Complete thesis - Murdoch University

Representative exit characteristics of IS graduates are shown in Table 2.23.Non Computing Curricula modelsACS‘97As has been noted previously, prior to 1992 the ACS adopted and recommended overseasprogrammes, particularly the ACM recommendations, in the design of tertiary computingcourses in Australia. From that time, efforts to develop curriculum guidelines led to thetwo publications (Maynard and Underwood, 1996; Underwood, 1997) to address the issue ofundergraduate education in IT.The focus of the report by Underwood is accreditation. To facilitate a practical implementationof a course of study complying with the recommended ACS BoK, the areas of knowledgeare separated into two groups. Group 1 material relates to generic attributes relating to InterpersonalCommunications; Ethics/Social Implications/Professional Practice and ProjectManagement and Quality Assurance, and is mandatory. Group 2 addresses IT topics, generallyfrom the ACS BoK. Although Systems Analysis and Design is included as oneof the 14 Knowledge Areas, the curriculum guidelines do not mandate which areas mustbe addressed within the IT curriculum. The expectation is that the various Australian ITtertiary courses would implement and emphasise different aspects of the material in accordwith their academic and equipment strengths.IRMA/DAMA‘00In 2000 the Information Resource Management Association and the Data AdministrationManagers Association published a generic curriculum framework to address the needs ofmanagers to understand information resources management. This model curriculum (Cohen,2000), is seen as complementary to IS97 in that the focus is shifted fromthe narrow definition of the computer-based information system as a collection ofhardware and softwareto ‘human concerns’:(Cohen, 2000, p 12)the organizational impact of information systems, how these systems fit into theorganizational structure of the firm, and how managers can utilize the productsof information systems across the company(Cohen, 2000, p 12)88