© 2003 Turoff 1 The Nature of Information Systems and Employment in IS Murray Turoff Information Systems Department College of Computing Sciences New Jersey Institute of Technology

© 2003 Turoff 2 Fastest Growing Occupations (BLS)

© 2003 Turoff 3 Information Systems Definition Concerns itself with the development of applications of computer and communications technology Assumes a body of knowledge independent of any particular application and conforms to guidelines set forth by the ACM and AIS professional societies. Involves understanding and mastering both the technology and the human aspects of computing: Applications development technology in computing Human use, abilities, and behavior Group, organizational and societal use and behavior  BSIS and BAIS allows 5 or more courses in a specific computing intensive topic or applications area. BSHCI focuses on necessary Cognitive Psychology orientation for Human Computer Interface Design BSIS premedical or life sciences specialty focuses on biological fields

© 2003 Turoff 4 Application Development Lifecycle I Requirements Development Understanding people and organizations Methods of accumulating knowledge from people Structuring knowledge Design of System Generalization and Evolution of Requirements Human Computer Interaction (HCI) & Applications Model Internal Implementation Model

© 2003 Turoff 5 Applications Development Lifecycle II Development and Implementation Decomposition of implementation design Coding and testing against implementation model Prototype Evaluation Evaluation with real users Validation of specifications Design of Training materials and processes

© 2003 Turoff 6 Applications Development Lifecycle III Install Application Conversion processes Certification Training of Users End User Evaluation Maintenance, Auditing, and Security On Going Evaluation Planning & Feasibility Studies Management of Projects

© 2003 Turoff 7 Applications Development Environment Small Companies & End User organizational units Individual might do everything Small teams do everything Moderate Sized Units Moderate sized team does everything Small number of specialized teams and hand off of projects Large Organizations Small to large specialized teams Many specialized jobs

© 2003 Turoff 8 Some Current Application Systems Computer Mediated Communications Message Systems, Groupware, Multimedia Systems conferences, Synchronous Systems (instant messages, chat systems) Databases Relational, Object Oriented, Multimedia, Transaction, Temporal, Distributed, Hypertext and Hypermedia, Graphical Decision Support Systems Administrative Systems, Exception Reporting Systems, Modeling and Simulation, Forecasting and Planning, Artificial Intelligence/Expert Systems, Knowledge Bases, Information Retrieval, Data Mining, risk analysis, investment analysis, cost benefit analysis Collaborative Systems Project Management, Meeting Support, Calendar, Negotiation, Command and Control, Emergency Response Special Complex Systems Virtual Reality Systems, Control/Real time systems, Graphical and Design, Gaming Systems, BioMedical, Multimedia systems Social Systems Web Applications, Community, Political, Recreational, ecommerce, the Arts, Virtual Marketplaces

© 2003 Turoff 9 Jobs In Information Systems Jobs that may be applications oriented Programmer, Advanced Programmer, Senior Programmer Database Administrator, Network Administrator Software Engineer, Internet Architect Systems Analyst, Data Communications Analyst Maintenance Programmer Quality Assurance Specialist, Computer Security Auditor Jobs that are applications oriented Development Project Manager Requirements Developer Web Developer Usability Specialist Human Computer Interface Designer Applications Designer Enterprise/ecommerce Designer Applications Administrators Business Analyst Information Systems Auditor Trainer, Desktop Publisher

© 2003 Turoff 10 Obligations of the IS Program Allow the students to pursue particular interests Prepare the student to be current when they graduate Prepare the student to be a professional Prepare the student to be able to adapt to a wide variety of applications, organizations, and job situations. Prepare the student to be able to learn beyond his or her degree Prepare the student to be able to go into a wide variety of graduate program alternatives immediately or later in life.

© 2003 Turoff 11 Obligations of the IS student Pick IS because you enjoy computing, developing applications, and understanding how people, organizations, and society use them. Start to enjoy learning in the IS field and recognize you will have to learn for the rest of your life even after you graduate Become a student member of the ACM and AIS professional societies Get to know the faculty in IS and what they do for research Seek advice from faculty on electives and future directions Let us know when you are having problems

© 2003 Turoff 12 Further material Degrees in IS at NJIT BSIS, BSHCI, BAIS Masters in IS PhD in IS Other graduate degree area examples: Management, Law, Medical, The Arts, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Economics, Auditing & Security