems--is the basic foundation of all Information Systems professionals. So good planning of these programmes is an indispensable element in the development of computing disciplines. The traditional ways of planning an education programme are mainly based on understanding the goals and including appropriate teaching modules to fulfil the requirements. The major drawback of this development methodology is that the importance of different (though relevant) modules in the development process may be undermined. For instance, human and environmental factors are fundamental to planning an education programme and must be taken into account. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is a well-known model for information system design. This paper proposes to see an education programme as a system and adopts the soft systems concept to represent the design of the programme. Based on the soft systems concept, a new methodology, named Soft Systems Programme Planning Methodology (SSPPM), for programme planning is proposed to support designing and planning a new post-secondary programme. The SSPPM not only considers all relevant facets, but it also helps the school management to clarify the connectivity of the elements in the design of a programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Issues in Informing Science & Information Technology is the property of Informing Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)